10 THE COMMERCIAL HICKORIES. 



will be duplicated in the South. The large timber will be scattered 

 and hard to get and the second growth will become the main source 

 of supply. 



OWNERSHIP OF LAND. 



In the South, as well as in the North, hickory, like oak, ash, and 

 tulip with which it is generally associated, is owned mainly in small 

 holdings. It grows best on fertile soils in a strictly temperate climate, 

 and is most prominent in the agricultural regions of Ohio, Indiana, 

 western Kentucky, and Tennessee. Throughout this region the for- 

 ests have now, for the most part, been cleared away to make room 

 for agriculture. Hickory is, 'and probably will continue to be, a tree 

 of the farmer's woodlot, though there are a few large holdings in the 

 river bottoms of the lower Mississippi Valley and in the Southern 

 Appalachians. In all of these, however, the hickory grows in mix- 

 ture with other species and usually occupies a subordinate position 

 in the stand. None of the larger holdings and, in fact, few of the 

 smaller ones are valuable chiefly for the hickory which they contain. 

 Because of this hickory users have found it impracticable to buy up 

 and hold timber land for the production of hickory. 



LUMBERING. 



% 



Hickory is cut either by small portable mills, which saw only hick- 

 ory or hickory and oak, and move on when the supply is exhausted, 

 or in the case of spokes and handles or round bolts, cut by farmers 

 and contractors who rive out the billets in the woods, or ship the 

 round bolts to some central stationary mill. 



The portable mill commonly cuts material for rims, poles, and 

 shafts. It requires much skill to work up the hickory properly, so 

 the mills are generally run by men who have made it a life work. 

 These small mills cut the wood into rough strips to be shipped to 

 larger stationary mills for finishing. The cost for logging and lum- 

 bering hickory is greater than that for any other common native 

 hardwood. It takes much time and trouble to locate and buy it 

 because it can rarely be secured in large lots; because of the widely 

 scattered supply the mill must be moved a great many times or the 

 logs brought long distances; the wood is hard to cut and heavy to 

 haul, and there is a great amount of waste at the mill 40 per cent 

 or more of the timber that reaches the mill. In addition, rough stock 

 must always be shipped green, and that makes high freight bills. 

 Altogether, it often costs twice as much to get hickory to the factory 

 as it does oak, yet hickory plank, cut in connection with other oper- 

 ations, brings comparatively low prices because it is apt to be cross- 

 grained and has a tendency to check and split when it is not worked 

 up immediately. 



