MASSACHUSETTS WOOD-MANUFACTURING 

 INDUSTRIES. 



Manufacturers in Massachusetts convert approximately 550,000,- 

 000 feet of rough lumber a year into finished products. The total 

 quantity of wood used annually in the State is not shown by these 

 figures, certainly not half of it, but only that portion of it 

 which, after it leaves the sawmills, is further worked by machinery, 

 or, at least, by the expenditure of considerable labor upon it. The 

 mere cutting off of beams, planks and boards to fit them in house 

 frames, bridges or trestles, or the mortising or joining in rough con- 

 struction, does not constitute sufficient manufacture to bring the 

 product within the scope of this study. Neither are railroad ties, 

 poles, shingles and clapboards included. No attempt has been made 

 to ascertain how much wood of all kinds and for all purposes is 

 used in this State, nor to show what the market value is when the 

 products take their final form. Finished commodities shipped into 

 the State ready for use are not included in the tables and totals which 

 follow. This distinction excludes a great deal of planed and matched 

 flooring, siding and interior finish, which is fully manufactured be- 

 fore it is shipped into Massachusetts. The same consideration ex- 

 cludes much furniture and many wheeled vehicles which come into 

 the State ready to assemble, or partly assembled. Though sold in 

 Massachusetts, they are not manufactured here. 



A painstaking effort has been made to keep species separate. They 

 have not been grouped as " oak," " pine," " hardwoods," etc., but as 

 white oak, red oak, yellow oak, white pine, longleaf pine, black gum, 

 red gum, etc. The identification and listing of species was perhaps 

 not successful in all cases; and in other instances, where use is con- 

 iined almost exclusively to one species, though the genus includes 

 others, a common term, as " ash " or " maple," was deemed suffi- 

 cient. In Table 1, which follows, all the kinds of wood reported are 

 brought together, except a few for which no figures showing the 

 amount used yearly could be procured. All the species, together with 

 the uses reported for each, will be found in the part of this report 

 dealing with uses by species, beginning on page 34. Fifty-four 

 woods are listed in the following table : 



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