THE SOUTHER N LUMBERMAN 



47 



chine, thresher, plow and cultivator are imple- 

 ments. 



About half of all the wood reported was white 

 oak, which includes a number of species. This 

 wood possesses most of the properties demanded 

 in this industry, the chief one being strength and 

 the next hardness. Where hardness alone will suf- 

 fice, beech answers well. It is suited for slides 

 where one part of the machine must work back and 

 forth, the surfaces sliding upon each other. The 

 high cost of the beech in Table 14 indicates that 

 the best grades were in demand. The wood is 

 liked well for the felloes of very heavy wheels. 

 Red oak and chestnut oak are utilized for strong 

 frames. A large amount of yellow poplar appears, 

 and much of it was made into hoppers, seed boxes, 

 chutes, drawers and compartments in fanning mills, 

 cleaners, drills and threshers. The shortleaf pine 

 was used for the same purposes. It might be ex- 

 pected that ash would appear in this industry, and 

 its qualities make it suitable for many purposes; 

 but it is identified with the tool industry rather than 

 wth the manufacture of implements. If such tools 

 as pitchforks, rakes, hoes, shovels and scythes were 

 included in Table 14, ash would appear in large 

 amounts, for it is the usual handle wood for such 

 tools. 



The manufacturer of agricultural implements is 

 not yet as important in Tennessee as in some 

 other states, but the abundance of raw material in 

 the region and the accessibility of many markets 

 justify the prediction that before many years Ten- 

 nessee will attain a high place among the states in 

 the manufacture of machinery for the farms. The 

 fertility of the land, the diversified surface which 

 calls for crops of various kinds and the mildness 

 of the climate and abundance of rainfall assure 

 great and permanent prosperity for Tennessee farm- 

 ers. They will buy more farm implements in the 

 future than in the past, for scientific methods are 

 replacing the poor makeshifts of yesterday. Up-to- 

 date farming calls for better machines and more of 

 them.- The forests of Tennessee contain an 

 abundance of the woods needed in that line of man- 

 ufacture, and the people have made a beginning 

 in putting it to use. It is only a beginning, how- 

 ever. Tennessee ships twice as much implement 

 wood to Illinois, there to be manufactured, as is 

 worked up at home; and in many instances the fin- 

 ished machines are shipped to the region where the 

 woods grew and are sold there. Full development 

 of home resources will demand the manufacture of 

 this wood at home. The state may become a man- 

 ufacturing center along that line, instead of a feeder 

 for other manufacturing centers. A comparison of 

 what Tennessee is doing and what some of its 

 neighboring states are doing is worth consideration. 

 The state annually uses 2,890,000 feet of wood in 

 producing agricultural implements, and pays an 

 average of $22.58 per thousand for it. North Caro- 

 lina uses 3.391,000 feet and pays $11.95; Kentucky, 

 6,610.000 feet at a cost of $32.54; while Illinois, 

 which has a comparatively small supply of home- 

 grown wood and buys from other states 99.9 per 

 cent of what it makes into implements, uses 103,- 

 649,000 feet, and pays $34.54 a thousand for it. 



due to its purchase in the log or bolt form. The 

 average value of hickory lumber in the mill yards 

 of Tennessee in 1909, which are the latest available 

 figures, was $37.13, more than double the cost of 

 the wood as listed in Table 15. Though in 1909 and 

 again in 1910 Tennessee led all the other states 

 in the quantity of hickory lumber produced, yet the 

 makers of athletic goods in the state are sending 

 outside for 98 per cent of their supply of this wood. 

 The reason for it is that some of the largest users 

 are near the state line, and it happens that the most 

 convenient supply of the wood is across the border. 



SPORTING 



Kinds -of wood 



Hickory 



White ash 



Persimmon 



Totals 



feet B. M. 



2,550,000 



60,000 



15,000 



2,625,000 



cut dogwood in small lots and haul it to the towns 

 where it is sold to dealers who in turn ship and 

 sell to manufacturers when the collection amounts 

 to a carload or more. The getting together of the 

 wood in this manner is usually done hy negroes who 

 are willing to handle small quantities and are con- 

 tent with moderate returns. Often a few sticks, 

 maybe only two or three, are carried to town in 

 small wagons along with farm articles for sale. 

 This custom prevails also in Southern States other 

 than Tennessee. It is not possible to obtain sta- 

 tistics of amounts so many and small, except in 



GOODS. 



