THE SOUTHERN LUMBERMAN 



39 



Wood-Using Industries of Tennessee 



By CLARK W. GOULD, Forest Agent, and HU MAXWELL, Expert, Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture 



Note. 



The investigation upon which this report is based 

 was undertaken by the Forest Service, United States 

 Department of Agriculture, in the spring of 1911, 

 the data collected covering a period of one year, 

 from January 1 to December 31, 1911, inclusive. 

 The work was done under the direction of H. S. 

 Sackett, Chief, Office of Wood Utilization, Forest 

 Si'i-vice; and the statistics were compiled and the 

 report written by Clark W. Gould, Forest Agent, and 

 Hu Maxwell, Expert. Much assistance was also 

 g-iven in the collection of data by John T. Harris, 

 Statistician in Forest Products. 



PREFACE. 



Tennessee is 432 miles long, 109 miles wide, and 

 has a total area of 42,050 square miles, of which 

 300 miles are water surface. The streams within 

 the state, or forming part of its boundary, afford 

 2,000 miles of navigation, but not during all the 

 year. The surface of the state is mountainous in 

 the east, hilly iu much of the central portion, and 

 fairly level in the west. The highest mountains 

 are more than 6,000 feet above sea level, while the 

 western border of the state has an elevation of 

 only a few hundred. Nearly all conditions of sur- 

 face exist: steep, stony, and precipitous moun- 

 tains; hills of thin soil, fertile slopes, rich valleys. 

 The rain fall is abundant in all parts; the summers 

 generally are pleasant, the winters mild. Altitude 

 alone produces much difference in climate. The 

 high mountains receive abundance of snow, the 

 low valleys little. Drainage from all of the state 

 is toward the Gulf of Mexico, though some of the 

 rivers flow far to reach their destination. 



Tennessee was originally one of the heavy for- 

 ested regions of this country, and it yet has a large 

 amount of timber. The best was cut when the 

 farms were cleared, and the remnants are still 

 being cut, and will continue for a long time to 

 come to supply lumber to its own people and to 

 the distant markets. In its primitive condition, 

 there was little of Tennessee which was not heav- 

 ily timbered. There were a few canebrakes along 

 the rivers, but with that exception, the region was 

 an unbroken expanse of timber from the Missis- 

 sippi River to the summits of the eastern moun- 

 tains. Some of the finest kinds and the largest 

 trees of the Eastern United States were there. 

 More than three hundred and fifty years ago De 

 Soto, with his army that had marched from Florida, 

 cut his way through woods and reached the Mis- 

 sissippi River near Memphis. Nearly two centu- 

 ries later a company of French adventurers felled 

 a few trees and built cabins where Nashville now 

 stands. Forty years later the real settlement of 

 the region began along the fertile valleys in the 

 northeastern part of the state, and the forest re- 

 sources were soon recognized. It was a third of 

 a century before Perry launched his fleet on Lake 

 Erie and reported, "We have met the enemy and 

 they are ours;" that Isaac Shelby constructed a 

 fleet of canoes hewed from enormous yellow pop- 

 lar trees, and launched them in the Holston River, 

 manned by seven hundred and fifty Tennessee 

 backwoodsmen, and captured the British powder 

 magazines at the mouth of Chicamaugua Creek, 

 and by that bold stroke destroyed the power of 

 England's Indian allies to fall upon the rear of 

 the Carolina settlements in the most perilous pe- 

 riod of the Revolution.* Another remarkable fleet 

 was launched in the same region a year later, and 

 under John Donelson conveyed more than 200 set- 

 tlers to the site of 'Nashville. The largest -vessel 

 carried 100 people. The forty boats descended the 

 Holston and the Tennessee, ascended the Ohio to 

 the mouth of the Cumberland River, and pushed 

 up that stream to Nashville, a distance, following 

 the meanders of the streams, of about 2.000 miles. 



Boat building, therefore, appears to have been 

 the earliest important use of wood in Tennessee, 

 except for fuel, and yellow poplar held chief place. 

