January 1, 1S12.] 



THE LUMBER TRADE JOURNAL 



Engelmann spruce, a wood of the northwestern 

 part of the United States, appears nowhere else in 

 this report, and no satisfactory reason has been 

 given for the use of this wood among and in compe- 

 tition with the abundant and cheap soft woods of 

 the South. It is good material, and is widely used 

 for doors, sash, and frames, but its appearance in 

 rather large quantity in Louisiana was scarcely to 

 be expected. 



The difference in price between' Texan oak and 

 the northern red oak, where both are employed in 

 the same classes of work, is well shown in this in- 

 dustry. The red oak costs three and a half times 

 as much as the Texan or spotted oak. 



The yellow poplar demanded by this industry was 

 cut in Kentucky, sweet birch in Wisconsin, cherry 

 in Pennsylvania, black walnut in Arkansas, red oak 

 in Kentucky, Engelmann spruce in Washington, and 

 the mahogany of which two kinds were used was 

 brought from Central America and Africa. 



Louisiana sells Its interior finish, doors, sash, etc., 

 in nearly all states in the union. The product com- 

 petes in the North and Northeast with spruce, oak, 

 basswood, yellow poplar, and white pine; in the 



far West it competes, but to a less extent, with red- 

 wood, western red cedar, Douglas fir, and the white 

 and yellow pines of the Pacific coast and the Rocky 

 Mountains; and in the middle region, from Mexico 

 to Canada, it shares the trade with the similar 

 products of both East and West. A wide foreign 

 market is supplied also. It has not 'been the pur- 

 pose of this investigation to trace the shipments to 

 their ultimate destinations, but it may -be stated 

 that they go to practically every civilized country in 

 the world, but chiefly to the West Indies, and the 

 eastern countries of Central and South America, in- 

 cluding Mexico. 



A small quantity of the lumber shown in the fore- 

 going table was made into grain doors which were 

 sold to railroads. Similarity of name is the sole 

 reason why this commodity was included in the 

 table. The doors are not for houses or offices, nor 

 does the "grain" refer in any way to painting, fin- 

 ish, or texture or figure of the wood. The doors 

 are of cheap lumber, roughly nailed together, and 

 are used as inside doors of cars in which grain is 

 shipped. Their purpose is to prevent the contents 

 of the car from wasting when the outside doors are 

 opened. 



The commodities included in Table 6 are gener- 



ally made of the best or second best grades of lum- 

 ber, though in some instances lower grades were re- 

 ported. The sizes and forms in which this lumber 

 reaches the factories are many; but perhaps three- 

 fourths of it is one-inch stock, and the remainder 

 ranges in thickness up to three inches, or more in 

 some kinds of stair work, posts, and columns. Near- 

 ly all reaches the factory as rough, unplaned lum- 

 ber, and in a few instances it comes as logs and is 

 converted into lumber on the premises. 



It was found generally in Louisiana that manu- 

 facturers of interior finish and related products 

 work their waste into other commodities and sell 

 them wherever a convenient market can be found; 

 but the lack of diversified industries, as such exist 

 in some of the northern states, renders it impracti- 

 cable in many instances to utilize odds, ends, and 

 left-overs. In such cases a good deal of wood goes 

 to the furnace in the mill yard, or feeds the fire 

 under the boilers. Sometimes edgings are made 

 into molding, lath, or spindles; short boards are 

 converted into boxes, wedges, mutts, etc., short 

 squares into table legs, balusters, or chair stock; 

 while cypress pieces are frequently sent to factories 

 which make washing machines, tubs, buckets, and 

 keelers. 



FURNITURE. 



Table 7. 

 FURNITURE. 



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. 

 3,315,000 $10.91 100,000 $15.00 



3,300 



50,000 



342,000 



71.21 

 15.00 

 15.76 



30,000 



20,000 



2,000 



1,000 



1,000 



36.00 

 38.00 

 60.00 

 48.00 

 140.00 



Totals . 



8,384,800 $12.66 $106,120 



7,835,500 $12.27 549,300 $18.25 



Except cypress, practically all the furniture made 

 in Louisiana is of hardwood. Cypress is one of the 

 few soft woods which is well suited to both outside 

 and interior furniture construction, and that fact 

 accounts for its large use as furniture material. 

 The cut of this wood in the state exceeds nearly 

 threefold the combined cut of all the hardwoods, 

 but nearly two and a half times as much hardwood 

 as cypress is demanded 'by the manufacturers of 

 furniture. Seventeen woods are used, but six of 

 them come wholly from outside the state. Many 

 grow in commercial quantities in the state but are 

 not listed in the statistics of lumber bought for fur- 

 niture. Three oaks are reported, but there are sev- 

 eral others, while hickory and tupelo, both abun- 

 dant, are not reported by any manufacturer of furni- 

 ture. Three maples grow in the state, yet none of 

 the wood reaches the furniture makers. The small 

 quanitity of sugar maple reported was grown in 

 Wisconsin. Beech is abundant in many of the for- 

 ests of northern Louisiana, and is good material for 

 certain parts of furniture, yet none is used. Two 

 species of elm are found, both excellent chair ma- 

 terial and suitable for the interior of most kinds 

 of furniture, yet elm is not found in the furniture 

 statistics of the state. More than a dozen other 

 good furniture woods grow in the state, but appar- 

 ently are not used. 



The red gum reported came from Louisiana and 

 Mississippi; yellow poplar from Tennessee and Mis- 

 sissippi; red cedar from Tennessee; white oak from 

 Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Tennessee, and the ma- 

 hogany from Cuba. 



