87 



Table 55b. Wood for Sprags, year ending June, 1912. 



Over 3,000,000 feet of wood is required annually for making sprags in 

 Pennsylvania. This is not representative of all the material that is used as 

 many of these commodities are made by hand and concerning which it is im- 

 possible to get information; others are made elsewhere and shipped in for 

 use in Pennsylvania collieries. 



Sprags at present are almost entirely made from young timber, pole size; 

 coppice oak and maple being cut for this purpose. This is often a sacrifice 

 of valuable second growth timber since it is practicable to make this com- 

 modity from material considered as waste. In that connection the present 

 report may aid in bringing about the utilization of woods waste, like tops, 

 limbs, cut offs, fire killed poles, etc. , the most difficult to market of all the 

 off-fall from lumber operations. 



In this connection the Department of Forestry of Pennsylvania recently 

 made a valuable experiment, an outline of the results of which will prove of 

 considerable importance not only to mining companies and others owning 

 their own timber, but to all interested in forest conservation. 



During the winters of 1911-12 fire killed a stand of oak and chestnut cop- 

 pice 14 years old on 75 acres in one of the State Forests in the northeastern 

 part of Pennsylvania. This timber was not merchantable because of the 

 size and distance from market: The Department of Forestry conceived the 

 idea of its sale in the form of sprags and accordingly arrangements w'ere made 

 with an owner of a sprag machine to move onto the tract and use all suit- 

 able timber for making this commodity. A contract was made for manu- 

 facturing and delivering the finished product to the nearest shipping point 

 for $9.30 which included, owing to distance, a cost of $4 for wagon transporta- 

 tion. Eleven dollars was the price received for the finished sprags at the sid- 

 ing, leaving a balance of $1.70 a thousand pieces for stumpage. The De- 

 partment of Forestry scored a success in the undertaking partly because of 

 the revenue received from the fire killed timber, otherwise a waste; also by 



