178 



Yearboo^ of Agriculture 1949 



impossibility of importing the foreign 

 briar into this country for the manu- 

 facture of smoking pipes led to a re- 

 vival of an old southern industry. In 

 North Carolina and Tennessee, pipe 

 blocks were made from laurel and rho- 

 dodendron burls, the large, abnormal 

 growths of hard wood that appear at 

 the root collar of the shrubs. At that 

 time, the burls were sold for 10 to 12 

 dollars a ton. 



Similarly, the heavy burl growth at 

 the root collar of the western manzan- 

 ita was developed into pipe materials. 

 The market for those products fell off 

 after the war, but burl growth, because 

 of its intricate design and generally 

 hard wood, has a limited market for 

 specialty items. 



THE STEMS yield items that many 

 of us are not aware of. 



Many trees, often individuals of a 

 species rather than a whole stand, have 

 special uses worth investigating be- 

 fore the tree is consigned to the sawmill 

 or pile of fuel wood. The veneer in- 

 dustry is particularly interested in these 

 special uses. Frequently the butt log 

 of an old, sound walnut tree will be 

 worth many times for veneer what it 

 would bring as a sawlog. The prices 

 sometimes realized running into a 

 thousand dollars or more for one tree 

 warrant investigation. 



Other hardwoods may also find a 

 veneer market oak, yellow-poplar, 

 redgum, maple, and the cottonwood, 

 among them. 



To bring the highest prices, veneer 

 logs or bolts should be straight, sym- 

 metrical, large, and free of defects. 



Likewise in demand is eastern red- 

 cedar, the tree from which pencils, 

 cedar lining for chests, and some insect 

 repellents are made. Large redcedar 

 is eagerly sought by manufacturers of 

 cedar chests; and small stock of the 

 fence-post variety will be purchased 

 by the pencil-block companies. Even 

 the sawdust of the tree, if produced in 

 quantity, is the source of cedar oil. 



Baseball bats are made from young, 

 second-growth white ash; wood from 



old trees is usually too fine-grained and 

 brittle for the purpose. Hence the 

 owner of a stand of young ash may 

 often realize a considerably greater in- 

 come from the sale of ash bolts than 

 from logs for lumber. Before cutting his 

 ash into the short 40-inch bolts required 

 by bat manufacturers, he should check 

 with the buyers to determine whether 

 his wood meets specifications. About 

 750,000 board feet of ash is used annu- 

 ally to keep baseball teams supplied. 



A somewhat similar market is the 

 one for handle stock. Good handles for 

 striking and lifting tools require quali- 

 ties not often found in sawed boards. 

 Consequently they are produced from 

 bolts or short logs of hickory and ash. 

 Samples should be sent to the manu- 

 facturers before extensive harvesting is 

 undertaken. 



Excelsior bolts cut from aspen, bass- 

 wood, cottonwood, white pine, buck- 

 eye, and some other woods find a ready 

 market as packing material. In Michi- 

 gan alone, chiefly in the Upper Penin- 

 sula, 49,554 cords of excelsior bolts 

 were marketed in 1946. For the Lake 

 States, the total was 95,463 cords, twice 

 the amount in 1936. 



American farmers use an estimated 

 500 million wooden fence posts annu- 

 ally, but probably fewer than 5 per- 

 cent of them are given preservative 

 treatment to lengthen their useful life. 

 For untreated posts, the more decay- 

 resistant woods must be used, but their 

 life can be considerably extended by 

 simple treating methods. For the less 

 resistant species, treatment is neces- 

 sary if satisfactory use is to be obtained. 

 The woodland owner, then, will do 

 well to establish his fence-post business 

 on a quality basis. 



Small poles, likewise, are a market- 

 able item in farming areas. And where 

 vegetable gardening is carried on in 

 areas with limited wood supply, the 

 woodland owner may also find a mar- 

 ket for small but straight material for 

 bean poles. 



Sound, clear white oak is the source 

 of tight cooperage, the barrels used to 

 hold liquids. The supply of this mate- 