 The valuable and beautiful tree is at its best in 

 the fertile valleys of Eastern Tennessee, and the 

 pioneers turned to it when they needed canoes to 

 navigate rivers before roads were opened overland. 



Not only is Tennessee rich in soil for agriculture, 

 and bounteously supplied with timber for manufac- 

 turing purposes, but its rivers will afford abundant 

 water power to turn the wheels of factories for 

 all time. Most of this power is yet undeveloped, 

 but it is a resource in reserve and can be drawn 

 upon when needed. This makes the future sure. 

 Cheap power and abundance of raw material guar- 

 antee business during years to come. 



The timber resource is only one of many pos- 



*\Vithout boats that remarkable feat would have 

 been impossible, as the army could not have- marched 

 the long distance through the woods in time to 

 make a successful attack. In three days Shelby's 

 men rowed down stream three hundred miles, de- 

 feated 1,000 Indians, captured the powder, 150 horses, 

 100 cattle, destroyed 20,000 bushels of corn, and 

 were upon the return, having destroyed their own 

 canoes, which were no longer needed. 



CONTENTS. 



Preface 



Commercial woods of Tennessee. 



Page 

 39 



40 



The Pines 40 



Shortleaf pine 40 



White pine 40 



Table mountain pine 40 



Pitch pine 40 



Scrub pine 41 



The Oaks 41 



The white oaks 41 



The red oaks 41 



The chestnut oaks 41 



The hemlocks 41 



The cedars 41 



Red cedar 41 



Cotton wood 41 



The ashes 41 



The elms 41 



The gums 41 



Red gum 41 



Tupelo 41 



Black gum 41 



Birch .' 41 



The hackberries 42 



The maples 42 



The walnuts 42 



Other hardwoods 42 



Yellow poplar 42 



Dogwood 42 



Sycamore 42 



Persimmon 42 



Black cherry 42 



Black willow 42 



Sassafras 43 



Buckeye 43 



Mahogany 43 



Chestnut 43 



Osage orange 43 



Basswood 43 



Cucumber 43 



Beech 43 



Planing-mill products 43 



Packing boxes and crates 43 



Furniture 44 



Sash, doors, blinds, and general millwork 44 



Vehicles and vehicle parts 44 



Car construction 44 



Handles 45 



Caskets and coffins : 45 



Chairs 45 



Pencil stock 46 



Woodenware and novelties 46 



Trunks and valises 46 



Agricultural implements 46 



Sporting and athletic goods 47 



Shuttles, spools and bobbins 47 



Boat and ship building 47 



Fixtures 47 



Excelsior 48 



Miscellaneous 48 



Summary of industries 49 



Apportionment of woods among industries 49 



Cost of species by industries 49 



Saving waste 50 



Appendix 50 



Lumber cut in 1910 50 



Other products .....' 50 



Uses of woods 51 



Directory 52 



sessed by the state, and, though it is not the great- 

 est, it is of supreme importance. This report is 

 based on statistics collected by the United States 

 Forest Service in 1912. and undertakes to show the 

 condition and scope of the. wood-using industries. 

 A year's business is shown; and, in presenting the 

 figures in a series of tables, attempts are frequently 

 made to make clear by discussion the significance 

 of the data. It has not been a part of the plan 

 to give a history of wood utilization in Tennessee. 

 If allusion is occasionally made to isolated in- 

 stances in past years (as in the above paragraphs 

 regarding the boats built in 1779), the purpose is 

 solely to show that the use of wood in the region 

 is not a new thing, but has a foundation resting 

 on long periods of experience. The real lessons 

 to be taught by studies such as this concern the 

 future rather than the past; for if anything prac- 



tical comes from such studies it must bear its 

 fruit in years to come. That which manufactur- 

 ers are now doing should serve as a guide a start- 

 ing place, as it were -for the future. They are 

 the teachers, the experimenters, the pioneers whose 

 successes and failures will inspire or warn those 

 who shall follow the same calling in years to 

 come. Important problems are being worked out, 

 and others will demand solution in the future. We 

 are now trying to master the immediate problems, 

 and thereby throw light, if possible, upon ques- 

 tions which will come later. It is not possible to 

 foretell all that wood utilization in the future will 

 attempt and accomplish, but certain lines are indi- 

 cated by present tendencies. A hundred years 

 ago nobody thought of it, and twenty-five years 

 ago few considered it seriously; but now it is pres- 

 ent in the thought and plans of all successful work- 

 ers in wood. 



