THE SOUTHERN LUMBERMAN 



of the material is reduced to small dimensions; but 

 considering the unpromising character of the bulk 

 of the logs that go to the mills, and the large pro- 

 portion of small pieces worked out, the waste at a 

 chair factory is small. 



which deals with the woods used rather thap the 

 particular uses of the commodities produced. Wood- 

 enware may be a little more definitely defined,, but 

 here, too, there is often room for uncertainty re- 

 garding the exact limits of the industry. It is, gen- 



I II MISS. 



Table 1O. 



Kinds of wood 



Red oak 



White oak 



Sugar maple . . 



Hickory 



Beech 



Birch 



Red gum 



Quantity used annually 

 feet B. M. per cent 

 4,901,000 72.53 



1,100,000 



400,000 



130,000 



125,000 



100,000 



Totals 



1,000 



16.28 

 5.92 

 1.92 

 1.85 

 1.48 

 .02 



Average 



cost per 



1,000 ft. 



$15.53 



14.55 



12.38 



12. 62 



12.30 



12.00 



10.00 



6,757,000 



100.00 



Pencil Stock. 



Table 11 lists two woods for lead pencil stock 

 in Tennessee red and white cedar. Though re- 

 ported in that way, it is probable that only red cedar 

 is used, and what is called white cedar is the 

 white sapwood of red cedar. The white cedar or 

 arbor vitae in the mountains of Eastern Tennessee 

 is a different species. The average cost of pencil 

 cedar as shown in the table is misleading unless 

 explained. It might seem unreasonable that cedar 

 suitable for pencils should be purchased for $8.30 

 a thousand feet, when other manufacturers pay $25 

 and $30 for what they convert into furniture. The 

 difference in cost is due to the different forms in 

 which the stock is purchased. The furniture peo- 

 ple buy theirs as sawed lumber, after the slabs and 

 sawdust have been removed; but the pencil wood 

 is bought with all the waste. Not only are logs 

 purchased, but also old stumps, fence rails, gate 

 posts, barn logs, bridge cribs and cedar in all 

 shapes, sizes and conditions, some of it half rotten, 

 other wheather" checked, and all piled together, 

 loaded on cars and sold by weight to the makers 

 of pencil slats. This is the material which costs 

 $8.30 per 1,000 feet, when the weight has been re- 

 duced to board feet. It is evident that most of the 

 collection of all cedar wood thus brought together 

 is waste. By the time the slat maker has worked 

 out such of it as he can use, he has thrown away 

 perhaps four-fifths of all he bought. Though the 

 mass of wood in the rough may have cost him $8.30 

 per 1,000 feet, the slats will cost several times that 

 much if estimated by the thousand feet. The fac- 

 tory which reduces the rough material to slats 

 does not make the finished lead pencils. Other 

 factories, some in New York. New Jersey or other 

 states, and some in Europe, buy the slats and con- 

 vert them into pencils ready for use. The slats 

 are one-quarter of an inch thick, seven inches long 

 and two and one-half inches in width. A slat of 

 that kind makes six half pencils. Formerly when 

 cedar was abundant pencil makers bought wide 

 slats only; but cedar that can be worked into 

 wide slats is becoming so scarce that narrow stock 

 now finds ready sale. Other woods have been tried 

 for pencils, and some have been fairly successful, 

 particularly for the cheap grades; but the un- 

 remitting search that still goes on for red cedar is 

 proof that no available and wholly satisfactory 

 substitute has been found. Several qualities are 

 demanded of a pencil wood. It must be soft and 

 must whittle easily. To meet that requirement, it 

 must be brittle so that the shavings will fall 

 away as. the knife cuts. The wood must be mod- 

 erately light to keep transportation charges down 

 when shipments are large or go long distances. 

 It must be moderately dark in color, such as will 

 not soil easily in handling. The wood must have a 

 pleasing odor when freshly cut. It must not be 

 cross-grained, for that lessens its good whittling 

 qualities. Some of these qualities seem trifling, 

 yet the buying public has learned to expect them 

 in a pencil and is disappointed if any one of them 

 is absent. The extensve search for substitutes 

 among the many woods of this and other countries 

 has demonstrated how hard it is to find a wood 

 combining all the desirable qualities of red cedar. 



Total 



cost f. o. b. 



factory 



$ 76,110 



16,000 



4,950 



1,640 



1,538 



1,200 



10 



$15.01 



$ 101,448 



Grown in 



Tennessee 



feet B. M. 



2,901,000 



1,100,000 



400,000 



130,000 



125,000 



1,666 



4,657,000 



Grown 

 out of 



Tennessee 



feet B. M. 



