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THE LUMBER TRADE JOURNAL 



[January 1, 1912. 



doubtless a matter of mistaken identity the sugar- 

 berry and hackberry when they reached the facto- 

 ries were supposed to be ash. 



Magnolia. 



Two magnolias are used by the manufacturers 

 of Louisiana, the evergreen and the sweet. The 

 former is the larger and more valuable tree, and 

 more than one and a half million feet were re- 

 ported, while the use of sweet magnolia was only 

 45,000 feet. The evergreen magnolia is praised 

 by some users and condemned by others. Some 

 claim that it is a satisfactory substitute for yellow 

 poplar in many places, while others find fault with 

 hard, black, flinty streaks which the wood some- 

 times contains. The streaks dull tools quickly, 

 and are blemishes on the surface of dressed wood. 

 If the lumber is carefully selected, some high grade 

 stuff can be picked out. Few woods show less uni- 

 formity in quality. The white wood in a magno- 

 lia tree compares not unfavorably with holly, but 

 is not quite as white. Next to the white portion 

 may lie wood almost as black as ebony, and there 

 are all shades and colors. A distinct pink some- 

 times shows when large logs are freshly sawed. 

 It is said that none of the colors are permanent, 

 but the lights grow darker, and the darks lighter 

 with exposure to weather. In rural communities 

 dugouts are made of this wood for navigating rivers 

 and estuaries, and give satisfactory service. 



Yellow Poplar. 



Louisiana lies on the southern outskirts of the 

 yellow poplar"s range, but the supply reported by 

 manufacturers comes wholly from without the 

 state. The saw mills in the state cut a little, but 

 at least part of the small amount comes down the 

 rivers from the north. 



Basswood. 



The whole reported supply of basswood came from 

 without, though, as with yellow poplar, a little 

 grows in the state. A very small but unique use 

 is made of this tree in the northern parishes. The 

 inner bark, which is tough, soft, and pliable, is 

 braided into mule collars by negroes for use in the 

 small fields and truck patches. Such collars are 

 similar in mechanism to those made of corn husks 

 in pioneer days in the Ohio valley. The braids 

 of bark are sewed together with small splits of 

 cow oak or some other tough wood. 



Engelmann Spruce. 



This wood does not grow in the south, and it is 

 a matter of surprise that 100,000 feet of it was used 

 by the manufacturers in Louisiana. It comes from 

 the northern Rocky Mountain region. 



Black Gum. 



When a Louisiana sawmill man speaks of black 

 gum he frequently means tupelo. Black gum is 

 good for a few purposes, and unfit for others. It 

 is unwedgeable, and this property sometimes gives 

 it a value. It makes good rollers, such as are used 

 at the wharfs and landings where boards and planks 

 are unloaded from barges. The lumber is shoved 

 along the rollers from the boat to the land. In 

 Rapides Parish a little black gum lumber is mixed 

 with tupelo and sold as such, and the practice proba- 

 bly obtains elsewhere. 



Cow Oak. 



This tree belongs to the white oak group, and its 

 lumber is generally marketed as white oak, but a 

 little is sold under its own name. Overcup oak 

 stands in a similar position. Both of these are 

 plentiful in some parts of the state and in some 

 parts baskets are made of cow oak splints long, 

 narrow ribbons of wood split or drawn from billets. 

 Such baskets were in general use before the Civil 

 War on plantations, and some are still made and 

 in use there. They are now more frequently seen 

 in laundries and markets where a rough, strong 

 basket is demanded. They are home made, and 

 many of the makers are old people who learned 

 the trade many years ago and now follow it for a 

 livelihood. Chair seats and backs are braided of 

 the same material. Lumbermen in northern Louisi- 

 ana occasionally split canthook handles of the wood, 

 and use them in preference to any other native 

 species. 



Elm. 



Three species of elm go into manufactures in 

 Louisiana, white elm, wing elm, and cedar elm. 

 The first is the common elm, and it was the only 

 one listed in the returns, but the two others are 

 in pretty general use. The woods are similar, and 

 no great difference in leaves or form of trees are 

 noticeable, and furniture and vehicle manufacturers 

 who are the principal users consider the three elms 

 as one. 



