THE LUMBER TRADE JOURNAL 



[New Orleans, La., March 15, 1912. 



Pin oak Quercus palustris 50,000 



Sycamore Platiaus occidentalis. . . 20,000 



White pine Pinus strobus 10,000 



Black gum Nyssa sylvatica 7,000 



Post oak Quercus minor 5,000 



Yellow oak Quercus velutina 5,000 



Black walnut Juglans nigra 3,000 



.01 



15.00 

 35.00 

 80.00 

 15.00 

 18.00 

 18.00 

 38.33 



750 



700 



800 



105 



90 



90 



115 



100.00 

 100.00 



100.00 

 100.00 



100.00 



100.00 



Total 



"-Less than 1/100 of 1 per cent. 



PLANING-MILL PRODUCTS. 



..618,270,030 100.00 $12.22 $7,554,531 99.35 



100.00 



.65 



The eleven woods which contribute the material 

 shown in Table II aggregate more than half a bil- 

 lion feet, but nearly three^fourths of it is longleaf 

 pine, and most of the other is shortleaf and loblolly. 

 The hardwoods aggregate little more than a million 

 feet, or about one-five- hundredth part of the whole. 

 The softwoods are so preponderant in this industry 

 that the hardwoods are scarcely worth mentioning. 

 The significance of the fact is apparent when it Is 

 borne in mind that this is the principal wood- using 

 industry in Mississippi, from the veiwpoint of quan* 

 tity demanded. The principal items which make up 

 this industry are flooring, ceiling, siding, and such 

 finish as is turned out by planing mills which dress 

 stock for the general trade. Such planers are usual- 

 ly run in connection with sawmills, and they plane 

 the lumber -which the sawmills cut, both mills being 

 generally under the same management. This serves 

 to distinguish these planing mills from a class 

 which do general mill work and make other kinds 

 of products, such as sash, frames, and doors. Manu- 

 facturers of that class are shown in Table VI. 



Longleaf Pine. 



The largest item among those constituting plan- 

 ing mill products is flooring, and longleaf pine is 

 the chief contributor. The wood is admirably fitted 

 for the manufacture of that commodity. It is hard, 

 insuring long wear; strong, which is a guarantee 

 against failure through breakage; stiff, which ena- 

 bles it to hold its place under trying circumstances; 

 it resists decay under conditions where many other 

 woods speedily disintegrate; and it presents an at- 

 tractive appearance because of its positive color and 

 the clearly marked grain. Flooring of two patterns 

 are turned out from the longleaf pine. The common 

 kind is worked without a purpose of conforming to 

 any particular run of the grain some of it flat, 

 some quarter-sawed, and some edge grain. There is 

 a select kind, however, known as edge flooring. The 

 sawing is done in a way to 'bring the edges of the 

 grain upward for a wearing surface. Flooring of 

 that kind is generally narrow and extra thick, some- 

 times two inches, and is more expensive, but it is 

 better, stronger, wears longer, is less liable to splin- 

 ter, and most persons consider it more attractive. It 

 is often used to floor stores, halls, schools and ware- 

 houses. No softwood is superior to longleaf pine for 

 that kind of flooring. Ceiling and iding are made 

 of longleaf pane to a large extent; 'but shortleaf and 

 loblolly are preferred by some. These pines being 

 of more rapid growth than longleaf, the grain shows 

 more variety in figure, and its general tone is a lit- 

 tle lighter. The wood is softer than longleaf and 

 lends itself a little more readily to the carpenter's 

 tools. 



'Six and three-quarter million feet of pond pine are 

 listed in Table II. Manufacturers who reported this 

 wood generally called it pitch pine, which appears 

 to be the commonly accepted local name for it. The 

 wood whose official name is recognized by the U. S. 

 Forest Service as pitch pine is a different tree (Pinus 

 rigida) and is not found in Mississippi, and it is not 



believed that any of it was reported during the pro- 

 gress of this investigation. 



Cypress. 



Cypress makes a rather poor showing in this In- 

 dustry. For some reason, the people of Mississippi 

 do not seem to be making much flooring, ceiling and' 

 siding of this wood. It is good for flooring, though 

 not as hard as longleaf pine; suitable for ceiling, 

 though it lacks the distinct grain which loblolly and 

 shortleaf pine exhibit; but for outside work, par- 

 ticularly as siding or weather boarding, it is doubt- 

 ful if it has any superior among the woods of this 

 country. Well-selected cypress lasts so long when 

 used in the form of weather iboarding that enthusi- 

 asts have called It the "everlasting wood." It would 

 perhaps be unwarranted to claim for it longer ser- 

 vice in exposed situations than may be had from Cal- 

 ifornia redwood, western red cedar, southern red 

 cedar, and eastern white cedar, but it is well up in 

 the front rank of that remarkable list of woods. For 

 that reason it is noteworthy that the people of Mis- 

 sissippi use so little of it, out of the abundance 

 which their state affords. It has been said that a 

 prophet is not without honor save in his own. coun- 

 try. All the wood-using industries of Mississippi 

 combined use less than a million and a half feet of 

 cypress yearly. They use that much longleaf pine 

 daily. White oak contributes four times as much 

 as cypress to planing mill products, and about five 

 times as much to the wood-using industries of the 

 whole state. 



Yellow Poplar. 



Yellow poplar supplied a small amount of lumber 

 to the industry, and all of it was state grown. The 

 yellow poplar here is near the southern limit of its 

 range, the tree reaching its best development in Ten- 

 nessee, Kentucky, North Carolina and West Virginia. 

