76 



THE ST. LOUIS LUMBERMAN. 



metal, but only cheap trunks arc now made that 

 way. 



The trays and other compartments for a trunk are 

 not subject to strain like the outer box is, and they 

 may be of thin boards, covered with cloth or pa- 

 per, but even there a preference is shown for built- 

 up veneers. White pine is liked for the inside equip- 

 ment of trunks because it is light, but other woods 

 are used. When cheap trunks are made in the old 

 way by nailing boards together, short-leaf pine is 

 frequently selected. The white elm reported Is 

 practically all worked into slats. Its toughness 

 fits it for that use. Veneer is made of cottonwood, 

 red gum, sycamore, soft maple, white oak, red oak 

 and white ash. The basswood and cypress appear- 

 ing in the table are worked into trays and other 

 compartments of trunks and the wooden parts of 

 suit cases and valises. 



Some of the trunk makers have little wood-work- 

 ing machinery, but buy the veneer, slats and other 

 wooden parts cut to proper size and ready to as- 

 semble. 



Excelsior. 



Excelsior consists of fine, narrow shavings cut 

 by machinery made for that particular purpose. The 

 woods of which it is made are selected with a view 

 to their fitness. The somewhat general belief that 

 nearly any wood will make good excelsior is erro- 

 neous. The product is not made from odds and ends 

 of waste to be gathered about mills and factories nor 

 from species selected at random. The wood must 

 be tough and stringy. The fine ribbons must not 

 break easily and pull apart or the excelsior will lose 

 its softness and elasticity and possess little value, 

 to Missouri only three species were reported in this 

 industry basswood, cottonwood and black willow 

 and nearly 90 per cent was cottonwood, but in cer- 

 tain other parts of the country several other species 

 are manufactured into excelsior. The bolts em- 

 ployed in excelsior making are 18 inches long and 

 about six inches thick, and they must be fairly free 

 from knots and other defects. Machines with cut- 

 ting points and plane-like knives slice the excelsior 

 iu thread-like ribbons 18 inches long. With suitable 

 wood these ribbons do not break badly. If the wood 

 Is not stringy, however, the excelsior is easily re- 

 duced to a state resembling sawdust and becomes al- 

 most valueless. 



It is commonly supposed that most excelsior 

 serves for upholstery purposes, but such is not the 

 case. Five or 10 per cent of the output may be so 

 used, but very much more is demanded for packing 

 dishes, glassware, hardware and general merchan- 

 dise, and some for filtering. It is not usually 

 shipped far from the region where it is manu- 

 factured, for the mills are numerous that make it 

 and each seeks to supply local markets. It is 

 packed for shipment into bales like hay and is sold 

 by weight or by the bale. 



Waste is moderate in the manufacture of excel- 

 sior and results chiefly from the rejection of knots 

 and defects and from the loss of the small slab or 

 spall by which the dogs hold the bolt during the 

 operation of slitting and slicing the excelsior. Even 

 that small piece is occasionally utilized by working 

 it into plugs three and one-fourth inches in diam- 

 eter. These plugs are bought by manufacturers of 

 roofing papers and are inserted in the cylindrical 

 hollow space in the ends of paper rolls. It is cus- 

 tomary in shipping such paper to customers to pack 

 certain accessories, such as paint, brush and nails 

 in the center of the roll, and the plugs are forced in 

 each opening and a safe shipping cavity is thus pro- 

 vided. 



The average price paid for wood demanded by the 

 excelsior industry is lower than in any other wood- 

 using industry of Missouri. Its cheapness is partly 

 due to the fact that it passes directly from the for- 

 est to the factory wthout going to a sawmill for a 

 preliminary step in its manufacture. This would 

 not be the case if excelsior were made from sawed 

 lumber instead of bolts. 



EXCELSIOR. 



of the dolly, which is that portion of the washing 

 machine that encounters most friction. It does not 

 appear that many clothespins are made in Missouri. 

