• TIMBER VALUATION 67 



purposes on account of its liability to warp and stain in seasoning. 

 However, as better methods of kiln drying and sticking were 

 developed, it has been more and more used for furniture, gun- 

 stocks, and veneers, uses for which a hard, close grained wood 

 which will take a good poUsh are needed but where durability is 

 not a factor of importance. The common grades sold for $18 

 at the mill in 19 14 and the high quality at not to exceed $30 per 

 M board feet. The wood has slight value for cordwood so that 

 the tops are usually left in the woods and the slabs and mill 

 refuse are either burned as fuel in the mill boilers or thrown on 

 the refuse heap. Hence, the average value per M feet log scale 

 never exceeded $25 per M. 



Tupelo gum is less valuable than red gum because its light 

 color does not permit of its use as a substitute for dark hardwoods 

 like black walnut. In fact it finds its highest use merely as a sub- 

 stitute for yellow poplar or basswood neither of which are used 

 for high grade furniture fronts. However, where handsome 

 figures or durability are not required but softness and elasticity 

 are assets tupelo gum is being employed more and more. The 

 lower grades are usually discarded so that its average value per 

 M log scale was never more than $18 in 1914 and frequently less. 

 Like red gum it is difficult to .season. 



Cottonwood has about the same uses as tupelo gum: boxes, 

 furniture backs, buggy and sleigh panels, etc. It is equally hard 

 to season, is not hard enough to polish readily, and does not have 

 an attractive figure. Hence its average sale value at the mill 

 was seldom more than $15 per M, nor could the tops be put to 

 any use for fuel or pulp. 



Logging methods differ from those employed in any other type 

 because of the water in the swamps. The cheapest way where 

 there is enough of it is to make it an ally and drive the timber out. 

 This necessitates preliminary seasoning even for cypress so that 

 it is a common practice to deaden the trees in advance of logging 

 and allow them to dry out standing. This same method is 

 applied with all the swamp species except ash which floats 

 readily green. Skidding and hauling to a drivable stream may 

 be accomplished in several ways. Where the bottomlands are 



