25 



THE LUMBER TRADE JOURNAL 



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



fixtures, was this wood used in the state. The quan- 

 tity of cypress scarcely comes up to expectation. 



Tupelo is second in the table, with a million and 

 a quarter feet. This wood was late in receiving 

 recognition, and lumbermen once were in the habit 

 of passing it by. It was subject to seasoning trou- 

 bles the same as red gum, or perhaps the troubles 

 were worse. Partial seasoning is sometimes effect- 

 ed by girdling the standing trees six months or a 

 year before they are felled. That step is generally 

 taken to facilitate the handling of the logs. Tupelo 

 is a deep swamp tree, and frequently stands in- water 

 from one to ten feet deep. In that case it is diffi- 

 cult to transport the logs to the mill unless they can 

 be floated. Green logs are too heavy to float easily, 

 but six months after deadening they have dried suf- 

 ficiently to keep on the surface. 



The wood of tupelo more nearly resembles yellow 

 poplar in appearance than any other wood with 

 which it is apt to foe compared. It is often called 

 'bay poplar, and sometimes the name is shortened to 

 bay. The name is said to have been applied origin- 

 ally to this timber cut on the lower Chesapeake Bay, 

 the intention being to pass it as yellow poplar grow- 

 ing near the ibay. Though the standing trunk bears 

 some resemblance to yellow poplar, and the wood 



also suggests poplar, the latter wood possesses sev- 

 eral properties which tupelo does not. In the pres- 

 ent industry, Table 6, the yellow poplar cost about 

 $42 per thousand, and the tupelo cost $11. That is 

 sufficient to show that manufacturers who use both 



woods recognize considerable difference between 

 them. Nearly three-fourths of all the tupelo report- 

 ed by the wood-using industries in the state was 

 made into sash, doors, blinds and general millwork. 

 It is sometimes called cotton gum. 



SASH, DOORS, BLINDS AND GENERAL MILLWORK. 



Table 6. 

 SASH, DOORS, BLINDS AND GENERAL MILLWORK. 



Total 8,082,000 



100.00 



Average 



cost 

 per 1,000 ft. 



$15.3 

 11.00 

 18.45 

 36.28 

 41.98 

 60.00 

 36.50 

 33.00 

 11.50 

 12.00 



$16.76 



Total 

 cost 



. o. 'b. factory. 



$79,231 



13,750 



20,069 



17,775 



1,763 



2,400 



292 



132 



23 



12 



$135,447 



7,672,000 



410,000 



HANDLES. 



Hickory is the chief handle wood in Mississippi, 

 and as Table 7 shows, supplies more than eighty- 

 nine per cent of the material. For certain kinds of 

 handles it 'has no superior among the world's known 

 woods. Its best qualities are seen in slender han- 

 dles where strength, toughness and resiliency are 

 required. The ax handle and the long hammer han- 

 dle are typical. Though hickory may 'be greatly 

 'bent and deflected, it will spring back and regain its 

 original position, and continue to do this for a long 

 period, and times almost innumerable. Other woods 

 may do it for a short time, but they are apt to lose 

 their resiliency, and set permanently out of shape. 

 All 'hickories do not give similar results when made 

 into handles. Different parts of the same tree show 

 different results, and the qualities of the wood 

 change with age. The butt of a young tree is tough- 

 er than the same wood when the trunk is old ; and 

 the part of the trunk near the ground is better than 

 that toward the top. Handles test the qualiy of hick- 

 ory more thoroughly than any other commodity, not 

 even excepting buggy spokes. 



It is well known that hickory wood is of two col- 

 ors, white and red. The white is the sapwood, the 

 red is the heart. The proportion between the heart- 

 wood and the sapwood varies greatly in different 

 trees, in different ages of the same tree, and between 

 different species. Sometimes young trees growing 

 in the open are nearly all white wood; some large 

 trunks have comparatively thin shells of sapwood. 



Prejudice has long existed against the use of the red 

 heartwood for handles. Better acquaintance with 

 the properties of the red wood of hickory has some- 

 what lessened the prejudice against it, at least for 

 some kinds of handles. If resiliency is not insisted 

 upon, as when a thick pick handle is wanted, the red 

 hickory answers very well. There is a general ten- 

 dency to work into use more and more of the heart- 

 wood. Scarcity and the desire to utilize more close- 

 ly are powerful influences operating to give the 

 heartwood a place. 



Much of the hickory-handle wood never passes 

 through an ordinary sawmill. The bolts are cut in 

 the woods, and are often split into bilelts and in that 

 form go to the handle factories. Many sizes are 

 made, the largest being the cant-hook handles, and 



from that the sizes range down to chisel and gimlet 

 handles. A fourth of a million feet of white oak is 

 employed in this industry and a rather large quan- 

 tity of red gum also. The ash on the list is used for 

 hoe, rake and pitch-fork handles. Most of the pop- 

 lar and gum was made into small handles, such as' 

 are employed for hand grips on wire 'bails and on 

 bundle carriers. Some of them are used for flatiron 

 handles, and as the wooden part of pan and cooking 

 pot handles. Neither a tough nor a hard wood is 

 required for this service. Some handles of this 

 kind are painted black; intended for cheap imita- 

 tions of ebony. Handle woods average low in cost 

 in Mississippi, about $12 a thousand feet. That ia 

 because a large part of the material reaches the fac- 

 tory before much labor has 'been expended on it. 



