330 



FORESTRY IN NEW ENGLAND 



turing plants in the region create a heavy local demand for all 

 kinds of wooden boxes; and it is fortunate that a wood so suit- 

 able for box construction as white pine is available. 



There are several hundred box factories in the region, con- 

 suming annually from a few thousand to twenty and thirty 

 milHon feet apiece. However, the small boxmen are gradually 



By permission oj the MassiukmcHs State Forester- 

 Fig. 121. — A heavy thinning in a rather open grown stand of white pine. Note the brush 

 piled in the openings ready for burning. 



giving way to the stronger concerns, owing to the difhculty of 

 getting timber. Frequently a box shop, is run in connection 

 with some other wood- working plant to utilize the coarser grades. 

 In some cases, as for example some of the shoe makers of eastern 

 Massachusetts, manufacturing concerns maintain their own box 

 shop for construction of the boxes needed in shipping their out- 

 put. In connection with the production of white pine lumber 

 for box boards close utilization is possible. Logs less than three 

 inches at the top are sometimes run through the mill. Usually 

 the lumber is sawn by the portable mills into planks or one-inch 