Mahogany. 



Strictly speaking, there is only one mahogany, 

 but several woods are bought and sold as such, 

 and by common consent pass in the markets as ma- 

 hogany. Two such woods are reported by the Louisi- 

 ana manufacturers, one from Mexico (Swietenia 

 mahogoni) the true mahogany, the other from 

 Africa (Khaya senegalensis), which is a very fine 

 wood and is used the world over. 



Chestnut. 



Practically the entire demand for chestnut in 

 Louisiana comes from the makers of coffins and 

 caskets. The wood does not grow in commercial 

 quantity in the state. 



Beech. 



Beech in Louisiana usually goes begging. The 

 Census of 1909 reported only seven mills cutting 

 it in the state, and only two manufacturers men- 

 tioned it in their reports. However, there Is plenty 

 of it growing in the forests of the northern regions, 

 but generally the quality is not good. The trees 

 lack the smooth, clear boles common in the beech 

 of the northern states. A little flooring is sawed 

 from this wood in the region between Monroe and 

 Shreveport, but elsewhere the lumberman of Louisi- 

 ana passes the beech by, and manufacturers of fur- 

 niture do not demand it. There is only one species 

 of beech in the United States the same in Penn- 

 sylvania and in Louisiana. The blue beech (Car- 

 pinus caroliniana), though bearing some resem- 

 blance both in appearance and name, belongs to 

 a different family- 

 Red Cedar. 



This species is scattered over a good deal of Louisi- 

 ana, but very little goes to saw mills, and Tennes- 

 see supplied nearly all that is used. 



Maple. 



As with oak and elm, several species of maple 

 are classed as one wood. Sugar maple is usually 

 listed separately because it does not grow in Louisi- 

 ana. Three native maples figure in the supply 

 drawn upon by manufacturers in the state, though 

 the total amount is small. They are silver maple, 

 Drummond maple, and Florida maple. When these 

 are used, they are listed as "soft maple," without 

 further distinction. Makers of violins and gun 

 stocks have found the Drummond maple in Union 

 Parish of fine quality, with curled grain and bird's 

 eye effect. Makers of bentwood rustic furniture 

 occasionally obtain supplies of Florida maple in 

 the northern part of the state, particularly In 

 Ouachita Parish. Mills in the region where these 

 species grow, saw them and send them to market 

 simply as maple. 



White Pine. 



For more than a century white pine has been 

 in the Louisiana markets. It does not grow in that 

 state. Within two years after the purchase of 

 Louisiana by the United States, rafts of white pine 

 cut in western New York and northeastern Penn- 

 sylvania had floated down the Allegheny, Ohio, and 

 Mississippi Rivers, 2,000 miles, by the windings 

 of the streams, and were sold at New Orleans 

 foi $40 per thousand. The raftsmen who made these 

 journeys were accustomed to return to Pittsburg 

 on foot. White pine still goes regularly to Louisi- 

 ana, but the amount is small and most of it is 

 made into patterns. 



Birch. 



Two species of birch are listed for use in Louisi- 

 ana, the sweet birch of the north, and the native 

 birch, or river birch, which is fairly abundant in 

 many parts of the state. The native species lacks 

 figure and grain to make it valuable as furniture 

 wood, but it has many good qualities which will 

 doubtless win for it a place at no distant day in 

 the esteem of Louisiana manufacturers. It will make 

 good frames or cores, upon which to lay veneers 

 of more attractive woods. At present, the whole 

 cut is converted into ox yokes. 



Persimmon. 



This belongs with minor species as far as manu 

 facturing in Louisiana is concerned. It is a shut- 

 tle wood, but shuttles are not made in the state. 



Dogwood. 



This wood is in the same class with persimmon 

 as to use. What is cut goes to northern or foreign 

 shuttle makers. 



Osage Orange. 



A few planted trees of this species are occasion- 

 ally cut in the northern part of the state, and aro 



sent to wagon makers. A little -wood is used, as 

 inlay for furniture, tool handles, and novelties. 

 There is no reason to suppose that its importance 

 as a commercial wood will increase in the state. 

