50 



THE SOUTHER N LUMBERMAN 



An example from actual statistics compiled in 

 course of the preparation of this series of state 

 wood-using reports will illustrate this better than 

 it can be done by laying down general rules. A . 

 maker of fine furniture in Massachusetts paid $750 

 a thousand for exquisitely figured mahogany; a 

 coflln maker in Louisiana bought toredo-bore'd ma- 

 hogany from Honduras for one-twentieth of that 

 price. These figures for mahogany placed side by 

 side with no explanation of grade or condition 

 would raise doubt in most minds concerning the 

 correctness of the statistics. The difference is so 

 great as to appear unreasonable. It would seem 

 more unreasonable if both purchases were made in 

 the same state, instead of fifteen hundred miles 

 apart; yet both might have occurred in the same 

 city. Each manufacturer bought'the kind and grade 

 he needed, and the price paid by each was rea- 

 sonable. 



Table 23 shows many costs of woods in which 

 differences for some species are great, though none 

 in quite such marked contrast as in the case of 

 feather mahogany in Massachusetts and the per- 

 forated grade in Louisiana. There is a reason In 

 practically every instance where large difference 

 in cost is shown, but to seek out and present all 

 conditions and circumstances for so many prices 

 would swell the report to a size that would dis- 

 courage rather than stimulate careful study. 



larly desirable that a paying by-product be 

 from the dust. A slat man in Tennessee sells his 

 dust to chemists who make "moth medicine." An- 

 other cedar mill converts its scraps into cedar oil. 

 A porch column manufacturer sells the blocks 

 from his establishment to a maker of large two- 

 piece boxes, such as powders and lubricants are 

 sometimes packed in. 



These are a few of. the rather large number of 

 instances where what seemed to be hopeless waste 

 was converted into profit by simply finding the men 

 who wanted it. If a thing is fit for use, there is 

 nearly always some one somewhere who wants it. 

 Some wastes go on, and at present no practicable 

 remedy has been found. Large quantities of very 

 small, odd-sized blocks accumulate about wood- 

 working factories, and efforts to find some use 

 other than fuel for them have thus far been un- 

 availing. Cheaper distillation plants than are now 

 in use may at some future time convert such waste, 

 including shavings and sawdust, into salable by- 

 products. 



Appendix. 



The foregoing parts of this report were compiled 

 from data collected by the Forest Service in the win- 

 ter of 1911-12. The state has forest resources not 

 fully shown in the figures thus far presented which 

 deal only with manufactured products, with wood 



614,000 feet were softwoods. The quantities by 

 species follow: 



Feet. 



Oak 421,925,000 



Yellow poplar 138,705,000 



Yellow pine 89,296,000 



Red gum 62,461,000 



Chestnut 58,049,000 



Hickory 45,151,000 



White pine 39,387,000 



Hemlock 36,744,000 



Red cedar 31,683,000 



Beech 16 385,000 



Ash 

 Cypress . . . 

 Cottonwood 

 Basswood . 



Maple 



Elm 



Sycamore . 

 Walnut . . . 

 Tupelo .... 



Birch 



Spruce .... 

 All others . 



15.043,000 

 10,333,000 

 8,954,000 

 8,500,000 

 8,289,000 

 7,225,000 

 5,026,000 

 3,432,000 

 2.670,000 

 807,000 

 171,000 

 6.239,000 



Total 1,016,475,000 



The above table shows the cut of lumber in the 

 state. About 260,000,000 feet of this was further 

 manufactured, and is represented in Tables 1 to 23, 

 inclusive, in this report. The remaining 756,000,000 

 feet were used in the rough or were shipped out of 

 the state. 



AVERAGE COST OF THK DIFFERENT KINDS OF WOOD USED BY EACH INDUSTRY. 



Table 23. 



Saving Waste. 



The waste problem is ever present in wood-work- 

 ing establishments. There are few manufacturers 

 who do not carefully study it. The day has passed 

 when valuable lumber is wilfully thrown away. 

 Some of it still goes to the furnace or the scrap 

 pile, but it is because no way has been found to 

 make a profit from the rejected material. The con- 

 stant working of many persons along the line of 

 better utilization has cut down waste in many quar- 

 ters. A tendency toward a certain kind of co- 

 operation among manufacturers is observable. They 

 are helping one another to use scraps, and. of 

 course, each expects to make something for him- 

 self while he is helping others. If one has material 

 which he cannot use, he tries to find some one who 

 can use it; or if he needs stuff which may be in 

 some one's else scrap heap, he makes his wants 

 known, and increased business for both often fol- 

 lows. A piano manufacturer needed choice wood 

 for sharps, and found enough to make 80.000 in the 

 waste heap of a shuttle block maker. Another fac- 

 tory man was in the market for small pieces of 

 hardwood for a certain kind of chisel handle, and 

 he, too. found what he wanted in a shuttle block 

 maker's back yard. Workers in red cedar sell 

 their sawdust to floor sweeping compound com- 

 panies. Pencil slat cedar is sawed in small pieces 

 and much of it goes to sawdust, and it is particu- 



converted jnto finished articles ready for use; but 

 a great deal of other material comes from Tennes- 

 see's timber regions. Much rough lumber is con- 

 sumed without passing through any shop or fac- 

 tory after it leaves the saw mill. It is built into 

 bridges, frames of houses, fences, railroads and is 

 in other ways disposed of without further manufac- 

 ture. Material of that kind has not been accounted 

 for up to this point in this report. It is evident 

 that justice would not be fully accorded the state's 

 forest resources in any report which does not take 

 rough lumber into account and show how much is 

 used without further manufacture after it has left 

 the saw mill. Unfortunately, complete data of that 

 kind can not be presented because it was never 

 collected; but the United States Census Bureau has 

 compiled statistics showing the annual cut of lum- 

 ber in Tennessee by species; the extent of the coop- 

 erage business; the output of veneers, and other 

 facts concerning woods which go in the rough or 

 partly rough condition to the consumer. The fig- 

 ures which follow have been condensed from the 

 latest available census returns for Tennessee. 



Lumber Cut in 1910. 



Saw mills in Tennessee to the number of 1,774 

 reported to the Bureau' of the Census a cut of 1.- 

 016,475,000 feet of lumber in 1910, of which 207,- 



Other Products. 



The yearly output of lath in Tennessee, as shown 

 by the census figures, is 21,550,000; and of shingles 

 19.044.000. 



Cooperage is a large business in the state and is 

 of two kinds tight and slack. Tight cooperage is 

 of a kind made to contain such liquids as oil, whis- 

 key, wine, beer, etc., and slack cooperage is means 

 for dry commodities, such as vegetables, fruits, ce- 

 ment, lime and numerous others. The line separat- 

 ing the two kinds is at times distinct enough, and 

 at times there seems to be overlapping. Generally 

 tight cooperage is understood to hold oils, wines 

 and spiritous liquors, and all other kinds are slack 

 cooperage. Statistics show that in 1910 Tennessee 

 produced 60.938.000 tight cooperage staves, most of 

 which were oak, and 5.390,978 sets of heading. 

 Many woods are not fit for tight cooperage. Some 

 contain substances which color or taint the con- 

 tents, but the chief objection to the majority of 

 woods is that they are too porous and leakage re- 

 sults. 



Almost any wood that may be had in sufficient 

 Quantity and of adequate size is suitable for some 

 sort of slack cooperage. There is ample room, how- 

 ever, for choice among the many availa'ble woods. 

 Some suit one thing best, some another. Butter 

 tubs are not made from woods with strong odors, 

 but material of that kind is not objectionable for 



