24 



THE LUMBER TRADE JOURNAL 



[January I, 1912. 



Oregon 65,825,000 20.26 20 



Kentucky 41,259,000 24.27 



Massachusetts . . 21,795,357 34.15 



Louisiana's output is nearly twice the combined 

 output of North Carolina, Wisconsin, Maryland, 

 Oregon, Kentucky and Massachusetts. Its raw ma- 

 terial is much the cheapest, the nearest above it 

 being North Carolina's. Large as is the planing 

 mill output in Louisana, as shown in the table, the 

 figures there given are known to be too small. In 

 making their reports, upon which these figures are 

 based, some of the mill operators in Louisiana did 

 not understand that the output of planing mills 

 was desired, and the item was omitted. The error 

 due to that misunderstanding was corrected, as far 

 as it was practicable to do so, but a complete re- 

 vision of the reports was not practicable. There- 

 fore, Louisiana's enormous total planing mill out- 

 put, exceeding one and a quarter billion feet as 

 shown table 2 is slightly under the true amount. 



It equals nearly three per cent of the entire lumber 

 cut of the United States in 1909, and 35 per cent 

 of the cut in Louisiana for that year. There are 

 thirty-one states, each of which has a total lumber 

 cut smaller than the planing mill output of Louis- 

 iana, and some of these states are important pro- 

 ducers of lumber. Among them are Tennessee, 

 Florida, California, Maine, Missouri, and Kentucky. 



Considering the large output of the planing mills, 

 few efforts at utilizing waste are reported. The 

 shavings are usually burned as fuel under the boil- 

 ers, and in some instances are sold for bedding for 

 horses. Pine scraps in some cases are disposed of 

 to distillation plants, and are converted into tar, 

 charcoal, and other commodities. The pine shav- 

 ings alone exclusive of dust from the saws is an 

 enormous item in Louisiana. If each thousand feet 

 of lumber going through the planer loses 500 pounds 

 as shavings, the total in the state is 250,000,000 

 tons. 



BOXES AND CRATES. 



Table 4. 

 BOXES AND CRATES. 



Grown in Louisiana. Grown Outside La. 

 Av. cost Av. cost 



per 1,000 per 1,000 



Quantity feet at Quantity feet at 

 Ft. B.M.) factory. 

 2,500,000 $11.40 



2,650,000 



4,000,000 



2,430,000 



2,250,000 



150,000 



780,000 



250,000 



10.94 



7.00 



10.45 



8.77 



11.00 



10.00 



15.00 



160,000 20.38 



50,000 20.00 



Totals 56,004,500 $9.77 $547,384 



40,784,500 $9.79 15,220,000 $9.73 



Louisiana box makers sell their wares in many 

 northern and western states, and also in Mexico, 

 Central America, the West Indies, and in Europe. 

 Orange and lemon boxes constitute an important 

 part of the shipments to the republics south, and 

 much of the wood is tupelo. It is a favorite mate- 

 rial for macaroni boxes for domestic trade, and 

 yellow poplar and basswood are put to some use for 

 the same purpose. The white color of cottonwood, 

 which makes it suitable for stenciling, causes its 

 employment for cracker boxes, not only in this 

 country, but in Germany and England. Boxes 

 shipped to foreign countries, as well as those to 

 neighboring states, go in the knocked down form, 

 as shocks, and are nailed in final form when they 

 reach their destination. The West Indies countries 

 which buy boxes in Louisiana are Cuba, Porto Rico, 

 and Jamaica; and on the mainland are Mexico, Hon- 

 duras, and Panama. The available statistics do not 

 show the quantity or value of boxes sold to the 

 export trade. Boxes for both domestic and foreign 

 markets are of white woods, if it is desirable to 

 print or stencil upon them; and when this is not 

 necessary, darker woods will answer. Cottonwood, 

 yellow poplar, basswood, tupelo, the sap of red 

 gum, and the pines, are generally of sufficient white- 

 ness to be unobjectionable from the stenciler's 

 view point. Evergreen magnolia, which is rapidly 

 taking its place as a boxwood, is uneven in color. 

 Some of it is nearly as white as basswood, but much 

 is very dark, almost as black as persimmon, and of 

 course is unsuited to stenciling or printing. Occa- 

 sionally black streaks disfigure boards otherwise 

 white enough. Much magnolia is made into small 

 berry crates, or crates for vegetables, and goes to 

 market plain. Some serves as sides of crates, and 

 boxes, while cottonwood, or some other white wood, 

 is employed as ends, and takes the stenciling. Mag- 

 nolia is tough and strong, and compares favorably 

 with the best box lumber in these particulars. The 

 high price paid for it is evidence of its value. A 

 large part is converted into veneer by the rotary 

 process. 



Willow, if judged by quantity, is the most import- 

 ant of the dark woods employed in the state as box 

 material. It is tough, light, strong, and cheap. The 

 black willow (the common willow in most parts of 

 the United States) is the only one cut for lumber in 

 Louisiana. About half of the supply is home grown 

 and the remainder comes from Mississippi and Ar- 

 kansas, being floated down the Mississippi River in 

 rafts. Logs three feet in diameter are frequent, and 

 a few exceed four feet. Much of the willow lumber 



is marketed as "brown cottonwood." Like magno- 

 lia, the wood of different trees shows many colors 

 and shades. Some is nearly white when freshly 

 sawed, and changes to a darker shade as it seasons; 

 other is brown, or deep purple, or nearly black 

 when first cut into lumber, but fades while drying. 