 No supply of it is coming on for future use. What 

 little is now cut comes from remnants of old hedges. 



Locust. 



A rather large number of buggy hubs are sold 

 yearly in Louisiana, but few are made there. This 

 is about the only demand for locust. It is not cut 

 in the state, but comes from Kentucky and North 

 Carolina. 



Circassian Walnut. 



Red gum has made great inroads upon the use 

 of Circassian walnut for furniture and finish, 

 though small amounts of this scarce and expen- 

 sive wood find their way to this country from re- 

 gions south of the Caspian Sea. The price of the 

 1,000 feet reported in Louisiana was $140, which is 

 very low for this wood. It is procured with diffi- 

 culty in the remote valleys of Asiatic Turkey and 

 Russia, and smaller and smaller amounts reach 

 the market year by year. 



Cherry. 



This wood is scarce and little thought of in 

 Louisiana, and the small quantity cut in the state 

 was reported at ten dollars a thousand feet. It 

 was bought in the log, and the cost of sawing was 

 added to the price. 



Catalpa. 



This wood will probably never be much used for 

 manufacturing purposes, being more valuable for 

 fence posts. The small amount reported in Louisi- 

 ana was used for tables, newel posts, and boat 

 knees. Natural crooks were utilized for the knees. 

 It is claimed that artificial crooks may be grown 

 by bending the young tree and compelling it to grow 

 in that form. If so, it may attain to some impor- 

 tance in the manufacturing of small boats. Efforts 

 have been made to stain the wood to resemble ma- 

 hogany. It is not difficult to imitate the color, 

 but the rings of porous springwood are so marked, 

 and are so different from mahogany, that success- 

 ful imitation is difficult. Neither would it be pro- 

 fitable to substitute catalpa, for the counterfeit 

 would cost more than the genuine article. Catalpa 

 bears the Indian name given it by the Cherokees 

 who once occupied the region northeast of Louisi- 

 ana. That was the original home of the common 

 catalpa. 



Umbrella Tree. 



There is little reason to suppose that this tree, 

 whose chief value is in its shade, and in its sym- 

 metrical crown, will ever become important as a 

 producer of lumber. However, it posseses some prop- 

 erties which make it interesting. It is a native 

 of India, but flourishes so well in Louisiana that 

 it has escaped from cultivation and is running wild. 

 It is of very rapid growth. Boards clear of knots 

 and sapwood have 'been sawed in Tangipahoa Pa- 

 rish eight feet long and 15 inches wide from a tree 

 18 years old. When the tree grows in the open and 

 is cared for, its crown takes the form of an umbrel 

 la, whence the name; but the forest-grown tree 

 loses its symmetrical form. Some growing on the 

 borders of swamps in St. Bernard Parish might pass 

 in shape and general appearance for butternut trees 

 growing in the forests of Pennsylvania. The same 

 characteristic may be observed where the trees have 

 escaped from cultivation in the parishes of La- 

 fourche, Terre Bonne, St. Mary, Iberia, and else- 

 where in southern Louisiana. The tree's very rapid 

 growth, fine color, and the marked rings of its 

 wood, may lead to its use where novelty of effect 

 is desired. A little furniture and finish are now 

 made of it. The wood does not finish smoothly in 

 an ordinary planer, but sandpapering improves it. 

 The grain is coarse, that is, the 'spring wood is 

 very open and porous, while the broader bands 

 of summer wood are dense. The natural color of 

 the wood is reddish brown, the sapwood yellow. 



Red Mulberry. 



The mention of red mulberry, though the quan- 

 tity is very small, shows the use of an unusual 

 wood in furniture making. 



Willow Oak. 



In Louisiana the willow oak is called red oak. 

 Its leaves are willow-shaped and distinguish the tree 

 from any other with which it is likely to be asso- 

 ciated. In only one instance is this wood mentioned 

 under its true name in the reports of Louisiana 

 manufactures, yet it is cut by millions of feet in 

 the state. In some localities it is the prevailing 

 species, more of it being found than of any other 

 one species. This is true in the flood plains of 

 many of the streams in Chatahoula, Caldwell, and 



