THE USES OF WOOD FOR FUEL BY MANUFACTURING PLANTS 



IN MASSACHUSETTS 



BY W. DARROW CLARK 



PROFESSOR OF FORESTRY AT MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, IN CHARGE WOOD CAMPAIGN 

 FOR JAMES J. STORROW. FEDERAL FUEL ADMINISTRATOR FOR NEW ENGLAND 



THE demand for wood from manufacturing plants 

 located in every section of the State of Massa- 

 chusetts has been more urgent than the demand 

 from domestic consumers, on account of the greater 

 shortage of bituminous coal as compared with the short- 

 age of anthracite. Our most modern plants, even those 

 equipped with stoker fired boilers, have used wood in 

 considerable 

 quantities. As 

 an example of 

 this, the Graf- 

 ton & Knight 

 Manufacturing 

 Company, of 

 \\ orce s t e r , 

 may be men- 

 tioned as hav- 

 ing burned 

 during the 

 past winter 

 approximately 

 30,000 cords, 

 and they have 

 stored up a 

 large supply 

 for use next 

 winter in case 

 of the emerg- 

 ency which will 

 doubtless arise. 

 The cost, in 

 this case, of the 

 substitution of 

 wood for coal 

 was almost two 

 to one for 

 wood against coal. However, it was only through the 

 use of wood that the plant avoided the necessity of a 

 total shut-down through coal exhaustion, and in accord- 

 ance with their own report, this excess cost was insignifi- 

 cant when compared with the cost of shutting down 

 under the prevailing conditions of orders on hand and 

 labor employed. 



In regard to the comparative economic gain or loss 

 as between the use of wood for manufacturing and 

 domestic uses, there seems to be little difference, as the 

 equipment in both cases is for burning coal and not 

 wood. For this reason as many, of the available heat 

 units contained in wood are utilized by the manufactur- 

 ing plant as by the domestic consumer and the necessary 

 adaptations of furnaces for the more economical con- 



"FORE-WARNED IS FORE-ARMED" 



And the Grafton Knight Manufacturing Company, of Worcester, Massachusetts, was not unprepared. 

 Confronted with the possible necessity of substituting wood for coal, they made ready and met the need. 



sumption of wood are more likely to be installed by the 

 manufacturing plant than by the domestic consumer. 

 Furthermore, the manufacturing plant can utilize the 

 wood to best advantage in 4-ft. or cord lengths, while 

 for the domestic consumer the 4-ft. length must be cut 

 at least once, and usually twice. Generally speaking, 

 the wood is also just as accessible to the manufacturing 



plants as it is 

 to the domes- 

 tic consumer. 

 Again, the 

 manufacturing 

 plant can 

 readily pur- 

 chase the wood 

 in carload lots 

 by rail and 

 hauling ioo to 

 150 miles is 

 certainly less 

 costly than 

 hauling by sled 

 or wagon load 

 from three to 

 five miles. 

 Again, this 

 would work 

 out in favor 

 of the use of 

 wood by the 

 manufacturing 

 plants as an 

 e c o no mical 

 p roposition, 

 when sufficient 

 quantities o f 

 coal to keep the plant running are obtainable, but it is 

 to be maintained that for plants running under the 

 pressure of heavy orders it is much more economical 

 in most cases to use wood to stretch out their coal sup- 

 plies rather than to shut down on account of coal ex- 

 haustion. 



As the annual consumption of bituminous coal by 

 manufacturing plants in Massachusetts amounts to 

 some 20,000,000 tons, wood can never be used continu- 

 ously as a substitute to any large extent. However, the 

 fact should be emphasized that when manufacturing 

 plants are confronted with the possible necessity of 

 substituting wood for coal, they naturally begin to con- 

 sider energetically ways and means of more efficient and 

 conservative uses of coal all along the line, so that the 



