New Orleans, La., May 1, 1912.] 



THE LUMBER TRADE JOURNAL 



21 



seems to have spread northward through the penin- 

 sula of Florida into the adjacent regions further 

 north, and it is still spreading rapidly by taking 

 advantage of openings in Che forests of other spe- 

 cies, made by lumbermen. 



Cypress. Alabama is not a large producer of cy- 

 press when compared with Louisiana, Florida, Mis- 

 sissippi, and some other states. This tree thrives 

 best in swamps, and Alabama has no large tracts of 

 such land. Two species of cypress grow in this state, 

 but they are so nearly alike that few recognize any 

 difference between them. 



Magnolia. Two species of magnolia are in use 

 the evergreen and the sweet. The former is more 

 abundant, the trees of greater size, the leaves are 

 'longer, and the flowers much larger, being from six 

 to eigiht inches across; the sweet magnolia ibeing 

 only two or three inches. The wood of the ever- 

 green magnolia 'bears some resemblance to yellow 

 poplar, though the heart is often much darker; 

 while the wood of the sweet magnolia (the heart- 

 wood) is a rich brown that polishes well, and when 

 carefully selected and finished, it is one of the hand- 

 somest woods of the southern forests. 



Red Cedar. A very small part of the total cut of 

 cedar in Alabama is shown in Table 1, because that 

 represents only what passes through shops and man- 

 ufacturing plants, while the bulk of the cedar is 

 used for poles and posts. In northern Alabama the 

 railroad yards are filled with cedar poles and posts, 

 the former for telephone and telegraph lines, the 

 latter for fences. Many are shipped to other state. 

 Pencil manufacturers search so diligently for cedar 

 that it is not unusual to see a train load of old cedar 

 fence rails on the way to market, there to be con- 

 verted into pencils. In some instances buyers of 

 cedar build a new post and wire fence in exchange 

 for the old cedar rails. This is a remarkable change 

 from twenty-five years ago. There are two species 

 of red cedar in Alabama, but they are so similar 

 that few persons recognize the difference, and in 

 the market no distinction is made. Red cedar holds 

 its ground with remarkable vigor. If it were not 

 such a slow-growing tree it would be one of the most 

 valuable in this country. It is found in more than 

 half of the United States, but it thrives 'best in tho 

 South. In a region extending from eastern Ten- 

 nessee, northern Georgia, and eastern Kentucky to 

 central and western Texas, it is not unusual to see 

 this cedar in tens of thousands, taking possession of 

 stony ridges, sterile hillsides, sandy flats, and steep 

 ravines. Posts by millions are now cut from land 

 where fifty or seventy-five years ago few cedars 

 grew. This statement applies to a wider region 

 than Alabama, but as much to that state as to any 

 other. If left growing for a long period of years 

 a century or more these cedars would attain a size 

 fitting them for use in the manufacture of pencils, 

 chests and furniture, but tehe ordinary land owner 

 does not .want to wait so long and he cuts his trees 

 when they are large enough for posts and poles. The 

 mature cedars that stood in old forests have nearly 

 all been cut to meet demand in the past. Houses, 

 barns, mills, bridges, and fences were formerly 

 often built in part or wholly of cedar. That, of 

 course, is no longer possible. 



Hickory. 'Seven or eight species of hickory are 

 grouped as one in Alabama and are reported by 

 manufacturers simply as hickory. That is the prac- 

 tice in all hickory regions, because it has been 

 found impossible, or at least impracticable, to sep- 

 arate and distinguish 'between the different hick- 

 ories. Among those growing in Alabama are bit- 

 ternut, nutmeg, pecan, paleleaf, pignut, mockernut, 

 shagbark, and water hickory. 



Birch. The remarks concerning hickory apply 

 also to 'birch, except that fewer species are used in 

 Alabama, and all that was reported came from out- 

 side the state. The birches which possess attract- 

 ive color and grain, and for that reason are demand- 

 ed for furniture and finish, consist principally of 

 two species sweet birch (Betttla Icnta) and yellow 

 birch (Betula lutea). Both are northern trees, ex- 

 tending southward along the Appalachian Mountain 

 ranges to North Carolina ant! Tennessee. Birch that 

 is cut in the Lake States is usually yellow birch, 

 though sweet birch is lumbered in that region also; 

 while birch from Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Vir- 

 ginia, and neighboring regions is likely to be the 

 sweet species, though yellow birch is cut also. Sev- 

 eral other birches grow in the United States and 

 are valuable for certain purposes, but the majority 

 of them show little color, grain or figure in the 

 wood. No one of them is reported for use in Ala- 

 bama. The river ibirch (Bctula nigra) grows in 

 considerable abundance along the streams of that 

 state and is doubtless put to use though not report- 

 ed. It is a plain but substantial wood. 



