WOOD-USING INDUSTRIES OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 41 



ten purchase white oak, and only two pay the same amount; 

 seven buy red gum, and six prices are paid; eleven buyers of 

 longleaf pine pay ten different prices, and a similar condition 

 applies to the other industries. The variation in the price of the 

 same wood is great. Box and crate makers buy ash at $15 per 

 thousand, boat builders pay $78. Basket makers buy hickory at 

 $14.14, but door makers pay $50. Planing mills procure red oak 

 for $12.09, but fixture makers pay $45. Sugar maple ranges 

 from $20 to $51.04. A study of records like these shows how 

 impossible it is for anyone to name a fair average price for any 

 one wood, even in a single State or in one city. So many cir- 

 cumstances must be considered that each case must be decided 

 independently of all others. Average prices mean very little 

 unless time, place, grade and use are all taken in account. 



THE WASTE PROBLEMS. 



The usual waste problems are present in the forests and facto- 

 ries of South Carolina. Conditions are no worse there than else- 

 where, and not much better. In lumber operations the cutting 

 of high stumps is still common, and the practice of abandoning 

 felled tops, good for one or more logs, continues more generally 

 than it should. The blighting influence of forest fires continues 

 to be felt, and, considering the injury to soil and to reproduction, 

 this source of waste is the greatest of all. 



What is properly classed as waste under some situations may 

 not be so classed under others. Where markets are convenient 

 and prices good, the cuttings in the woods can be profitably 

 utilized much more closely than in remote districts where there 

 is no money in anything but the high class stuff. All that rea- 

 sonably can be expected of any lumberman is to sell and save 

 only what will pay the cost of lumbering and a little more. The 

 man who leaves in the woods that only which has no profit in it, 

 cannot be justly charged with wasting resources. A crooked 

 log which will not make lumber, but which may be sold for 

 conversion into something else, should not be abandoned ; but if 

 no one will buy it, the lumberman who abandons it cannot be 

 charged with committing willful waste. 



The same principle applies with regard to shops and factories. 

 When the superintendent has converted into commodities every- 

 thing for which he can find a market, he has done his best. 



