340 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



ot large dimensions. The box business is second in 

 size and calls for more than 4,500.000,000 feel of lumber 

 a year. The making of boxes is one of the most widely 

 distributed of the wood-using industries, and the busi- 

 ness is growing rapidly to meet the demand for shipping 

 containers for food products and other commodities. 

 There are in this country fifteen industries which 



bungs and faucets, brushes, dowels, saddles and harness, 

 butcher's blocks, whips and canes, firearms and air- 

 planes. 



The statistics showing the relative quantities of wood 

 going to these industries are over four years old, ante- 

 dating the war, and there is no doubt that figures dealing 

 with more recent production would change the relative 



ORIGINAL SOURCE OF STRONG TIMBERS 



The forest here shown is near Kirk, Missouri, and from such places come fine logs and lumber suitable for construction where strength is one of 

 the chief considerations. It is hardwood chiefly. The power skidder is at work in water where oxen and horses could find no bottom to stand on. 



demand more than 100.000,000 feet of wood a year in 

 their manufacture. The fifteen are : 



Feet. 



Planing mill products 13,428.000.000 



Boxes 4,547,000,000 



Railroad cars 1,262,000,000 



Furniture 1,233,000,000 



Horse and Motor vehicles. 



Woodenware 



Agricultural implements . 



Handles '. 



Musical instruments 



Tanks and silos 



Boats 



Office and store fixtures.. 



Coffins 



Refrigerators 



Excelsior 



739,000.000 

 405,000.000 

 321.000,000 

 290,000,000 

 260,000.000 

 225.000,000 

 199.000,000 

 187,000,000 

 153.000.000 

 137,000,000 

 100,000.000 



Among the wood-using industries with annual 

 demands below 100,000,000 feet, are the following, listed 

 in the order of quantity of wood consumed in making 

 their products: Matches and Jtoothpicks, map rollers, 

 paving material, trunks and valises, machine construc- 

 tion, shoe findings, pumps and pipes, pulleys, scientific 

 instruments, toys, gates and fencing, sporting goods, 



importance of some of the items. That would certainly 

 hold true of firearms and airplanes which now require 

 large quantities of wood selected with special care. 



It would be misleading to assume that all wood that 

 reaches factories is first converted into lumber at saw- 

 mills. That holds as a general rule, but there are many 

 exceptions. The logs from which excelsior is cut are 

 not first made into lumber. Much of the handle wood 

 does not pass through sawmills, and part of the tooth- 

 pick, match, shuttle, and shoe last wood does not. The 

 material for some of these goes directly to the factories 

 in the form of logs or bolts ; and statistics of lumber 

 production do not include this material. 



The wood-using factories of the United States employ 

 a little more than two feet of softwood to one of hard- 

 wood, or 17,175,000,000 feet of the former yearly to 

 7,500,000,000 feet of the latter. The lumber output of 

 softwood is approximately three feet to one of hard- 

 wood. It is thus apparent that in proportion to the 

 supply of the two classes of lumber, the choice is in 



