New Orleans, La., June 15, 1912.] 



THE LUMBER TRADE JOURNAL 



27 



The Wood Using Industries of Texas 



Exhaustive Investigation by United States Forest Service Gives Details of Lumber Consuming 

 Plants Already Established and Tells of Great Forest Resources Available for New Establish- 

 ments in the Future Increasing Number of Woodworking Industries Is Shown by Report- 

 Diversified Interests Involved in Present Plants, but Need for a Larger Utilization of the State's 

 Lumber Production Is Evidenced by the Investigations. 



NOTE. 



The following report was prepared by Hu Max- 

 well, expert, and Charles P. Hatch, statistician in 

 forest products, attached to the Office of Wood Util- 

 ization, U. S. Forest Service, Chicago. It is pub- 

 lished and thus made available to the public through 

 the courtesy of The Lumber Trade Journal, New 

 Orleans. La. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



Preface 27 



Woods used in Texas 27 



Basswood 38 



Beech 38 



Birch 38 



Black cherry 



Black gum 38 



Black walnut 38 



Black willow 38 



Chestnut 



Chinquapin oak 39 



Cotton wood 39 



Cypress 39 



Douglas fir 39 



Magnolia 39 



Gambel oak 39 



Hackberry 39 



Hickory 39 



Mahogany 29 



Mexican white pine 29 



Osage orange 29 



Overcup oak 30 



Pin oak 30 



Post oak 30 



Red cedar 30 



Red gum 30 



Red oak 30 



Sitka spruce 30 



Spanish cedar 30 



Sugar maple 30 



Sugarberry 30 



Sugar pine 30 



Teak 30 



Texas oak 30 



Tupelo 30 



Western white pine 30 



Western Yellow pine 30 



White ash 30 



White elm 31 



White oak 31 



White pine 31 



Willow oak 31 



Wing elm 31 



Yellow pines 31 



Yellow poplar 31 



One seed juniper 31 



Mountain juniper 31 



Mesquite 31 



Unreported woods 32 



Wood using industries 35 



Planing mill products 35 



Sash, doors and mill work 3* 



Packing boxes and crates 36 



Car construction 36 



Furniture 36 



Agricultural implements 37 



Fixtures 37 



Tanks : 37 



Vehicles and vehicle parts 37 



Handles 38 



Trunks and valises 38 



Patterns 38 



Miscellaneous products 38 



Summary by industries 39 



Percentage of woods used in different industries 39 



Average cost of woods in each industry 39 



Uses of woods 39 



Directory 42 



Uses of minor species 43 



Shingles 43 



Lath 43 



Cooperage 44 



Lumber cut 44 



Appendix 44 



PREFACE. 



Texas is the largest State and has more forested 

 area than any other, though the total stand of its 

 timber is much below some of the rest. The area 

 of its woodland has been placed at about 40,000,000 

 acres; but it is difficult to draw the line between 

 forested and unforested land in the State. There 

 are all grades and degrees from the heavily tim- 

 bered pine belts of the east to the thinly covered 

 brus'h land in some of the central, southern and 

 western parts. Much land is covered with tree 

 growth and yet is incapable of producing a large 

 amount of merchantable lumber, because the trees 

 are too small for milling purposes. There is room 

 for difference of opinion as to where the lines should 

 be properly drawn between the timbered and un- 

 timbered portions of Texas. The estimate of 40,- 

 000,000 acres of forest land includes only that which 

 now is capable of yielding a reasonable amount of 

 saw timber per acre, and does not include -wide ex- 

 panses of brush. 



Texas is 825 miles long and 780 wide and varies 

 in altitude from sea level to 8,382 feet at the sum- 

 mit of Baldy Peak in Jeff Davis County. The sur- 

 face varies greatly ,as might be expected in an area 

 so large. Flat plains of deep, fertile soil are suc- 

 ceeded by rolling hills and limestone ridges; steep 

 rocky slopes with practically no soil, and mountains 

 rugged and sterile. In the low plains of the south 

 frost is seldom seen. In the high plateaus of the 

 northwest the mercury sometimes falls below zero. 

 In the eastern part rains are abundant; in some of 

 the western regions there is not enough to support 

 much vegetation. 



It might be expected that a region so large, and 

 varying so greatly in its climatic and physiographic 

 features, would support forests both valuable and 

 interesting. Such is the case. Practically the 

 whole range of forest trees known to the temperate 

 zone are represented here by species, genera or fam- 

 ilis. The cypress and tupelo which flourish with 

 their roots buried in water most of the time reach 

 fine dimensions along the rivers or within reach 

 of the brackish water which the winds or tire tides 

 force inland from the arms of the Gulf of Mexico. 

