AMERICAN LUMBER IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 233 



In order to keep the pores as open as possible, and also to work up 

 the wood to the greatest advantage, the aspen splint is produced by 

 flaking. Aspen possesses the quality of being flakable to a very high 

 degree. The flaking is done by causing a knife to revolve round a log 

 which rotates on its own axis. The wood is divided into ribbons of the 

 thickness and width of a match. These ribbons are laid evenly, one 

 above the other, and cut into square splints. In consequence of the 

 uniformity of the annual layers, aspen wood produces perfectly homo- 

 geneous ribbons or splints. This is not the case when other kinds of 

 wood, like fir, etc., are flaked. The absence of all structure or grain 

 further enables aspen- wood to be flaked into thin shavings, which are 

 worked by other machines into the familiar match boxes. Just this 

 fact that both match splints and box shavings can be produced by one 

 machine from one material calls for the employment of aspen wood. 

 Attempts have been made to flake fir and pine woods as substitutes for 

 aspen, but it is not known that any results of importance have been 

 obtained. The reason why the last-mentioned woods can not be flaked 

 is, probably, because of the difference in the annual rings between the 

 spring and fall wood that is, between the inside of the ring and its 

 extreme outside the difference is too great. The fall wood is too solid, 

 the spring wood too soft, and the annual rings are of varying thick- 

 nesses, according to the location of the tree, while, even in the case of 

 pine, the knife is apt to slip and cut ribbons of unequal thickness. In 

 the case of aspen wood each ribbon is like the other, a circumstance 

 which is of the utmost importance for the further processes. 



Match manufacturers require that the aspen wood should be free 

 from rotten pith and, as far as possible, free from knots free from pith, 

 otherwise the wood can not be fixed in the flaking machine ; free from 

 knots, because the wood round the knots is decayed. The wood should 

 further be straight grown and of loose texture. The aspen is available 

 for match making as soon as the trunk has a diameter of 8 inches. The 

 demand is greatest for trunks with a diameter of 10 to 20 inches. To 

 attain this size a period of twenty- five to sixty years is necessary, accord- 

 ing to the nature of the soil, position, etc. Trunks from twenty to thirty- 

 five years old are preferred to younger growths for the reason that the 

 method of manufacture produces the same amount of waste, whether 

 the trunks be small or large. 



The match factories which employ aspen wood are mostly situated 

 in Silesia, Pomerania, Schleswig-Holstein, Bavaria, Rhine Province, 

 Alsace-Lorraine, Rhine Palatinate, and the Duchy of Anhalt. These 

 factories use on the whole 4,000,000 to 5,500,000 cubic feet of aspen 

 wood annually, of which about 3,500,000 cubic feet are imported from 

 Russia. 



The Silesian factories, mostly through dealers, procure their wood 

 from Upper Silesia, Poland, -Galicia, and Hungary. To procure 

 wood from the districts of Konigsberg and Gumbinnen is unprofitable, 