100.00 



$17.48 



$ 45,875 



125,000 



2,500,000 



Shuttles, Spools and Bobbins. 

 The three classes of commodities heading Table 

 16 are usually grouped as one industry because 

 they are purchased by factories which spin and 

 weave; but as far as Tennessee is concerned, shut- 

 tles constitute nearly the whole output of the in- 

 dustry. Two woods are employed, dogwood and 

 persimmon. These have long been considered the 

 best available material in this country for shut- 

 tles, though search for others has been wide and 

 thorough since the advance in cost of Turkish box- 

 wood took it from the American shuttlewoojl mar- 

 ket. Dogwood and persimmon possess all the de- 

 sired properties, though some of them in a less 

 degree than boxwood. But when the Tennessee 

 woods can be bought at less than three cents a 

 foot, and boxwood costs nearly a dollar a foot, 

 it is evident that the supply will be met by woods 

 from Tennessee and surrounding regions. The 



the aggregate after they reach the manufacturers. 

 The table shows that most of the persimmon used 

 grew outside the state. 



Shuttle blocks are about 17 inches long and 

 somewhat more than two and a quarter inches 

 square. The blocks from which golf stick heads 

 are made are not as long, but are larger in cross 

 section. Dogwood and persimmon are used for both 

 articles. Their hardness and the small liability of 

 the wood to become abraded are their most im- 

 portant properties. 



Boat and Ship Building. 



Without an explanation the heading for this in- 

 dustry would be misleading because no ships and 

 few boats are built in Tennessee. This heading is 

 used for uniformity's sake in all state wood-using 

 reports such as this, and all material employed in 

 the industry is listed in the accompanying table. 



SHUTTLES, SPOOLS, AND BOBBINS. 

 Table 16. 



Kinds of wood 



Dogwood 



Persimmon 



Totals 



Quantity used annually 

 feet B. M. per cent 

 1,705,000 71.94 



665,000 28.06 



Average 



cost per 



1,000ft. 



$22.07 



26.80 



2,370,000 



IdO.OO 



$23.40 



$ 55,452 



1,345,000 



1,025,000 



preceding industry, Table 15, shows the use of per- 

 simmon for gold heads. The heartwood is re- 

 jected as it is in shuttle making. The waste of 

 the dark-colored heart would be complete were it 

 not so well adapted to other uses. The persimmon 

 is a species of ebony, and the heart is the portion 

 which shows the color. It is bought by manufac- 

 turers of parquet flooring and by some furniture 

 makers. 



The persimmon tree grows to large size and 

 passes through saw mills like other saw-logs. Sta- 

 tistics have not "been compiled in a way to show 

 the quantity of persimmon cut, nor the states which 

 lead in production. It is known, however, that the 

 amount is not large, and the persimmon is justly 



AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 

 Table 14. 



Kinds of wood 



White oak 



Yellow poplar . . 



Red oak 



Shortleaf pine . . 

 Chestnut oak . . 

 Beech 



Quantity used annually 

 feet B. M. per cent 

 49.31 

 15.57 

 14.71 

 11.24 

 8.65 



Totals 



1,425,000 

 450,000 

 425.000 

 325,000 

 250.000 

 15,000 



2,890,000 



.5'2 

 100.00 



Average 



cost per 



1,000 ft. 



$23,28 



18.44 



29.65 



20.00 



17.20 



25.00 



$22.58 



65,250 



1,790,000 



1,100,000 



Sporting and Athletic Goods. 



Table 15 represents, in Tennessee, what is prop 

 erly termed a one-wood industry. That wood is 

 hickory. Two others are listed, but they constitute 

 less than three per cent of the whole. Golf sticks 

 are the principal commodity. The shaft is hickory 

 and the head persimmon. No explanation has been 

 offered why dogwood is absent from Table 15, for 

 it is one of the best materials for solf heads, and 

 it is abundant in Tennessee. The head of a golf 

 club must fulfill exacting requirements. It must 

 be elastic and of sufficient hardness and toughness 

 to wear smooth. Some wooc's which possess part 

 of the requisite qualities lack the essential they 

 burst under the impact of the blow. That is the 

 fault of hickory as the head of a golf stick, though 

 as a shaft it has no equal. The two parts head 

 and shaft call for different properties, and no 

 wood, as far as present knowledge goes, possesses 

 both of them in a high degree. That is why a golf 

 stick is always of two kinds of wood. English 

 beech, which differs somewhat from the American 

 tree, was once the favorite wood for golf heads in 

 this country as well as abroad; but it has lost its 

 place to dogwood and persimmon. 