2,000,000 



100,000 



2.100,000 



erally understood that woodenware overlaps on 

 cooperage in certain directions. Small vessels made 

 of staves are the work of the cooper, yet some of 

 such belong with woodenware. Among that sort are 

 firkins, keelers, piggins and small buckets and tubs, 

 found principally in kitchen and pantry. 'Stave- 

 made receptacles for salt, pepper, spices and other 

 condiments used in cooking, are in this class'. 

 Water pails and candy buckets are within the lim- 

 its also. A large part of the red cedar shown in 

 Table 12 was manufactured into ware of this kind. 

 Tennessee has long been noted for the excellency 

 of its cedarware. A red cedar bucket with brass 



desired size and pressed into shape. It Is bought 

 in the log, and for that reason is cheaper than the 

 other woods in Table 12. 



Trunks and Valises. 



One of the most noticeable features of Table 13 

 is the difference in cost of woods used in manufac- 

 turing an article as simple as a trunk. Neverthe- 

 less, there is need of woods of different properties 

 and grades, and this accounts for part but npt all 

 of the difference in cost. Next to the highest in 

 price is elm, which is generally a cheap wood. Its 

 high cost to trunk makers in Tennessee is due to 

 the fact that many of the users buy it after it is 

 cut to the exact sizes needed. It is thus a manufac- 

 tured article when bought and all waste has been 

 removed. It is made into slats to strengthen the 

 tops, sides and bottoms. Trunk makers in some 

 other regions buy this material in the rough and 

 work out the slats in their own factories, and, of 

 course, they buy it cheaper. Prices paid for elm 

 by trunk makers in four states, including Tonnes- 

 see and ranging, northward, are. Tennessee ?37.87; 

 Kentucky, $17.82; Illinois, $25.60; Wisconsin. ^24.23. 



What is true of the prices of e'm is true cf other 

 woods employed, by trunk manufacturers. Where 

 a marked difference in cost exists for the same kind 

 of wood, it is due to the form in which the manu- 

 facturers bought it. In Wisconsin cottonwood costs 

 $27; in Kentucky, $37.50, and in Tennessee. $41.36. 

 This wood is purchased as veneer, either in large 

 single sheets or glued together in three or more 



WOODENWARE AND NOVELTIES. 

 Table 12. 



Kinds of wood 



Red cedar 



Oottonrwood .... 



Red gum 



Cypress 



Beech 



Basswood 



Quantity used annually 

 feet B. M. per cent 

 1,036,800 

 1,000,000 



750.000 



250,000 



165,000 



Totals 



60,000 



31.79 

 30.66 

 22.99 

 7.66 

 5.06 

 1.84 



Average 

 cost per 

 1,000 ft. 



$24.00 

 2ll. in) 

 20.00 

 20.00 

 10.36 

 22.00 



Total 

 cost f. o. b. 

 factory 

 $ 24,888 

 20.000 

 15.000 

 5,000 

 1,710 

 1,320 



3,261,800 



100.00 



$20.82 



$ 67,918 



Grown in 



Tennessee 



feet B. M. 



1,036,800 



165,000 

 60,000 



1,261,800 



Grown 



out of 



Tennessee 



feet B. M. 



1.000.000 

 750.000 

 250,000 



2,000,000 



hoops, made in Tennessee in 1767, was exhibited at 

 the World's Fair held in St. Louis in 1904. The 

 wood was sound and the hoops were bright after 

 the lapse of 137 years. Factory-made ware of this 

 kind has taken the place of the hand-made articles 

 of former times. Not only is the red cedar more 

 largely used than any other wood in this industry 

 in Tennessee, but it is higher in price than any 

 other. The entire quantity used grew in the state. 

 Other articles than staveware belong in this in- 

 dustry, and other woods furnish large amounts of 

 material in Tennessee. Cottonwood follows cedar 

 in amount, but all of the raw material comes from 



ply and cut to the exact sizes needed, and in some 

 instances it is bent in the form desired. Ten- 

 nessee trunk makers bought yellow poplar for trays 

 and compartments at $17.33; in Kentucky it cost 

 $10 a thousand more. In Tennessee buckeye costs 

 $21.33, in Kentucky $22. Similar comparisons might 

 be made for other woods, and as great differences 

 and as close agreements may be shown. The short- 

 leaf pin reported second in quantity in Tennessee 

 is so low in price that it can be no other than low- 

 grade lumber employed in making very cheap 

 trunks. The hickory and ash listed in this in- 

 dustry are used for slats. Woods made into veneer 



TRl'NKS AND VALISES. 



Table 13. 



Totals 



2,890,000 



100.00 



Average Total Grown in 



cost per cost f. o. b. Tennessee 



1,000 ft. factory feet H. if. 