 There is reason to believe that this splendid wood 

 was once more abundant in Mississippi than it now 

 is. Its large, shapely trunk was calculated to at- 

 tract attention in the early periods of settlement, 

 and it would be one of the first trees to fall to 

 meet the settlers' demand for lumber. William Dar- 

 by wrote that Baton Rouge was a rather important 

 local market for yellow poplar a century ago; but 

 that was before the days of railroads, and timber 

 was not then taken far to market unless it could be 

 floated. Lack of navigable streams then closed mar- 

 kets against a considerable part of the interior of 

 Mississippi. Some white oak and a smaller amount 

 of red oak was reported in this industry. It has 

 been remarked that there exists considerable differ- 

 ence of opinion in Mississippi as to what red oak 

 is. Some have always called the Texas oak red oak, 

 while others give that name to the yellow oak when 

 it grows on rich, well-drained soil where it develops 

 a large trunk and choice wood. 



All of the black walnut reported by manufactur- 

 ers in the state is found in this industry, and the 

 amount could all be procured from two or three 

 medium-sized trees. Its cost per thousand feet is 

 higher than that of any other wood in this industry. 



PLANING MILL PRODUCTS. 

 Table 2. 



PLANING-MILL PRODUCTS. 



Total 539,016,437 



100.00 



$11.69 



$6,301,456 



538,429,437 



587,000 



"Less than 1/100 of 1 per cent. 



BOXES AND CRATES. 



The second largest industry in Mississippi is box- 

 making. It is not unusual for a state's largest or 

 second largest wood-using industry to be the man- 

 ufacture of boxes and crates. Containers in which 

 to ship commercial commodities constitute a heavy, 

 but necessary tax upon the other industries of a re- 

 gion. Fortunately, the wood of which the contain- 

 ers are made is generally of cheap grades. Much 

 that goes to the box factories could find no sale 

 elsewhere, and if it were not serviceable there it 

 would go into the waste heap. It happens, however, 

 that the principal wood demanded by Mississippi 

 box-makers is cottonwood, and not of cheap grade, 

 as the average price (Table III) indicates. Boxes 

 of very many kinds are produced, but when the mak- 

 ers pay an average price of $17.32 per thousand for 

 box material, it is evidence that boxes above the 

 average are being turned out. Cottonwood is known 

 as a clean wood. That is, it has no offensive odor, 

 and imparts no stain to articles shipped in boxes 

 made of it. That fits if tor provisions, particularly 

 for meats, butter, lard, fruits and confectionery. So 

 well is cottonwood liked for boxes in which to ship 

 cured meats, that willow is sometimes sold as cot- 

 tonwood, thought it is not easy to deceive persons 

 acquainted with both woods, for willow has not the 

 clean color of cottonwood. Some manufacturers pre- 

 fer boxes of cottonwood, though no provisions or 

 other commodities that can be damaged by stain are 

 to 'be shipped in them. The attractive appearance 

 of a crate sometimes helps to sell the articles packed 

 within. For instance, makers of screen doors, wash 

 boards, and brooms, buy nice white lumber for crates 

 which will show off their wares to good advantage 

 while in transit or on exhibition. Soap-makers have 

 been known to pay extra for white wood because the 

 letters stenciled on the top or sides show to so much 

 better advantage. The nearly sixteen million feet of 

 cottonwood bought by Mississippi box-makers yearly 

 doubtless receives innumerable stencilings or letter- 

 ings with paint brushes before the boxes have run 

 their courses and have gone to the final scrap pile 

 of kindling wood. 



Cottonwood is one of the native timbers of Mis- 

 sissippi which may be expected to hold its place 

 when cypress, pine, tupelo and red gum have be- 

 come scarce. Cottonwood will pay for planting, when 

 the time for tree planting comes to Mississippi. It 

 grows rapidly; large amounts will thrive on small 

 tracts; it is satisfied with waste land, provided it is 

 neither too wet nor too poor. It is one of the easiest 

 trees to plant and make grow. It is not improbable 

 that there is as much cottonwood in the state now 

 as there ever was, though large trees may not be as 

 abundant as formerly. Small ones are coming on 

 everywhere. They are quick to seize on vacant 

 places left when farm land is abandoned or when 

 lumbermen cut the forests. A writer who traveled 

 through Mississippi nearly a hundred years ago said 

 there was little cottonwood in the state. He either 

 did not see all there was, or much has since come 

 on. 



Next after cottonwood, red gum holds chief place 

 among box and crate makers in the state. Fruit, 

 berry and vegetable crates demand large amounts of 

 wood, frequently made into rotary-cut veneer. Early 

 gardens and truck patches in the state contribute 

 largely to northern markets, and some sort of wood- 

 en container is needed for practically everything of 

 that kind that grows. Red gum and the pines are 

 the largest contributors to the supply of truck-gar- 

 den crates and 'berry baskets and cups. The 'box 

 material furnished by longleaf, shortleaf and lob- 

 lolly pine seems to be fairly well apportioned to the 

 relative abundance of these species, since makers 

 seldom express a preference, but take what is most 

 convenient or cheapest. The average costs for the 

 three pines show only a difference of nine cents per 

 thousand feet, and for practical purposes they may 

 be regarded as of equal cost. 



One-fourth of all the yellow poplar reported in 

 the state went into boxes and crates, and it was 

 highest in price of the mine woods shown in Table 

 III. It was used for the best grades of boxes, on 

 which stenciling, painting and printing were to be 

 done. Magnolia was the cheapest wood in the in- 

 dustry. 