Another matter which is now attracting more 

 serious attention than ever before is the study 

 of the best uses for each wood. The properties 

 and qualities of woods are considered strength, 

 elasticity, hardness, color, odor, grain, figure, sea- 

 soning qualities. Much of this may be discovered 

 by scientific methods, but some of it is learned only 

 in the school of experience. The tables and dis- 

 cussions in a report like this are really a record 

 of the experiences of men who are working on the 

 problems. Investigation, backed by necessity, is 

 bringing into use many species of wood not usually 

 listed in reports of sawmill output. They are some- 

 times known as minor species. Every region has 

 a few, and the workers in wood are experiment- 

 ing with them and finding out what they are good 

 for. Reliable information on the subject, when it 

 is secured, is given in the reports prepared by the 

 Forest Service. In many instances these minor 

 species are meeting part of the demand and lessen- 

 ing the drain upon well-known woods. 



The planting and growing of commercial woods 

 are subjects which do not properly fall within the 

 scope of wood-using studies, and for that reason 

 little space is given to them in this report. It is 

 deemed sufficient to point out tendencies and facts 

 which are now apparent and which must speedily 

 affect the available supply on which wood-using 

 industries depend. 



Investigation similar to this in Tennessee have 

 already been made by the Forest Service in a num- 

 ber of states, and the results have been published. 

 The class of manufacturing done and the kinds of 

 woods used vary in different regions; but certain 

 prominent and encouraging features stand out 

 prominently in all of them. Wood is being saved, 

 and cheap woods are taking the places of expen- 

 sive. The Forest Service adheres to one plan 

 in all of this work and attempts to reach every 

 important user of wood. Lists are compiled, let- 

 ters are written, and blanks to be filled are mailed 

 to all. To those who fail to respond within a rea- 

 sonable time a second request for information is 

 sent. There are usually a considerable number 

 of manufacturers in a state who fail to respond 

 to both the first and second requests, and they are 

 visited in person. The data secured by correspond- 

 ence and by the personal interviews with manufac- 

 turers are supplemented by studies of various 

 phases of the business in the region, and with this 

 material in hand the report is compiled for publi- 

 cation. It shows the kinds of wood used, the in- 

 dustries which demand the different woods, the 

 cost at the factories, what commodities are made 

 of each and all of the woods, and various other 

 matters. Some attention is paid to markets, though 

 the compilations are not intended to be market 

 reports. Special consideration is given to supply 

 of raw material on which the various wood-using 

 industries depend. The tables are made up to 

 show how much of each species of wood is pro- 

 cured in the state which uses it, and what part 

 comes from other states and countries. As much 

 relative weight is given to the small manufacturer 

 as to the large. In fact, some of the most inter- 

 esting and valuable experiments in the uses of 

 woods come from sm-all shops. 



The Bureau of Census compiles yearly reports 

 of the sawmill output in all the states. Species 

 are separately shown, except that in some in- 

 stances several are grouped as one. The annual 

 census report should not be confused with the 

 special reports by the Forest Service. The former 

 deals with sawed lumber and rough mill products; 

 the latter takes rough lumber where the census 

 report leaves it and follows it through other pro- 

 cesses of manufacture until it reaches its final 

 form in some finished product. Thus the two re- 

 ports, while dealing with the same material in 

 part or wholly, do not show the same results, and 

 are not meant to do so. For example, the census 

 report takes a maple log as raw material and car- 