$17.33 $ 20.470 1. 181. 000 



9.00 6,300 700,000 



24.56 7,614 205,000 



16.00 3.200 100.000 



21.33 3.840 105,000 



37.87 6,362 143.000 



13.27 995 40,000 



20.00 1,000 25,000 



32.00 480 I ri.oofl 



41.36 455 11,000 



$17.55 $ 50,716 2,525,000 



Grown 



out of 



Tennessee 



feet B. M. 



ior,.ooo 

 100.000 



75,000 

 25,000 

 35.000 

 25,000 



363,000 



without the state. It is made into washboards, iron- 

 ing boards, bread boards, cutting boards, drying 

 racks and, numerous articles found in kitchen, 

 pantry and laundry. Cottonwood's white color is 

 one of its good qualities. This makes it particu- 

 larly serviceable where stenciling and printing are 

 to be done on it. Makers of washboards value cot- 

 tonwood highly because it stencils so well. Bass- 

 wood closely resembles cottonwood in color and 

 character of the wood, is used for the same purposes 

 and is a little higher in price. It has some uses 

 for which cottonwood is not suitable. One of these 

 is pyrography, where pictures, ornaments and dec- 



PENCIL STOCK. 

 Table 11. 



Kinds of wood 



Red cedar 



White cedar . . . 



Quantity used annually 

 feet B. M. per cent 



5,300,000 

 25,000 



99.53 

 .47 



Average 



cost per 



1,000ft. 



$ S.30 



7.48 



Total 

 cost f. o. b. 

 factory 

 $ 44,000 

 187 



Totals 5,325,000 100.00 



Woodenware and Novelties. 



Novelties and woodenware include a considerable 

 but indefinite number of commodities. Novelties 

 are small articles of various kinds and are either 

 useful or ornamental. Some of the most common 

 are paper knives, pen racks, rulers, small trays, 

 boxes and receptacles for buttons, thread, jewelry 

 and the like; two-piece boxes produced by the lathe, 

 in which ink bottles, paints, pills, powders and 

 other similar articles are shipped and sold. The 

 line between novelties and toys on the one hand and 

 woodenware on the other cannot be very clearly 

 drawn. Whole groups of articles may fall in doubt- 

 ful classes. Exact definitions and strict classifica- 

 tions are not necessary in a report such as this, 



$ 8.30 



$ 44,187 



Grown in 



Tennessee 



feet B. M. 



3,900,000 



25,000 



3,925,000 



Grown 



out of 



Tennessee 



feet B. M. 



1,400.900 



1,400,000 



orations are burned in wooden panels and platters 

 with a hot needle. Some articles of this kind should 

 be classed as novelties, some as woodenware and 

 still others are so well executed that they might be 

 classed as works of art. 



Red gum and cypress in the table aggregate a 

 million feet. They are all-round woods for this 

 industry and are made into some of the commodities 

 named above and into many others, such as rolling 

 pins, chopping bowls, wooden dishes, vegetable cut- 

 ters, bread boxes, etc. Beech is one of the best 

 woods of which to manufacture the class of ware 

 represented by thin veneer picnic plates and pie 

 platters. It is produced in sheets of veneer one- 

 twentieth of an inch thick, or less, and is cut to the 



and used in several thicknesses are yellow poplar, 

 basswood, buckeye and cottonwood. These are gen- 

 erally cut by the rotary process and may be had 

 in sheets of any size wanted. This is an important 

 consideration, for when a sufficient number of 

 sheets have been glued one upon another to give 

 the desired strength they may be cut to size, and 

 by bending, a single piece will make the bottom 

 and two sides of a trunk. It was formerly the cus- 

 tom to construct the box of a trunk of lumber and 

 cover it with leather. That was before the days 

 of the railroads, when the trunk that traveled at all 

 went by boat and stage coach, and was handled 

 with due consideration of the feelings of the owrtef, 

 who was usually standing by and watching it go 

 aboard or come off. But when trunks began to go 

 by rail and chute-the-chutes in modern stations, 

 stronger material than boards and calf skin had to 

 be found for their construction; and sheets of ve- 

 neer with an abundance of brass reinforcement and 

 sheet iron overlay were brought into use. 



The average cost of all wood used by trunk 

 makers in Tennessee is $17.55; in Wisconsin, $23.11; 

 Illinois, $30.01; and Kentucky, $44.81. 



Agricultural Implements. 



The line between a tool and an implement is not 

 very definite when it concerns agricultural ma- 

 chinery. In a general way tools are small and im- 

 plements large; tools are operated by hand and im- 

 plements by horses or some other power. These 

 are not hard-and-fast definitions, and it would not 

 be difficult to find exceptions. The commodities 

 represented in Table 14 belong chiefly to the im- 

 plement class, if a difference is to be drawn between 

 implements and tools. The sickle, scythe, cradle, 

 hoe, flail and pitchfork are tools; the mowing ma- 



