WOOD-USING INDUSTRIES OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 25 



FRUIT AND VEGETABLE PACKAGES 



The entire fruit and vegetable package industry in South Caro- 

 lina is concentrated along the coast from Charleston south into 

 Beaufort county. This concentration is due in great part to the 

 demand of the truck farmers in that region. Most of the wood 

 represented in Table 4 was used for baskets and veneer packages, 

 such as cucumber baskets, bean baskets, and similar articles. 

 The staves are made almost entirely of shortleaf pine, black gum, 

 yellow poplar, and red gum, while the other woods listed go into 

 hoops. Pine comprises nearly two-thirds of the total. Though 

 listed in the table as shortleaf, there is doubtless a considerable 

 amount of loblolly pine included. 



In the manufacture of .veneer packages the logs are first cut 

 with a dragsaw into bolts of the desired length. The bolts are 

 softened in steam and hot water from 12 to 24 hours, and the bark 

 removed by. hand spuds. The bolt is then put into the stave 

 machine, a rotary cut veneer apparatus equipped with a cylinder 

 containing knives. As the log revolves the knives cut the face 

 of the bolt legnthwise to the depth of the veneer slice. The 

 staves come from the machine in finished condition and go 

 directly to the assembling department. 



The cores are sawed into thin lumber pieces, several of which 

 are joined together with cleats to make a square board, cut round 

 on a machine, and are then made into bottoms and lids. In 

 some factories the baskets are nailed by machinery, but in most 

 they are still nailed by hand. 



The hardwoods and waste pieces of stave material go into 

 the hoops which are rqade from veneer slices split to the required 

 widths. The finished baskets are piled in the open to dry and 

 later stored under cover in stacks. 



All the wood employed in this industry was home grown. The 

 most costly species was white oak, bringing $20 a thousand, and 

 the cheapest, shortleaf pine, costing $12.88. High priced woods 

 cannot be profitably used in producing containers of this kind. 

 By cutting much of it into veneer, which is thin stuff, the com- 

 parative cost was kept very low, since a thousand feet, log 

 measure will make six or eight thousand feet of veneer. Much 

 of the elm, birch, and maple was made into hoops or bands for 

 baskets. 



