8 THE COMMERCIAL HICKORIES. 



bars, and axle caps of spring vehicles ave all made of hickory; and 

 more than one-half is used for spokes. In Europe oak, ash, and 

 acacia are also used, but they are admittedly inferior, and probably 

 could not be substituted for hickory in American vehicles without a 

 radical alteration of design and a serious loss of lightness and strength, 

 for which the American types are celebrated. About 1 per cent of the 

 annual cut of hickory is used in the manufacture of automobile spokes 

 and wheel rims. 



In the manufacture of heavy wagons about 9 per cent of the total 

 output of hickory is used mainly for axles, but also for neck yokes, 

 single and double trees, brake bars, and crossbars. Sometimes it 

 replaces oak for the spokes, although it does not last so long under 

 the trying weather conditions to which wagons are so often exposed. 



The tool-handle industry annually uses about 80,000 cords, or 10 

 per cent of the total cut, of hickory for ax, pick, sledge, hatchet, and 

 other handles which require toughness and strength. Other woods 

 are used for handles, notably hard maple and white oak, but their use 

 is limited and local. The agricultural-implement business uses about 

 8 per cent of the total cut of hickory for singletrees, doubletrees, axles, 

 crossbars, mower pitmans, eveners, neck yokes, spokes, and rims. 

 The quality demanded is much the same as in heavy wagons, and oak 

 could, in many cases, be used just as well. 



Oil wells use about 2 per cent of the hickory output for sucker rods, 

 which must be clear of defects, straight-grained, and from 18 to 35 

 feet long. Hickory rods, which are superior to others in strength and 

 toughness, were at one time used almost exclusively, but three-fourths 

 of the rods now in use are of iron and the proportion must increase. 

 Wooden rods have the very important advantage over iron that they 

 will float. This advantage is especially important in deep wells where 

 a long string of iron rods is excessively heavy. Material suitable for 

 sucker rods is scarce, however, and wooden rods cost twice as much as 

 iron. 



These industries together consume about 95 per cent of the total 

 cut of hickory. The other 5 per cent is used for many special prod- 

 ucts, such as picker sticks in cotton and silk mills, skewers, golf 

 sticks, whipstocks, ladder rungs, dowel pins, belaying pins, wooden 

 screws, rustic furniture, hames, gymnastic bars, scythe snaths, and 

 quoins. 



Hickory is the best American fuel wood and costs about 25 per 

 cent more than any other. It is probable that the greater part of all 

 the hickory cut is used for fuel, and this portion may amount to 

 1,000,000 cords. Not a little of this, even to-day, is material of the 

 best quality, which should be saved for the spoke and handle maker. 

 In the past tremendous quantities of the finest hickory have been 

 burned. 



