118 



to quantity, cucumber is preferred for liquor logs but unless it was mixed 

 with yellow poplar, as is frequently done in marketing this wood, none was 

 used in Pennsylvania. 



Table 73. Wood for Pumps, year ending June, 1912. 



BASKETS AND VENEER PACKAGES. 



The products of this industry are made exclusively of veneer cut from close 

 grained non-resinous woods with the tops and bottoms of thicker material 

 thin lumber, which is often sawed from the cores (that part of the log 

 after the veneer has been removed) , or from low grades of lumber. Formerly 

 splint baskets were the kinds used. There is a wide difference between split 

 wood and woods suitable for veneers. The former require straight grained 

 woods, easily rived. The sapwood of white oak, basket oak, cow oak, ash, 

 and hickory were among those frequently used. After the introduction of 

 rotary veneer machines they began to make them, as they are doing in 

 Pennsylvania, from veneer cut into wide strips and woven; and cheaper 

 woods, usually with close compact cross grain without much resin, have 

 taken the place of the splint woods. For stave baskets a great deal of the 

 veneer is cut into staves varying in length from 12 inches to 18 inches. The 

 bottom is of solid edged lumber, to which the narrow ends of the staves are 

 tacked. The staves are held in place at the top and added strength is given 

 at the bottom by the use of thin cut rims of white elm, beech, and soft 

 maple. These baskets are made in many sizes and have a bent handle which 

 is often of beech, hard maple, and white elm. Various woods answer for 

 the veneer part of the stave baskets; the principal ones reported by Pennsyl- 

 vania manufacturers are beech, soft maple, elm, ash, birch, and black gum. 



Other commodities made by this industry include packages used in mar- 

 keting fruits and vegetables such as tills, hoppers, vendors' trays, and the 

 like. This industry in Pennsylvania used a comparatively small amount 

 of wood compared with the amounts used in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, 

 and North Carolina. The number of firms specializing in this line as well 

 as in basket making justifies the grouping of the information concerning 

 this line of manufacture into a separate industry instead of including it with 

 the material going into boxes and crates, as has been the case in a number 

 of other state reports where the veneer package industry is relatively un- 

 important. 



