^ SYLVIC CHARACTERISTICS. 15 



account of its dull uniform texture it seldom shows a handsomely grained 

 surface. It is too soft to retain a high polish on untreated wood, but it 

 takes paint well and if the paint is highly glossed, it holds the gloss in- 

 definitely. The knots, which are small and infrequent, even in the case 

 of small trees, except in lumber cut from the crown, are usually light col- 

 ored and tight, plane smoothly and also take and hold paint well. For 

 doors, paneling, vehicle bodies, especially for automobiles and office and 

 church furniture, the wood is especially desirable. It holds glue strongly, 

 and is desirable as a backing for costly veneers. The heartwood of trees 

 with the deep yellow-colored wood, while not as durable in contact with 

 the soil as that of many conifers, has been extensively employed for water 

 pipes, wooden pumps, and outside steps. Such wood is durable on ex- 

 posure to the weather as for weather boarding, shingles, fencing, dug- 

 out boats, and troughs and was largely employed in Tennessee for these 

 uses until its scarcity and high price required the substitution of cheaper 

 woods. On the other hand, the sapwood of yellow-hearted trees and the 

 entire wood of the "white poplar" are not durable if subject to the 

 weather. Other uses of the wood are for the manufacture of packing 

 boxes, printers' materials, especially type cases, drawers, domestic and 

 culinary woodenware. Among such articles which are made in Tennessee 

 are dough bowls for bakers, which are turned in sizes up to four feet in 

 diameter from one piece of wood. It is extensively employed in the 

 manufacture of toys, cheap furniture, and interior woodwork. It is used 

 in the form of veneer for baskets and crates. For the grape trade, which 

 demands ,a white wood basket, the sapwood is used or the heartwood is 

 bleached with sulphur. 



A large amount of rotary-cut veneer is also produced in Tennessee for 

 use in the manufacture of furniture, for built up stock, for packing boxes 

 and trunks. Small and low grade logs are made into excelsior, wood fiber 

 and ground wood ; while slabs, veneer cores, small trees and limb wood 

 of large trees are also used for paper pulp,* being reduced by the soda 

 process and forming a close- felting and easily bleached fiber. Extra wide 

 boards, twelve to thirty inches, cut in thin stock and cleated or bound in 

 bundles, are largely exported from Tennessee to Europe and South 

 America, where they are used for paneling and for vehicle bodies, but the 

 timber is also exported in the squared log. The quarter-sawed lumber, 

 which is manufactured in considerable amount, especially in wide widths, 

 does not warp and is consequently more desirable than flat sawed lumber 

 as a backing for veneers, for wide paneling and for vehicle bodies. 



*The Columbia Paper Company, of Bristol, is the largest user of poplar pulp- 

 wood in Tennessee. 