Red gum enters into all parts of furniture, both 

 exterior and interior. Yellow poplar serves chiefly 

 for shelves, table tops, and wardrobes. Magnolia 

 is substituted for yellow poplar with general satis- 

 faction, and is specially commended for furniture 

 doors. It keeps its shape well during weather 

 changes. The discolored heartwood of some of the 

 logs is sawed into crating lumber for use in furni- 

 ture factories. Red cedar is occasionally demanded 

 for drawer bottoms when furniture is made to order. 

 Its odor is reputed to drive moths away, and though 

 it is an expensive wood, the demand for it continues 

 from generation to generation. It has been used 

 (luring three hundred years in this country to keep 

 injurious insects away from clothing and furs. 



Although the furniture factories of Louisiana fall 



much short of supplying the home demand, they 

 export to Central and South America, the West In- 

 dies, and a little to Europe. The low cost of raw 

 material, the low freight rates by water, and the 

 high prices received in foreign countries, make the 

 export of furniture profitable in Louisiana. At the 



same time, the indications are that some of the 

 good home markets are neglected. It is said that 

 red gum furniture, made in northern cities, is sold 

 in considerable quantity in New Orleans and other 

 towns of the state. Not infrequently it passes for 

 Circassian walnut, and so closely resembles it that 

 the difference is hard to detect in fact, it is 

 claimed that the chief difference is that the red gum 

 is handsomer. 



The furniture factories of the state do not re- 

 port much saving of waste through the making of 

 by-products. Some of the short pieces of oak are 

 sold for heading material in cooper shops; red gum 

 short lengths are made into boxes; and cypress 

 odds and ends are converted into tubs, fence lath 

 and tomato sticks. 



A comparison of Louisiana with certain other 

 states in the manufacture of furniture will show 

 how small a beginning it has made in this industry 

 The difference brought out by the comparison is 

 emphasized if the forest resources of Louisiana 

 are compared with those of some of the states- 

 which are far ahead of it in furniture manufacture 

 It is not possible to say exactly what the timbei 

 resources of the different states amount to in feel 

 or dollars, but it is known that Louisiana has enor 

 mous supplies of both hard and soft woods. Acre 

 for acre of forest area, Louisiana will compart 

 favorably with any other state, both in quantity and 

 quality of timber. The table which follows com 

 pares the furniture industry in Louisiana with cer 

 tain other states, also the timbered areas, and shows 

 how much furniture wood each of the states uses 

 yearly per 100 acres of forest land. 



Table 8. 



The Furniture Industry in Louisiana Compared with Certain Other States. 



Amount used for 



Quantity used Average cost Number of 

 annually. per 1000 ft. woods 

 at factory. 



States. 



Feet B. M. 



North Carolina 182,861,250 



Illinois 123,643,930 



Wisconsin 

 Massachusetts 

 Kentucky 

 Maryland .... 



Oregon 



Louisiana 



48,376,000 



48,143,300 



26,577,100 



17,774,675 



8,853,250 



8,384,80ft 



$18.00 

 37.89 

 25.22 

 28.36 

 26.63 

 29.32 

 22.48 

 12.66 



used. 

 18 

 41 

 15 

 23 

 26 

 24 

 23 

 17 



Area in 



forest 



acres. 

 22,592,000 



6,518,000 

 20,320,000 



2,688,000 

 14,218,000 



2,816,000 

 34,752,000 

 18,208,000 



furniture per 100 



acres of forest 



feet B. M. 



809 



1897 



238 



1791 



187 



631 



26 



46 



The foregoing table would be misleading if inter- 

 preted to mean that each of the states draws furni- 

 ture material from its own forests only. No state 

 in this country does that. There is a constant ex- 

 change of lumber between different regions, and 

 often these regions are far apart. The Pacific 

 Coast draws supplies from the East, and the East 

 draws from the Pacific Coast; Wisconsin manu- 

 facturers send to Louisiana for cypress, Maryland 

 buys cottonwood, white oak, and cypress there, and 

 Louisiana in turn purchases white oak in Tennessee, 

 cottonwood in Mississippi, and cypress in Arkansas. 

 Statistics show that Louisiana actually uses a less 

 amount of its homegrown lumber in its own furni- 

 ture factories than it ships to the furniture factories 

 of Illinois. 



The table is instructive because it shows how 

 great may be a region's forest resources, and how 

 moderate the use made of them at home, as in Lou- 

 isiana's furniture industry; while, conversely some 

 regions with comparatively small resources of the 

 kind demanded, have developed extensive industries 

 by drawing supplies from distant localities, as in 

 the cases of Massachusetts, Maryland, and Illinois. 

 A very high development of home resources is seen 



in North Carolina's furniture industry which draws 

 94 per cent of its wood from the state's forests; and 

 with a wooded area but little larger than Louisi 

 ana's, it turns into furniture more than twenty times 

 as much lumber, and pays nearly one and a hall 

 times as much for it, per thousand feet. Illinois 

 furniture makers pay three times as much per thou 

 sand feet for their lumber as the manufacturers 

 in Louisiana pay, and Massachusetts, Kentucky 

 Wisconsin, and Maryland pay more than twice as 

 much. The markets in which the finished products 

 are sold are not equally accessible to all these 

 states, for Louisiana, by reason of higher freighl 

 rates, is at a disadvantage in competing for sonu 

 of the northern markets. There are, however ,manj 

 markets where the Louisiana product competes witl 

 little or no disadvantage on account of highei 

 freight. Water carriage is cheap, and the ports ol 

 Louisiana are within reach of the whole Atlantic 

 Coast from Maine to Florida, as well as the Wesl 

 Indies, and most of the Spanish-American and 

 European countries. The possibilities of develop 

 ing a trade in furniture manufactured from the ex 

 cellent and very cheap woods of Louisiana, wili 

 doubtless attract much attention in the near future 