 Thus, what was light at first becomes darker, and 

 that which was dark when newly cut, changes to 

 a lighter shade in seasoning, and when finally sea- 

 soned, all presents nearly the same appearance. 



The largest users of willow boxes are meat packers 

 in Kansas City, Omaha, St. Louis, and Chicago. 



The black gum reported was cut into rotary 

 veneers and was made into berry crates and vegeta- 

 ble containers. In some parts of Louisiana tupelo 

 is called black gum, and it is not improbable that 

 some of the 120,000 feet reported in table 4 as black 

 gum was tupelo. The two trees bear little resem- 

 blance, except that their leaves are somewhat simi- 

 lar in shape. The wood of black gum is tough, 

 with scarcely any figure in the grain, and the fibers 

 are so interlocked that splitting is next to impos- 

 sible. 



The basswood was all reported cut outside the 

 state, but the low price suggests that some of it may 

 have come from the forests of northern Louisiana. 

 It is not an abundant, wood in the state, however. 

 The most of that reported was used as crating for 

 shipments of doors and sash. Jobbers insist that 

 these must be put up in attractive crates in order 

 to sell to advantage. 



Wirebound boxes for roasted coffee constitute 

 part of the box exports to Europe, and red gum is 

 preferred for that purpose. The domestic purchas- 

 ers of coffee boxes likewise prefer red gum. 



The 5000 feet of beech was manufactured into 

 lids for vegetable and berry crates. 



The well-managed box factory has little ultimate 

 waste. The veneer machines accumulate cores 

 the hearts of logs left after the rotary veneer is cut 

 off and these would constitute a heavy waste were 

 they not worked into other commodities. Some fac- 

 tories saw them into cleats for crates, lids for small 

 containers, and narrow box lumber; while others 

 install machines to cut the cores into excelsior. In 

 the larger towns it is generally profitable to sell 

 sawdust to stables for horse bedding. This is a 

 common mode of disposing of sawdust in New Or- 

 leans, where the damp floors of many of the stables 

 require frequent renewals of the bedding. 



Six states contribute to Louisiana's box lumber 

 supply. Nearly all of the outside material comes 

 from the neighboring regions of Mississippi and 

 Arkansas. The yellow poplar and basswood are 

 credited to Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Tennessee. 



Table 5. 



The Box and Crate Industry in Louisiana Compared 

 with Certain Other States. 



Quantity used Average cost No. of 



States. annually 

 Feet B. M. 



Illinois 372,025,000 



Massachusetts 351,941,350 



Maryland 136,273,000 



Wisconsin 119,267,000 



Kentucky 109,567,000 



Oregon 77,946,500 



North Carolina . . . 68,064,000 

 Louisiana 56,004,500 



per 1000 feet woods 



at factory. used. 



$15.31 



16.02 



13.31 



13.09 



15.36 



11.92 



9.56 



9.77 



30 

 23 

 17 

 18 

 16 

 8 

 7 

 17 



SASH, DOORS, BLINDS AND GENERAL MILL WORK. 



Table 6. 

 SASH, DOORS, BLINDS AND GENERAL MILLWORK. 



Grown in Louisiana. Grown Outside La. 



Av. cost Av. cost 



per 1,000 per 1.000 



Quantity feet at Quantity feet at 



(Ft. B.M.) factory. (Ft. B.M.) factory. 



16,071,000 $20.97 



15,691,608 14.39 



3,045,000 19.24 



550,000 12.00 



505,000 19.95 



315.750 12.00 



200,000 20.00 



61,000 60.30 



100,000 $54.00 



11,933 

 8,853 

 4.500 

 3,523 

 1.000 

 500 



40.98 



43.94 



53.78 



103.32 



120.00 



100.00 



Totals 36,569,667 $17.95 



The line separating the material grouped in Table 

 4 from that included in Table 6 is, in many in- 

 stances, difficult to draw. The manufacturers who 

 report one or both of the classes do not always dis- 

 tinguish one from the other. "Planing Mill Produ- 

 ccts," as the term is used in Table 4, is very general 

 in its application, and, as it is explained in the dis- 

 cussion following that table, might including any- 

 thing which passes through a planing mill. "Interior 

 Finish," and included with it sash, doors, blinds, 

 frames, stair material, etc., is more restricted in 

 meaning, and it is practicable to separate it from 

 planing mill products in general. 



$656,565 36,439,358 $17.82 130.309 $54.13 



Louisiana is a large producer of doors, sash, and 

 kindred products. The bulk of this output is made 

 up of four woods, cypress, longleaf pine, shortleaf 

 pine, and red gum, the relative quantity of each 

 following the order in which they are here named 

 Loblolly pine is only a little below red gum, and 

 spruce pine appears in no other industry of this re- 

 port. This wood should not be confounded with 

 spruce cut in the northern. part of the United States. 

 It is a product of southeastern Louisiana, is very 

 soft, of attractive grain, and otherwise more nearly 

 resembles white pine than any other wood of the 

 Gulf region. 



