1212 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



As containers for fence staples, bolts, nuts, nails, and 

 packages for roasted coffee, spices, crockery, fruits, and 

 vegetables, they follow in the order named. Glass manu- 

 facturers, baking powder companies, liquor distillers, 

 and candy, tobacco, and cheese packers are big users of 

 barrels. The demand for barrels for molasses, oil, lard, 

 and pork, is also enormous, while dry paint, glue, snuff, 

 oatmeal, screws, castings, and general hardware articles 

 annually increase the demand on the cooperage supply. 

 Some woods are waterproof, others are not. Alcoholic 

 liquors and 

 some oils will 

 pass through 

 the pores of 

 some woods 

 where water 

 will not go. The 

 wood of which 

 a whiskey bar- 

 rel is made may 

 absorb a gal- 

 lon of whiskey, 

 without any 

 passing through 

 the staves and 

 escaping. Some 

 woods are so 

 porous that 

 barrels made 

 of them will 

 not hold water 

 very long. 

 Coopers learn- 

 ed by experi- 

 ence that cer- 

 tain kinds of 

 wood made 

 better s t a ves 

 than others, 

 when the bar- 

 rels were in- 

 lended for 

 liquid. It was 

 wholly a mat- 

 ter of experi- 

 ence at first, 

 but later the 

 m i c r o s c op~e 

 helped to ex- 

 plain why some 

 are proof 

 against seepage 

 and others are not. All wood is more or less porous. 

 It is made up of hollow cells, connected one with another 

 by small openings, all microscopic in size; but some of 

 the hardwoods have openings much larger than cells. 

 They are tubes running through the wood, up and down 

 the trunk of the tree, and are called pores or vessels. 

 Some of them, as in oak and ash, are large enough to be 

 seen by the unaided eye, by inspecting the end of a 



GAUGING PRESSURE ON THE BARREL'S SIDE 



When barrels are carried in the holds of ships and in barges they are often piled one upon another ten 

 feet high or more. Not infrequently the superincumbent weight breaks the barrels in the lower tier. 

 This test was made to obtain an idea what barrels lying on their sides will bear. 



freshly cut stick. These pores are responsible for the 

 fact that some barrels will not hold liquid. It seeps 

 into the pores and flows along them until it passes en- 

 tirely through the staves and escapes. That is why 

 wood with large open pores is not suitable for tight 

 barrels. 



White oak has always been considered the best tight 

 cooperage wood. Many years ago it was thought that 

 no other could or should be used for certain liquid com- 

 modities, but others have lately come into use. Yet, white 



oak has large 

 pores, and a 

 casual observer 

 noting that 

 c h a racteristic 

 wouldconclude 

 that it is not 

 good for tight 

 barrels, but ex- 

 perience shows 

 it to be good. 

 Though it has 

 large pores 

 which may be 

 easily seen, 

 they are not 

 open. They are 

 closed as a bot- 

 tle is closed 

 with a cork, 

 and liquid can- 

 not enter. The 

 plugging sub- 

 stance, which 

 is known as 

 tylosis, is of a 

 whitish color 

 and is deposit- 

 ed in the pores 

 by the wood 

 itself, in the 

 progress of the 

 tree's growth 

 and maturity. 

 It occurs prin- 

 cipally after 

 the sapwood 

 has changed 

 into heartwood. 

 Red oak's pores 

 are not plugged. 

 Therefore, red 

 oak is not suitable for the best kinds of tight cooperage. 

 The condition of the pores, whether they are plugged 

 or not, explains why fewer woods are available for tight 

 than for slack cooperage. The following table gives the 

 kinds and the number of tight staves made from each 

 of several woods annually in this country : 



White oak, 217,019,000; red oak, 30,619,000; basswood, 

 30,589,000 ; gum, 23,566,000 ; pine, 20,648,000 ; ash, 5,568,- 



