WOOD-USING INDUSTRIES OF NORTH CAROLINA. 17 



INDUSTRIES UTILIZING WOOD. 



Aii industry, as it is considered in this report, embraces all manufac- 

 turing concerns which produce commodities that are similar or closely 

 related. In North Carolina these may be classified as follows : First, 

 those making commodities in their entirety, ready for the consumer, as 

 baskets, flooring, coffins ; second, those manufacturing articles which 

 are component parts of others, as hubs, spokes, or built-up tops; and 

 third, those which take the several parts already manufactured, and 

 merely assemble them to make a finished product. Some vehicle manu- 

 facturers are of this class. Table 4, which follows, contains no statistics 

 obtained from the third class, but is compiled from data supplied by 

 classes one and two. 



The tendency in manufacturing is toward specialization, and as this 

 becomes more general the number of industries increases, while the 

 products of the separate manufacturers become less varied. Chairs, 

 tables, kitchen safes, furniture, and upholstered furniture are, as a rule, 

 products of different factories. Instead of all of these commodities 

 being the output of a single furniture factory, as was formerly the case, 

 they are separate and distinct industries in North Carolina, and are 

 so treated in this report. This same tendency is seen, also, in other 

 lines of manufacture, such as boxes and agricultural implements. 



The manufacturing concerns of North Carolina, as shown in Table 4, 

 are grouped in twenty-one industries. The line of distinction between 

 these was in some cases quite arbitrarily drawn, difficulty being experi- 

 enced in determining the boundary properly separating those industries 

 whose products are very similar. Take, for example, the industries of 

 flooring, siding, and stock molding ; sash, doors, and blinds ; and store and 

 office fixtures. The sash and door factories often turn out interior finish 

 of a high character which clearly belongs to the last-named industry. 

 They also manufacture a finish of a class identical with regular stock 

 molding produced by the planing mills of flooring, ceiling, siding, 

 etc., manufacturers. Similar overlappings occur with other industries, 

 making necessary a grouping of the data and its apportionment among 

 the several industries concerned. Where less than three manufacturers 

 producing similar commodities reported, separate classification was im- 

 practicable without revealing the information of the concerns reporting. 

 To avoid this, and at the same time include the data in the report, sev- 

 eral industries were combined under one heading. Shuttles, spools, bob- 

 bins, picker-sticks, and skewers will be found included under the head- 

 ing of shuttles, spools, bobbins, etc. 

 2 



