26 



THE LUMBER TRADE JOURNAL 



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



TABLE 21. 

 SUMMARY OF WOODS USED BY INDUSTRIES IN ALABAMA. 



Industries 



Quantity used annually. 

 Feet B. M. % 



Planing-mill products*. 584,684,000 80.44 

 Sash, doors, blinds, etc. 67,348,000 9.27 

 Boxes and crates, pack- 

 ing 22,442,000 3.09 



Car construction 18,618,900 2.56 



Vehicle and vehicle 



parts 7,585,000 1.04 



Excelsior 5,700,000 .78 



Chairs 5,011,000 .69 



Boxes, tobacco 3,200,000 .44 



Agricultural implements 2,520,000 .35 



Furniture 1,874,000 .26 



Handles 1,725,000 .24 



Sporting and athletic 



goods 1,152,000 .16 



Shuttles, spools, bob- 

 bins, etc 1,100,000 .15 



Fixtures 1,020,000 .14 



Refrigerators and kit- 

 chen cabinets 1,003,000 .14 



Caskets and coffins 890,000 



Ship and boat building. 511,000 .07 

 Woodenware and novel- 

 ties 305,000 .04 



Miscellaneous 128,000 .02 



Av. cost 

 per 1000 ft. 

 111.72 

 13.10 



10.89 

 19.79 



24.02 

 7.97 

 14.06 

 9.44 

 20.11 

 13.90 

 15.88 



23.26 



14.68 

 28.11 



13.50 

 15.69 

 15.10 



11.44 

 23.89 



Total cost 

 f. o. b. factory. 

 $6,852,557 

 882,415 



244,430 

 368,490 



" 182,200 

 45,450 

 70,470 

 30,200 

 50,680 

 26,048 

 27,400 



26,800 



16,150 

 28,677 



13,545 



13,960 



7,715 



3,490 

 3,058 



Grown in 

 Alabama, % 

 94.82 

 96.7ft 



95.85 

 98.26 



97.31 

 100.00 

 95.81 

 98.44 

 97.22 

 79.16 

 73.91 



100.00 



70.45 

 70.57 



93.42 



33.73 



100.00 



99.18 

 97.66 



Grown out of 

 Alabama, % 



5.18 



3.21 



4.15 



1.74 



2.69 



4.19 

 1.56 



2.78 

 20.84 

 26.09 



29.55 

 29.43 



6.58 

 66.27 



.82 

 2.34 



Totals 726,816,900 100.00 f 12.24 $8,893,735 5.01 



*Exclusive of 105,000,000 feet of dressed stock which Is planed for purpose of saving freight. 



distillation plants are expensive, and it is doubtful 

 if small plants will pay with present processes. 



Mill Waste. Much progress has 'been made in 

 Alabama toward converting mill waste from loss 

 to profit by distillation. Rosin and turpentine are 

 produced. The unoccupied field Is still large. Ma- 

 chines for making lath and shingles now use large 

 quantities of slabs and defective logs which formerly 

 were burned. It cannot be called waste when slabs 

 and sawdust are burned under the boilers to pro- 

 duce power, If that is the cheapest method of ob- 

 taining power. The notion held by many, that to 

 burn wood is to waste it, is true only at certain 

 times and places. Many times the mill waste's 

 greatest value is as fuel and then not to burn it 

 would be to waste it. Wood-working factories waste 

 less than is popularly supposed. The owners give 

 much thought to the matter of saving odds and 

 ends. It is an exceptional case if a piece of wood 

 is thrown away if it can be converted into anything 



that will seii. The vexing problem is to find uses 

 for small pieces. The cost of working them into 

 salable articles is frequently greater than the value 

 of the finished commodities. . To manufacture un- 

 der sucn conditions is waste, not conservation. Many 

 persons who see cartloads of odd-sized blocks and 

 scraps from a wood-working factory on the way to 

 the waste heap ask why the pieces are not made into 

 matches, toothpicks, shoe pegs, clothespins and ar- 

 ticles of that kind. In most cases the reason is that 

 it is impossible to do it at a profit. Small commodi- 

 ties are generally made toy expensive machines 

 which cannot work small and irregular pieces b 

 wood. It does little good to complain of wrong use 

 unless a practicable remedy is pointed out. 



Substitution, etc. The general public scarcely ap- 

 preciates the saving due to the substitution of cheap 

 woods for those more expensive, and to the practice 

 of making a smaller quantity answer where a lar- 

 ger quantity was formerly used. The latter point 



is well illustrated in the box business. A packing 

 box large enough to hold four or five bushels was 

 once made of inch boards. Much thinner lumber 

 is now found sufficient; or such a box is made of 

 built-up veneer in sheets not more than a quarter of 

 an inch thick, reinforced at the corners. It requires 

 less than half the material of the old inch-board 

 box, and it is as serviceable. The saving is fifty 

 per cent or more. The furniture factory saves in 

 the same way. Solid oak or mahogany pieces of 

 former times are seldom made now. A sheet of 

 veneer, one-twentieth of an inch thick, takes the 

 place of the two-inch plank of former times. If it 

 is a table that is being made, the frame is construct- 

 ed of cheap wood, and it is overlaid with veneer. 

 The article is as handsome and as substantial as if 

 made of solid expensive wood. Costly wood is saved 

 and cheap wood is substituted for it. The saving 

 brought about in this country by that process alone 

 is so great that it can scarcely be estimated. If the 

 old method had continued, the high-grade woods 

 long ago would have become so costly that they 

 would now be practically out of use. One of the 

 most effective agents in the conservation of wood 

 in this country has been the substitution of cheap 

 and plentiful woods for the scarce and costly. It 

 has saved in two ways: the expensive material has 

 been made to last longer, go farther and remain 

 cheap enough to be within the reach of the people; 

 and the plentiful woods formerly not used at all 

 and therefore of no commercial value have been 

 made available, given a value, and changed from a 

 useless encumbrance to a marketable product. 



Substitution in the uses of wood has gone much 

 farther than the building of frames or cores of 

 cheap lumber and coverinc them with costly veneer. 

 In many instances the veneer is of cheap wood, so 

 prepared by the skill of the woodworker that it re- 

 sembles costly wood, and is not only as handsome 

 but for all practical purposes is as good. Take the 

 one instance, Circassian walnut, as an example. This 

 is a beautiful cabinet wood_ brought from the moun- 

 tain fastnesses of Asiatic Turkey and southeastern 

 Russia at so great an expense that even the wealthy 

 seldom buy it in other form than veneer, and the 

 ordinary purchaser foregoes the pleasure of owning 

 furniture or finish of that wood. "Circassian wal- 

 nut" furniture and finish are now in great demand 

 in this country; yet most of what is seen is a pro- 

 duct of the southern states Missouri, Arkansas, 

 Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and oth- 

 ers. It is red gum, which, when carefully selected 

 and cut into veneer, may be finished to resemble so 

 closely Circassian walnut that few can tell the dif- 



PERCENTAGE OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF WOOD USED BY EACH INDUSTRY. TABLE 22. 



