Table 59. Wood for Handles, year ending June, 1912. 



*Less than 1-100 of 1 per cent. 



LAUNDRY APPLIANCES. 



The fourteen woods demanded by the Pennsylvania manufacturers for mak- 

 ing laundry accessories are listed in Table 60 following and they aggregate 

 a cut of over nine million feet. Pour woods, sugar maple, beech, birch, and 

 yellow poplar, contributed nearly 70 per cent, of the total. Of these sugar 

 maple is the most important, in quantity furnishing more than one-half of 

 the entire demand. Pour woods were cut entirely outside of the State but 

 nearly three-fourths of the aggregate employed grew in Pennsylvania, show- 

 ing to what extent this industry is dependent upon the forest resources of 

 the State and why manufacturers should be interested in the movement to 

 protect and improve the forests. 



Clothespins are the smallest commodity grouped under this heading but 

 they are not the least important as more wood is used for their manufacture 

 than for any other laundry product. Over four million feet is the amount 

 annually required. Pine grained beech and sugar maple in nearly equal quan- 

 tities were the principal woods used. The other kinds include birch and 

 yellow poplar. The last named and maple also are used for making clip 

 pins, which are two wooden scales held together by a wire spring. The woods 

 used in Pennsylvania as clothespin material are the same as those used in 

 other states except in Virginia where the manufacturers report black gum, 

 both the water gum and cotton gum varieties, which in those parts are in- 

 discriminately called black gum. Three processes are necessary in the manu- 

 facture of clothespins, (1) the rough billets are turned to proper form, (2) 

 they are put through another machine which slits them, (3) they are finally 

 consigned into revolving cylinders to be tumbled or smoothed by abrasion. 