Yellow Poplar. In addition to supplying its own 

 shops and factories with nearly twelve million feet 

 of yellow poplar, the state of Alabama is now ex- 

 porting large numbers of poplar logs to Europe. The 

 logs are stripped of bark to reduce weight and les- 

 sen the space they will occupy in the holds of ves- 

 sels. This splendid timber tree reaches the southern 



limit of its commercial range in Alabama. 



Gum. Table 1 lists the wood of three species of 

 gum in Alabama, red, black and tupelo. Two other 

 gums grow in the state and doubtless are made use 

 of, though not reported. They are the water gum 

 (Nyssa J>iflora) and sour tupelo (Nyssa ogeche). 



The Oaks. In Table 1 six oaks are listed, white, 

 red, post, willow, pin and Texan. This separates 

 the oaks into species, with the amount of each used, 

 with as much accuracy as available information will 

 allow; but its absolute accuracy is doubtful. It is 

 reasonably certain that more than six kinds of oak 

 are used by Alabama manufacturers, and it is prob- 

 able that several were grouped under one or more 

 names. Water oak, yellow oak, and live oak are 

 fairly abundant in Alabama, yet do not appear in the 

 table, while red oak (Quercus rubra) barely enters 

 the northeastern corner of the state, yet it was 

 largely reported. The most likely explanation is 

 that some of the oaks, which do not appear under 

 their own names, were reported as red oak. In com- 

 piling this report, the figures furnished by manu- 

 facturers were used, but an explanation is deemed 

 necessary because of the various names by which 

 the same oak may be known and reported. White 

 oak and red oak are two general terms by which 

 many lumbermen report oaks of various species. 

 Those which have pointed-lobed leaves and ripen 

 their acorns in two years are generally called red 

 oak, and those with one-year acorns and round-lobed 

 leaves are known as white oak. There are about 

 fifty oaks in the United States, and at least one- 

 third are found in Alabama. Among them are white 

 oak, red oak, post oak, overcup oak, chestnut oak, 

 chinquapin oak, cow oak, Durand oak, live oak, 

 Texan oak, yellow oak, Spanish oak, black jack oak, 

 water oak, shingle oak, and willow oak. 



Dogwood. This is not a timber tree as the term 

 is usually understood, but is cut in considerable 

 quantity and is usually bought and sold by the cord. 

 Elm. Manufacturers reported the use of only one 

 elm in the state, the white elm. That is the com- 

 mon and most abundant elm in the United States, 

 and it grows in practically all the states east of the 

 Rocky Mountains. Alabama has two other species 

 of elm, both serviceable for manufacturing pur- 

 poses, and doubtless both are in use. They are wing 

 elm and slippery elm; the latter may be known by 

 its mucilaginous inner bark, and the former by the 

 flat keels on the twigs and sometimes on the large 

 limbs and trunk of the tree. When this elm is not 

 in leaf, the peculiar appearance of the flat twigs 

 will not fail to attract attention. 



Chestnut. In Alabama the chestnut approaches 

 the southern limit of its range. 



Cottomvood. This wood does not occupy an im- 

 portant place in Alabama, either as rough lumber 

 or as a finished product. Only thirteen mills in the 

 state cut it in 1910, while there were 110 in Missis- 

 sippi, 126 in Arkansas and 300 in Missouri. 



Persimmon. The persimmon is not cut for gen- 

 eral lumber but for special commodities, principally 

 shuttle blocks, and golf sticks. 



Mahogany. The mahogany used in Alabama was 

 grown in West Indie's, Mexico and Central America. 

 Another wood usually classed as mahogany and 

 largely demanded by manufacturers of furniture and 

 finish in this country comes from Africa. 



Green Haw. This wood is seldom reported by 

 wood-using industries. It may reach eight or ten 

 inches in diameter of trunk. The wood is light in 

 color, resembling ironwood. 



Wild Cherry. This is not a foreign tree brought 

 into this country, as its name might imply. It 

 grows from Georgia to Arizona, but probably will 

 never attain to any more importance in the timber 

 supply than it now holds. It is sometimes called 

 soap berry because substances extracted from the 

 roots and the fruit have been used for soap. The 

 true soap berry is a closely related species. 



Hackberry. This tree grows in practically all sec- 

 tions of the state, and is often bought and sold as 

 ash. 



Black Walnut. A little black walnut is used in 

 Alabama, but none of it is state-grown. This wood 

 was once popular for many purposes, but it has 

 lost some of its popularity in recent years. If it 

 were demanded now in as large amounts as for- 

 merly, the price would be very high, for the wood 

 is scarce, and no unculled forests exist from which 

 new supplies may be drawn. 



