COOPERAGE WORKS 



141 



Elm yields the best coiled hoops and the best slack staves. 



Cottonwood and gum are cut for slack staves on a large scale. 



Chestnut is used for cheap slack barrel hoops and for brandy staves; yellow poplar for staves of 

 tobacco hogsheads; basswood for flour barrel headings; gum, birch, elm, beech, and maple for sugar 

 barrels; pine for rice and crockery barrels; second growth of hickory, birch, and ash for hoops. 



For buckets, red and white cedar are preferred; for tanks, cypress and redwood. 



(C) SPECIFICATIONS: — 



I. Flour barrels contain 196 pounds, or 3'57 bushels, or 32 gallons of flour. The diameter of the head 

 is 17 inches; the length of the staves 28 inches. 



The forms preferred in slack cooperage, either locally of for given goods, vary to such a degree that 

 figures descriptive of the forms cannot be recorded. 



II. The "Tight Coopers' Union" specifies :- 



(a) Whisky barrel staves-length 34 inches to 35 inches, thickness "Is inch, width 4V4 inches after 

 jointing, measured across bilge on the outside; 



(b) Wine barrel staves- length 34 inches, thickness "/,.; inch after drying and planing, width 

 47-2 inches; 



(c) Oil, tierce and pork staves have similar dimensions, allowing, however, of sap, of one or two 

 sound worm holes and of knots showing on one side only. 



Variations of 'A inch in length and 'A,, inch in thickness are permitted in all staves (so-called 

 equalized staves). 



Pipes, butts and puncheons contain over 100 gallons and are used for port, rum, &c. 

 A hogshead of claret is 46 gallons. 



(D) STATISTICAL NOTES: — 



1 . One thousand feet board measure in logs - Doyle's rule - yield 2,500 sawed flour staves, 3,200 veneered 

 staves, 4,000 cut hoops or 3,000 sawn hoops. 



2. One cord of bolts, with the bark, will make 1,000, or, without bark, 1,200 slack slaves. 



3. In Tennessee, eight white oaks (of over 18 inches diameter) are said to average 1,000 half barrel 

 beer staves. 



The price of white oak material has risen rapidly and must continue to rise indefinitely, full substitutes 

 for white oak being impossible. 



In slack cooperage, on the other hand, raw material continues to be plentiful, and new, cheaper forms 

 of packages enter into daily competition with the barrel. 



(E) ILLUSTRATION FOR PRICES and their tendency:- 