 The other extreme in the scale of vegetation also 

 flourishes in Texas, the xerophytic cacti of the 

 high and dry western plateaus. Between these 

 extremes there are perhaps 150 species of trees, 

 ranging from the tallest pines and the largest red 

 gums to the small, hard and beautiful acacias which 

 are found in the thorny jungles along the Rio 

 Grande. All weights of wood are represented, from 



the almost iron-like density of lignum vitae and 

 koeberlinia to the lattice-like stems of the opuntias 

 on the western mountains. 



No careful estimate has ever been made of the 

 standing commercial timber of Texas. Figures 

 have been published giving such estimates for a 

 few of the best-known species. The longleaf pine 

 area has been placed at a little less than 3,000,000 

 acres, with a stand of about 30,000,000,000 feet. 

 That would average 10,000 feet to the acre, and 

 some might regard it a pretty high average for so 

 large an area. The oaks are found in extensive re- 

 gions, but not in stands as pure as the pines. 



In taking up this study of the wood-using indus- 

 tries of Texas the Forest Service purposed to sup- 

 ply information not available in any public or pri- 

 vate report. The Bureau of the Census, co-operat- 

 ing with the Forest Service, collects and compiles 

 annually statistics showing what the country's total 

 sawmill output is; what the output in each State 

 is; -what. is the mill value for each kind of wood 

 in the several States; what kinds of wood and how 

 much of each one are manufactured into lumber in 

 each State, and in all the States. But this stops 

 short of giving all needed information on the sub- 

 ject. It does not go beyond the rough lumber, and 

 presents no statistics to show what becomes of 

 the lumber after the sawmills turn it out in the 

 rough state. The present report takes up the sub- 

 ject where the census leaves off; that is, it consid- 

 ers rough lumber as raw material for further man- 

 ufacture, and shows what becomes of it, what it is 

 used for, and what products are manufactured from 

 it. For instance, the census statistics give figures 

 showing how much red gum the sawmills cut into 

 rough lumber, but that is all. This report follows 

 that lumber until it has been made into finished 

 commodities, such as furniture, vehicles, finish for 

 houses, ships and boats, musical instruments, and 

 whatever it goes into. It is thus shown what be- 

 comes of the wood which sawmills convert into 

 lumber and stacK in their yards. This report, how- 

 ever, does not take up the wood which is not fur- 

 ther manufactured after it leaves the sawmills. If 

 oak or any other wood goes into rough construc- 

 tion, or railroad ties, or bridge timbers, or is taken 

 for any other purpose which uses it in the rough, 

 it is not considered as raw material for further 

 manufacture. A State's sawmills may turn out a 

 large quantity of a certain wood, and little of it 

 may be further manufactured. In that case, if no 

 explanation were offered, it might appear that the 

 difference between what the mills cut and what the 

 factories account for is unreasonable. 



SUMMARY OF KINDS OF WOOD USED IN TEXAS. 



Table 1. 



KINDS OF WOOD. Quantity 



Common Name. .Botanical Name. Used annually. 



Feet B. M. 



Shortleaf pine Pinus echinata 331,388,685 



Longleaf pine Pinus palustris 253,652,900 



Loblolly pine Pinus taeda 109,080,000 



Red gum Liquidambar sty raciflua 24,994,000 



Cypress Taxodium distichum .. 14,022,500 



White oak Quercus alba 6,010,308 



Cottonwood Populus deltoides 4,278,300 



Texan oak Quercus texana 2,814,500 



White ash Fraxinus americana . . . 2,393,940 



Tupelo Nyssa aquatica 2,026,000 



Willow oak Quercus phellos 2,000,000 



Western yellow pins... Pinus pcnderosa 1,504,000 



Chinquapin oak Quercus acuminata .... 1,152,000 



Wing elm Ulmus alata 1,035,000 



Post oak Quercus minor 



Birch Betula ( ) 



Evergreen magnolia .. .Magnolia foetida 



Sugar pine Pinus lambertiana 



Yellow poplar Liriodcndron tulipifera. 



White pine Pinus strobus 



Black gum Nyssa sylvatica 



Mahogany (American) .Swietenia mahogani ... 



White elm Ulmus americana 



Pin oak Quercus palustris 



Hickory Hicoria ( ) 



Black walnut Juglans nigra 



812,000 

 766,525 

 722,000 

 504,328 

 379,480 

 377,800 

 360,000 

 348,210 

 276,000 

 215,000 

 186,948 

 135,000 



Grown 



out 



of Tex. 



Per ct. 



1.44 



16.01 



16.64 

 49.80 

 26.10 

 40.90 

 1.07 

 23.63 



99.53 



100.00 



100.00 

 100.00 

 100.00 



100.00 

 18.12 



lOO.On 

 11.74 



100.00 