Spanish Moss (Dcndropogon usenoides). This is 

 not a wood, but as a product of the forest it is enti- 

 tled to mention. It is gray in winter but light green 

 in spring and summer, and hangs in long festoons 

 from the branches of trees. It is most abundant in 

 swamps, and on the flood plains of rivers. On dry 

 uplands it is scarce or absent. In localities which, 

 because of warmth and dampness, favor its growth, 

 it frequently covers trees so completely that most 

 of the branches are invisible. Although the growth 

 has the appearance of moss, and is nearly always 

 spoken of as such, it is not really a moss, but a 

 plant of the pineapple family, and it bears leaves, 

 flowers and fruit. It is not even a parasite, accord- 



ing to the opinion of most botanists who have stud- 

 ied it; that is, it takes no substance from the tree 

 on which it grows. It is an air plant, deriving its 

 subsistence from the air and the rain and dew. It 

 is propagated either by seeds or by small parts of a 

 parent plant blown by wind against the trunk or 

 branches of the tree. Small rootlets develop at first 

 and secure the young plant in its new position by 

 tying it to the tree's bark; but afterwards the root- 

 lets disappear and the plant hangs on the tree much 

 as clothes might hang across a line. It grows in 

 strands and festoons which may attain a length of 

 several feet, usually three or four, but occasionally 

 more than ten. 



Early settlers attempted to convert the moss into 

 provender for farm stock, but with little success, 

 though it was said that deer in winter would eat 

 It. It has long been employed as filling for mat- 

 tresses, cushions, and horse collars. It is prepared 

 for such use by curing and ginning it, by which 

 process the gray or green leaves and bark are re- 

 moved, and a black thread-like material, resembling 

 horsehair, remains. In late years another use for it 

 has been found, and the market is said to be good. 

 The moss is dyed bright colors, generally green or 

 blue, and is sold for store decorations Where wood- 

 land scenes are to be imitated. It is sent to market 

 in crates or bales. 



In Table 1 the third column of figures gives the 

 average price paid at the factories for each of the 

 species. Where the amount is large and the buyers 

 many, the cost shown in the table may be accepted 

 as representative but in some instances the amount 

 of wood is rather small, and perhaps the whole 

 quantity was purchased by two or three factories, 

 and the cost may appear too high or too low. This 

 may be explained by the circumstances under which 

 the purchases were made. If the wood is wanted 

 for a special purpose, none but a very high grade 

 may answer, and the price will be unusually high. 

 Or, if a very low grade will do, the cost may be un- 

 usually low. In some instances in Alabama black 

 walnut was bought for less than twenty dollars a 

 thousand feet. Without an explanation that price 

 would seem ridiculous, but it becomes reasonable if 

 it is stated that the purchase was in the log, and the 

 logs were small, nearly all sapwood, and suitable 

 only for boxes or some other common purpose. In 

 Table 1, pin oak costs $40 a thousand, Texas oak 

 $38.40, while red oak costs only $18.91, and white 

 oak $20.17. On the face of it, the prices seem ab- 

 surd for it is well known that ordinarily pin oak 

 and Texan oak are not worth more than White and 

 red oak. But the two latter woods were purchased 

 in millions of feet each, and the costs are averages 

 of many sales; while only a few thousand feet of 

 pin and Texan oak were bought, and for particular 

 purposes demanding .extra high quality. The sta- 

 tistics as compiled for these tables in this report 

 show what was actually reported by manufacturers. 

 It in a few instances apparent inconsistencies are 

 found in cosl^ they may generally be attributed to 

 the smallness of the amount bought, or to the fact 

 that it was of unusual quality or dimensions. 



Planing-Mill Products. 



This is very much the largest wood-using indus- 

 try in Alabama, and accounts for eighty per cent, 

 of all the wood reported. When the further fact 

 that ninety-six per cent of all shown in Table 2 

 consists of two species, longleaf and shortleaf pine, 

 is considered, the importance of these species be- 

 comes apparent. 1 ne principal commodities includ- 

 ed in this industry are flooring, molding, ceiling, sid- 

 ing and other finish for interior and exterior of 

 buildings. The average cost of the rough lumber 

 when it reaches the planer is low, $11.72; and its 

 low cost is chiefly due to the fact that most of the 

 operators of planing mills are owners of sawmills 

 also, and the cost of the lumber is figured upon the 

 price of stumpage (often for less than such stump- 

 age can now be bought), the delivery of the logs to 

 the mill and the sawing. Estimated in that way, 

 the average cost is shown to be very low. In many 

 cases, no profit is included and sometimes not even 

 the depreciation of the plant. 



A number of large mills in Alabama employ con- 

 vict labor under contract with the state, paying $25 

 to $30 per man per month. The effect on production 

 is apparent. The mills are kept going in dull sea 

 sons, for the expense goes on and must be met. 

 with the result that overproduction is stimulated. 

 In some of the Southern states, cotton planters are 

 asked to reduce their acreage when there is danger 

 of too much cotton being grown. The sawmills 

 might adopt the same policy, but those who are 

 under contract to pay for convi-.-t labor can not join 

 the others in curtailing output, for the labor charges 

 go on and must be earned by operating the plants. 

 The sentiment among business men in some parts 

 of the state is pretty strong that the state should 

 employ its convicts upon public roads where their 

 labor will be less likely to conflict with private en- 

 terprise, and sound business principles. 



