28 WOOD-USING INDUSTRIES 



is a favorite veneer wood and northern states meets a demand for mak- 

 ing the best grades of excelsior. Manufacturers of paper-pulp and slack 

 barrel heading favor it. The inner bark, called "bast" gives the tree its 

 name. This bast is valuable and largely used for making cords and 

 ropes, and door mats. 



BIRCH 



There are two species of birch in Virginia. The river (black) 

 birch, sometimes called red birch, grows in the Coastal and Lower 

 Piedimont Regions, on lands subject to overflow and along the banks 

 of streams. Although no manufacturers in Virginia report using it, 

 its properties fit it for many common uses. The furniture manufac- 

 turers do not want it because they use birch for outside work and bkck 

 birch possesses no figure. In Pennsylvania it is extensively used for 

 vehicle hubs and generally it goes into chairs, small handles, and other 

 turned material. 



Sweet birch ranges in scattered stands over the mountains of 

 western and southwestern Virginia. Fifty-one State mills report cut- 

 ting it into lumber but the quantities produced were small. The manu- 

 facturers go to other States to buy 75 per cent of their material, which 

 amount to nearly three-quarters of a million feet. The bark of the 

 sweet birch resembles that of black cherry ; for this reason the tree is 

 frequently called cherry birch. The sweet aromatic flavor of the 

 bark gives the tree its most common name, sweet birch. The wood 

 serves as a common imitation of mahogany. The lumber in its natural 

 color is beautiful and is used as the decorative wood in cabinet work, 

 interior house finish, and furniture. 



SPRUCE 



Spruce seeks a cool climate. It is, therefore, one of the most 

 abundant trees of New England and the Northern States. In the 

 Southern Appalachian Region it grows only at comparatively high 

 altitudes. Its range extends to the Georgia line but the farther south 

 it goes the higher the elevation it occupies. Two species grow in the 

 Alleghanies, the red and black spruce. The latter seldom reaches 

 a size large enough for lumber, but this tree in the northeast meets 

 a demand of the wood-pulp manufacturers. Red spruce is the im- 

 portant lumber tree both in the New England and the Appalachian 

 States. In Virginia it appears in the far western section and here the 

 sawmills cut nearly 80,000,000 feet in 10,09. The resin of the red and 

 black spruce known as spruce gum is used for confections. The wood 

 is light, soft and elastic. Its most general use in New England is 