More use is made of persimmon's white sapwood 

 than of the heart which is dark. Shuttlemakers 

 also want the sapwood. and the combined demand is 

 met at the expense of the persimmon's dark heart- 

 wood which must find a market elsewhere. 



The white ash listed in Table 15 was bought by 

 makers of ball bats, The low price of hickory jg 



listed among the minor species. It is well known, 

 also, that the principal supply comes from North 

 Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas and the regions im- 

 mediately north and south of those states. The 

 tree reproduces vigorously and grows with fair 

 rapidity, hut a long time is required to produce a 

 trunk large enough to be of much value to the 

 manufacturer. For that reason, the thickets of 

 young persimmon trees which have made their ap- 

 pearance in abandoned fields have not yet contrib- 

 uted much wood for shuttles, golf stick heads or 

 parquet flooring. They may influence the market 

 in years to come. 



Dogwood is a more important shuttle wood than 

 persimmon, but the tree is smaller. A trunk as 

 much as a foot in diameter and six or eight feet in 

 length is an exception to the rule. The trunk is 

 usually nearly all sapwood of light color, the small 

 core of heartwood being brown. It is not a timber 

 tree and is never cut as saw-logs for the mills. It 

 is too small. For that reason it does not figure in 

 ordinary lumber operations, but is handled in spe- 

 cial ways. It is customary for country people to 



In Tennessee practically all of the wood reported 

 is white ash, and it is manufactured into oars. The 

 white oak was used for boat repairs, and the 

 cypress is so small in quantity as to be negligible 

 No other wood is equal to ash in the amount going 

 into oars in the Southern and Middle States, and 

 the product is sold in all parts of this country and 

 in some foreign countries. In certain regions ash 

 comes in competition with other woods for some 

 kinds of oars. Paddles for canoes are of spruce 

 oftener than of ash, for spruce is lighter and is 

 strong enough. The yew tree that grows on the 

 Pacific Coast might compete successfully with ash 

 for oars if it were as abundant and accessible. 



Table 17 probably does not do Tennessee justice 

 as an exhibit of its boat building. Large numbers 

 of skiffs and other small boats are made there and 

 are found by thousands on the rivers and creeks; 

 but they are not turned out of large factories and 

 are not shown in the table. They are the output 

 of small shops and of individual workmen in all 

 regions of the- state. The fact that they are so 

 made is well known, but it has been impossible to 

 compile figures to be used as statistics. This con- 

 dition obtains in many regions of the United States. 

 A wagonload of lumber and a few tools suffice for 

 manufacturing small boats, and it is done every- 

 where and no report is made of it. This explana- 

 tion is made to correct any wrong impression that 

 might follow from an examination of Table 17. On 

 the face of it Tennessee makes no boats, yet the 

 fact is large numbers are made along the rivers of 

 the state, but not in boat factories. Canoes hewn 

 from trunks of yellow pop'ar are still occasionally 

 seen on the rivers, though the high value of this 

 wood in the market in recent years has diminished 

 its use for dugouts. Historically yellow poplar has 

 been the greatest boat wood of Tennessee. Refer- 

 ence has already teen made to its early use for 

 canoes in war and peace. That use continued for 

 a century or more and has not wholly ceased. The 

 wood was employed in a wasteful manner, for a 

 trunk measuring from two to four thousand feet 

 was often hewed into a single canoe; but yellow 

 poplars of that dimension were plentiful then and 

 it was right that the people should cut them for 

 canoes if they needed them. 

 Fixtures. 



Fixtures, as the term is considered in Table 18. 

 are close akin to furniture, but differ in several 



BOAT AND SHIP BUILDING. 

 Table 17. 



Kinds of "wood 



"White ash 



White oak 



Cypress 



Totals 



Quantity used annually 

 feet B. M. per cent 

 1,750.000 98 53 



25,000 1.41 



1.000 .06 



Average 



cost per 



1,000 ft. 



$27.00 



23.00 



45.00 



1,776,084 



100.00 



47,870 



1.751.00C 



