OF VIRGINIA 



6l 



principally from longleaf pine, red oak, sugar maple, and cypress. 

 The manufacturers of fertilizer distributors and planters reported only 

 white oak and ash. The handles of these implements made of red gum 

 and ash were purchased from the plow handle makers, ready for use. 

 Grain cradles are manufactured from hickory and ash. The 

 braces and fingers were of hickory, the snathes of white ash. Ash is 

 also suitable for fingers and a small quantity of it was reported as so 

 used. Nearly two and a half million feet of lumber was the total re- 

 quired for making the products of this industry. Eighty-nine per cent 

 of it was cut from Virginia forests. 



TABLE 20. AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 



CASKETS AND COFFINS 



Only a portion of the coffins and caskets uSed in Virginia are made 

 in the State. Many are manufactured elsewhere and shipped in ready 

 for use but they are not taken into account in this report. The rest of 

 the demand is met by local cabinet makers who manufacture a few hand- 

 made coffins each year. The quantity of wood used by the cabinet 

 makers is very slight and as they are so widely distributed through- 

 out !tne State, the gathering of information from them was not at- 

 tempted. A few large manufacturing plants making burial cases from 

 a high-grade mahogany casket down to a cheap yellow poplar coffin 

 are the ones who consumed the largest portion of the material shown 

 in Table 21. 



The popularity of caskets has greatly lessened the demand for 

 coffins. Before the time of the factory-made caskets, the coffin was 

 the burial case most frequently used. Black walnut served as the 

 principal wood for the better grades; while the cheaper coffins were, 