 That would not naturally be expected if the wood 

 for making them must be imported. Clothespins 

 are usually manufactured near the source of wood 

 supply. Ironing boards demand a smooth wood for 

 the board, on which the clothes are worked, but the 

 frame may be of nearly any species that it strong 

 and light. Basswood and cottonwood are ideal for 

 the smoothing board and tupelo serves well for the 

 frames. The rollers of the mangles are of sugar ma- 

 ple. A hard, firm wood is demanded. Drying frames 

 of western red cedar are light and serviceable. 

 Washboards are made in large numbers in spite of 

 the increased use in recent years of washing ma- 

 chines. The washtub and the washboard are going 

 out of use to some extent, but they do not seem to 

 be going out of existence. They cannot be dispensed 

 with in taking care of certain odds and ends of the 

 family washing, though the hardest part of the work 

 may be done with machines operated by electric 

 power or water motors. The manufacturers of wash- 

 boards insist on white wood for the small piece on 

 which the name is stenciled, and cottonwood and 

 basswood are preferred. Woods of darker color are 

 satisfactory for the rest of the article. 



LAUNDRY APPLIANCES. 



in stores) sugar maple, sweet birch, and even ma- 

 hogany, are employed. The stepladder is sometimes 

 considered related to furniture and finish, particu- 

 larly store finish, and is made of woods to match. 

 Otherwise, costly woods are not demanded. 



As far as information was supplied by manufac- 

 turers, every barber pole made in Missouri in 1910 

 was of sycamore. 



A large part of the product included in the wood- 

 enware and novelty industry consists of various 

 kinds of boards, such as shoemakers' and saddlers' 

 cutting boards, bread boards, meat boards, the 

 boards which textile mills use in the centers of bolts 

 of cloth, and the boards employed by cigar makers 

 and tobacconists. Most of these are of cottonwood. 

 It is clean, soft and white. A few are of cypress, 

 silver maple and white pine. Small trays for jewel- 

 ry, buttons, pins and the like are made of cherry, 

 yellow poplar, mahogany, white and red oak, sweet 

 birch and basswood. 



The bulk of the woodenware included in Table 

 XV is for kitchen and pantry, and consists of small 

 tubs and keelers, bowls, platters, rolling pins, 

 spoons, paddles, vegetable cutters, lemon squeezer* , 

 turnip and potato mashers, boxes for salt, pepper 

 and spices. Pie and picnic plates, cut from veneer, 

 are manufactured in enormous numbers. This com- 



TABLE XIV. 



Grown in 

 Missouri 

 feet 

 B. M. 



Totals - 3,390,000 



Woodenware and Novelties. 



100.00 



22.15 $ 75,090 



Grown out 



of Missouri 



feet 



B. M. 



1,415,000 



750,000 



515,000 



500,000 



75,000 



33,000 



30,000 



30,000 



27,000 



15,000 



3,390,000 



The classes of articles belonging to this industry 

 are rather difficult to define. Laundry appliances, 

 vhich in this report are considered to belong to a 

 separate industry, are often listed as woodenware. 

 There is a difference of opinion also as to what arti- 

 cles should be known as novelties. The term is 

 rather general and includes such articles of wood 

 as do not seem to belong clearly in some other in- 

 dustry. Some of the commodities which in this re- 

 port are classed as woodenware are buckets and 

 pails, bread and meat boards, butter dishes and but- 

 ter tubs and other small tubs and stave ware, cloth 

 boards, cutting boards, various kitchen utensils, lad- 

 ders, measures picnic plates and all sorts of small 

 veneer dishes, flag poles, shovels made chiefly of 

 wood, scoops, show racks, tent poles stakes and tog- 

 gles. One of the conditions in defining woodenware 

 is that the articles must be useful. Novelties may 

 be simply ornamental or their purpose may be to 

 amuse, however, the idea of usefulness is often pres- 

 ent. Among commodities which fall in the novelty 

 class are games, such as chess and checkers, doilies 

 made of wood, gavels, match boxes' and many other 

 small boxes for hairpins, buttons, jewelry and the 

 like; paper weights, paper knives, and many kinds 

 of small turnings and carvings. 



