WOOD-USING INDUSTRIES 



51 



being easier to season and work than maple and not so susceptible to warping. 

 The colour of its wood is darker and more uniform. A large quantity of maple 

 flooring goes into public buildings. Beech is often mixed with birch. Poplar 

 flooring is gradually coming into use; it makes a solid and noiseless flooring, 

 the main difficulty being in seasoning it. Oak was not reported. 



Some firms prepare the finished material from logs, but the majority 

 purchase the rough lumber and merely finish the product. 



The average price paid for the rough material was $19.70 per thousand feet 

 board measure, which was nearly $2 above the general average. The greater 

 part of the hardwood flooring manufactured in Quebec is used in the province. 

 A good proportion is sold outside of the province or exported to foreign countries. 



TABLE 13 MACHINERY 



The wood consumed by this industry is used for sewing-machines, elevators, 

 scales, railway velocipedes, grinding machines, saw-mills, flour-mills, cotton- 

 mills, engine bases, boot and shoe machinery, etc. Very few machines are 

 made into which wood does not enter to some extent, on account of its technical 

 and physical qualities, of which the most important in machinery work are 

 lightness, elasticity, resistance to conduction of heat, and electricity. 



Sixteen species of wood were used, making a total of 1,391,000 feet board 

 measure, or 0-2 per cent of the grand total. 



Hardwood forms 75-9 per cent of the total used, with birch leading. It 

 may be noted that birch leads in ten industries out of a total of twenty-four. 

 This indicates the importance of this Canadian wood. No other approaches 

 so wide a range of use. 

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