28 



WOOD-L"SIN<. 1\: OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 



caught by the other. At that time nearly any wood tha: 

 smooth would answer. I'm the power loom throws the shuttle 

 ly violent strokes with a stick, and few woods will long 

 the blows. The life of the best shuttle is measured by hours, 

 not years. Formerly Turkish boxwood was used almost exclu- 

 sively, and it still has no known equal, but its use by the : 

 skate factories at high prices, took it out of the shuttle market 

 years ago. The world has been ransacked for other woods. 

 Persimmon and dogwood are the two most satisfactory, when 

 all things are considered, but scores of others have been tried. 

 Some quickly wear through, some become rough, others burst or 

 break in a few minutes or within an hour or two. Some are too 

 heavy, others too light. Steel cannot be used for this purpose^ 

 when made sufficiently light the metal shell buckles and kink-. 

 Dogwood, the diminutive tree which once had practically n 

 except as gluts for splitting rails, and as distaffs for spinning 

 wheels, has now become the most important wood in this coun- 

 try for the particular and highly important use of shuttle making. 



TAHLE 6. SHUTTLES, SPOOLS, AND BOBBINS. 



CASKETS AND COFFINS 



ods, aggregating over three and a half million 

 supply material for this industry in South Carolina, hut \< 

 poplar furnishes more of.it than the five others combined. All 

 of the poplar N cut in the id the low average c< 



from local purchases. The casket makers are her. buy 



their poplar at several dollars per thousand less than tin- 

 mill price for the whole United States. The \\. .. .d is 

 employed as cores or backing for with which l\ 



Chestn- 1 in thi- way. l.-.n-leaf pine tin 