In manufacturing the commodities included in the 

 statistics shown in Table XV fourteen woods are 

 used, three of which cypress, shortleaf and white 

 pine are soft woods. More than half of all is short- 

 leaf pine, but practically none of it comes from the 

 forests of Missouri. In fact, comparatively little 

 of any of the wood comes from the State, although 

 eleven of the fourteen grow in commercial quanti- 

 ties in Missouri. In the manufacture of long lad- 

 ders use is made of longleaf pine from Mississippi 

 and Louisiana, shortleaf pine from Arkansas, with 

 hickory and white and red oak for rungs; and in 

 making stepladders and for rolling ladders ( used 



TABLE XIII. 



Kinds of wood. 



Cottonwood 



Black willow 

 Basswood 



Quantity used 



annually 



fet per 



B. M. cent 



3,500,000 89.63 



300.000 7.68 



105,000 2.69 



Totals _ ,. 3,905,000 



Laundry Appliances. 



100.00 



11.32 



f 44,200 



3,800,000 



105,000 



Manufacturers of laundry appliances in Missouri 

 demand nearly four million feet of wood annually 

 and not one foot of it comes from the forests of the 

 State, yet eight of the ten species employed grow 

 in Missouri and in commercial quantities, and West- 

 ern red cedar is the only one not found in the State 

 at all. Tupelo is the cheapest and sugar maple the 

 most expensive of the woods which figure in the in- 

 dustry. About one-third of all is cypress. 



Laundry appliances include many arti^s. Amont; 

 them are wash tubs, washing machines, wash boards, 

 ironing boards, drying racks, clothespins, flatiron 

 handles, mangles, wringers and others. Experience 

 has shown one or more woods specially suited to 

 each of these articles. Tubs and washers must re- 

 sist wear while in a wet condition and must be 

 proof against leakage. Cypress meets these require- 

 ments well. White ash is generally used for parts 



WOODENWARE AND NOVELTIES. 



modity, which is intended to be used once and then 

 thrown away, should not be confused with plates 

 and platters produced on the lathe and intended as 

 a permanent part of the pantry's or sideboard's 

 equipment. Such articles are often ornamented 

 with carvings and not infrequently are of costly 

 woods. Large hewed or turned trays are in general 

 demand for mixing dough or preparing salads in the 

 pantry. The best woods for such utensils are yellow 

 poplar, basswood and sycamore. They are soft and 

 can be easily cut with tools, they do not check bad- 

 ly under the influence of seasoning, the color is sat- 

 isfactory and they contain no acids to taint articles 

 of food. 



Agricultural Implements. 



The manufacture of agricultural implements in 

 Missouri is not as large an industry as might be ex- 

 pected from a consideration of the State's extensive 

 land resources. It is probable that other States 

 supply a portion of the demand for farm machinery 

 in Missouri, but on this subject there exists no sta- 

 tistics to show exactly what the demand is, though 

 Table XVI gives the home supply, the amount of 

 wood used and the cost. It shows, further, that 92 

 per cent of the wood demanded by manufacturers of 

 agricultural implements is brought into the State 

 from surrounding regions, though Missouri produces 

 all the species listed except three. That demanded 

 in largest amount, longleaf pine, does not grow in 

 the State and must, of necessity, be imported. This 

 wood supplies more than the combined eleven other 

 species which are listed in the table, and it is, there- 

 fore, the most important wood in this industry. It 

 is almost an ideal material for the manufacture of 

 farm implements. It wants toughness and this dis- 

 qualifies it from certain purposes, but it lacks little 

 else required in the business. It is very strong and 

 very stiff, and is well fitted for frames of machines. 

 About the only complaint against it is that in some 

 situations the heads of bolts pull into and through 

 the wood if the strain is great and oscillation con- 

 stant. This is apt to occur if longleaf pine is em- 

 ployed for frames of hay presses, cider mills and 

 cornshellers, but that objection is removed by fit- 

 ting the bolts with large heads and washers. If this 

 objection holds for longleaf pine, it holds yet more 

 for shortleaf and other pines, which are softer. So 

 extensively are longleaf and shortleaf pine employed 

 in this industry that it is not necessary to specify 

 particular places where greatest importance is seen: 

 generally they go into frames, but hoppers and 



TABLE XV. 



137 



Totals 



Less than 1/100 of 1 per cent. 



3,140,387 



100.00 



t 25. D4 ? ."-1,455 



143.637 



2,996,750 



