1216 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



THE CHINE TEST FOR BARRELS 

 The load is not applied squarely on the head or squarely on the side, 

 but on the barrel's chine. Hoops and staves are alike subjected to the 

 strain. This barrel stood about 17,500 

 pounds. The test was made at the govern- 

 ment laboratory at Madison, Wisconsin, 

 and was ce of a series on tight barrels. 



liquids from a barrel. The 

 manufacture of these small 

 wooden articles requires more 

 than 21,000,000 feet of lumber a 

 year, ninety per cent of which 

 is yellow poplar which is the 

 best bung wood known. It con- 

 tains no hard and soft streaks, 

 therefore, it may be cut with a 

 smooth surface which insures a 

 close fit without leakage. The 

 wood is dense enough to prevent 

 liquids from seeping through, 

 but it imbibes sufficient moisture 

 to swell the wood, insuring a still 

 closer fit. Walnut and red gum 

 have been used to a limited ex- 

 tent for bungs and are quite 

 satisfactory. Bungs are cut by 



machinery from lumber an inch or more in thickness. A 

 larger quantity is made in Cincinnati, Ohio, than in all 

 the rest of the United States combined. 



The faucet is seldom sold along with the barrel but 

 is a separate article. It is made in many patterns and 

 of many woods, among them being white pine, spruce, 

 maple,, birch, beech, red gum, redwood, chestnut, cedar, 

 walnut, and rosewood. A superstition formerly was to 

 be met with that the wood of which a spigot was made 

 exercised an influence upon the liquid which flowed 

 through it; and for that reason molasses should be drawn 

 through a maple spigot only, beer through one of birch, 

 and cider through one of applewood. The applewood 

 spigot was strongly insisted upon for cider, and it has 

 been currently believed that much applewood is still con- 

 sumed in the manufacture of faucets for cider barrels. 

 The superstition must have lost its power if it ever had 

 any, for an examination of statistical reports of wood- 

 working does not show the use of a single foot of apple- 

 wood for faucets in the United States. Sailors along the 

 Atlantic coast in early years insisted upon equipping their 

 water casks with white cedar faucets because of the 

 reputed esoteric purifying qualities of the wood. Fish- 

 ermen from New England and Canada, who drank spruce 

 beer while on the New Foundland Banks, saw to it that 

 their beer was drawn through no spigot but one made 

 of spruce wood. 



Many small articles made of staves are commonly 

 classed as woodenware rather than as cooperage, among 

 such being pails, buckets, keelers, measures, tubs, tool- 

 dishes, and piggins. These have bottoms but no heads. 

 The exact definition is not very important, for cooperage 

 is a term broad enough to include all of them. The 

 making of cedar pails was once a very important occupa- 

 tion in and about Philadelphia, the materials being both 

 the white and the red cedars of that region, and the 

 makers were known as "the cedar coopers." 



KEG STAVES OF CHESTNUT WOOD 

 This photograph represents a scene in Maryland, and is published by the courtesy of F. W. Besley, state 

 forester. The danger that chestnut forests would be speedily destroyed by blight induced many owners 

 of such forests to work their timber into merchantable commodities as speedily as possible. ' 

 makes excellent small staves. 



Chestnut 



