194 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



material. These industries also began in the Northeast, where local 

 supplies of black walnut, cherry, white oak, birch, and maple were 

 at first ample for their exacting requirements. The approaching 

 exhaustion of these supplies, together with widening markets, forced 

 the industries westward. They expanded rapidly in the last quarter 

 of the nineteenth century, drawing heavily on the magnificent virgin 

 hardwood forests of the Lake and Central States. Massachusetts, 

 New York, and Pennsylvania, and later southern Michigan and the 

 lower Ohio River region, became successively important in furniture 

 manufacture. The establishment of furniture factories in North 

 Carolina signalized a shift from northern hardwoods to the large 

 supply of southern hardwoods, including southern oak and red gum. 

 Now these factories, as well as those of the North, obtain much of 

 their raw material from the lower Mississippi Valley. With the 

 cutting out of the virgin hardwoods in these forests, which are now 

 comparatively remote and inaccessible, the industry will have 

 exhausted practically its last reserve of old-growth hardwoods. 



VENEER INDUSTRY 



The veneer industry faces much the same situation in the produc- 

 tion of high-grade veneers from eastern hardw^oods. In the North, 

 raw material must now be obtained from second-growth stands, at 

 high cost and often very wastefully. The large hardwood logs prac- 

 tically clear of defects, from which high-grade veneers are customarily 

 produced, can be obtained only from old-growth stands. Inevitably, 

 therefore, the industry has turned to the South for much of its raw 

 material. Red gum is now used in larger quantities for veneer than 

 any other wood, imposing a heavy drain on the best-quality timber 

 of this species. Tupelo, also a southern species, stands second in 

 quantity used for hardwood veneers. 



The last decade has been marked by a striking increase in the manu- 

 facture of softwood veneers, particularly from Douglas fir, southern 

 yellow pine, and ponderosa pine. Such veneers are used largely for 

 shipping containers, and for built-up stock for doors, trunks, and 

 parts of furniture and automobiles. The large, old-growth timber 

 of the^Vest is especially well adapted to conversion into veneers. 

 Douglas fir leads all other softwoods in this use, being second only 

 to red gum in total quantity consumed. Further large expansion of 

 the use of western softwoods for veneer may confidently be expected. 



Southern yellow pine is third in the quantity of wood consumed 

 in veneer manufacture. Southern pine veneers supply the heavy 

 demand in the South for fruit and vegetable crates. Although the 

 southern pines are by no means as plentiful nor as favorable for 

 veneer production as the western softwoods, a further increase of the 

 softwood veneer industry in the South may be expected. 



The total quantity of wood used in this country for veneers has 

 doubled in the past decade. Among native species the use of ash, 

 birch, and oak has decreased. All others have increased. 



HANDLE INDUSTRY 



Handles embrace a wide range of products from the small cheap 

 handles made of almost any wood, to axe or rake handles which are 

 very exacting in their requirements. High-grade ash and hickory, 

 used for the better-class products, make up three fourths of the raw 