HANDLES. 



Table 7. 

 HANDLES. 



Grown in 

 Mississippi, 

 feet B. M. 

 3,604,000 

 250,000 

 107,000 

 50,000 

 25,000 



Grown out 



of Miss., 



feet B. M. 



Total 4,036,000 



100.00 



$11.99 



$48,396 



4,036,000 



AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 



The most important commodities of this industry 

 are machine and appliances for growing, ginning 

 and handling the cotton crop. The state supplies 

 all the woods demanded by the manufacturers, and 



nearly three-fourths of all is longleaf pine. It pos- 

 sesses the requisite hardness and strength for cot- 

 ton presses and gins. The figures shown in Table 8 

 do not indicate that general plantation machinery is 

 extensively manufactured in the state. 



AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 



Table 8. 

 AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 



Total. 



800,000 



100.00 



$18.29 



$14,635 



Grown in 



Mississippi, 



feet B. M. 



575,000 



65,000 



65.000 



55,000 



30,000 



5,000 



5,000 



800,000 



Grown out 



of Miss., 



feetB. M. 



FIXTURES. 



Fixtures are akin on the one hand to furniture 

 and on the other to interior finish. They are not as 

 movable as furniture or as fixed as finish. They are 

 made for banks, stores, offices, saloons and halls, and 

 consist of showcases, cabinets, shelving, specially- 

 made desks and tables, partitions, counters, bars, 

 railings and many other appliance of like kind. The 

 wood used was of higher average cost than for any 

 other industry in Mississippi. That was not so much 

 on account of the demand for rare or costly kinds 

 as to the fact that high grades and large pieces were 

 demanded. Extra wide boards are demanded for 

 counter tops and broad panels in partitions, tables, 

 desks and cabinets. These panels are usually built 



up of veneers laid upon cores or 'backing of other 

 woods to lessen the liability to warp, check and split. 

 More than half was longleaf pine, but it went largely 

 into frames and concealed parts while the surface 

 material was some wood more expensive, and was in 

 most cases applied in the form of veneer. The prices 

 paid for the white oak, yellow poplar, cypress, sweet 

 'birch, sycamore, red gum and magnolia listed in 

 Table 9 indicates that good grades were used. Long- 

 leaf and Shortleaf pine are the cheapest woods in the 

 table. Some of the red gum was finished in imita- 

 tion of other woods. Part of the sycamore was made 

 into shelving and interior parts of cabinets and 

 counters; but part was of high grade and was select- 

 ed for the exposed surfaces. This wood may be 

 sawed in a way to show attractive grain. It lends 



itself readily to quarter sawing, and has a character- 

 istic appearance. When most woods, as white oak, 

 are quarter sawed, the medullary, or silver-like rays 

 of wood, are cut obliquely across, exposing bright 

 patches, streaks and flecks. The medullary rays of 

 sycamore are cut across in the same way when that 

 wood is quarter sawed, but the rays, instead of being 

 the brightest parts of the wood, are the darkest, and 

 the result is that quarter sawed sycamore is darker 

 than plain sawed. Its peculiar appearance is much 

 admired. 



The high price of evergreen magnolia in this in- 

 dustry is notable, for it is usually quite cheap. It 

 is one of the southern woods which is coming into 

 favor. It was formerly left standing in the swamps 

 when the other woods were cut out, and the heavy, 

 intensely-green, laurel-like foliage attracted the at- 

 tention of travelers who were often led to ask why 

 such fine-appearing timber was left when other was 

 taken. The reply was almost invariably that it was 

 not worth marketing. That answer was of long- 

 standing in Mississippi. Nearly a century ago Wil- 

 liam Darby, who has been several times quoted in 

 this report, dismissed magnolia in his forest survey 

 of the state, with the short and decisive remark: 

 "Magnolia abounds, but is too useless to deserve 

 mention." 



It is better thought of now, but it is a variable 

 wood. Some is of high grade, other is poor; one 

 piece may be nearly as white as holly, another black 

 enough to compare with ebony. The wood may be 

 interspersed with very hard streaks which make it 

 a difficult material to pass through wood-working 

 machines. The colors are not permanent, the light 

 grow darker, the dark lighter. 'In spite of these dis- 

 advantages, magnolia is liked for many purposes. 

 It is substituted for holly in brush backs, for yellow 

 poplar for panels, for various woods in boxes, for cot- 

 tonwod and basswood in some kinds of woodenware, 

 and it has a place of its own as general lumber. 

 There are two species in use, the evergreen which is 

 largest, and the sweet which is scarce and not so 

 frequently used. 



