UTILIZATION OF ASH. 



29 



Old-growth ash is usually considered too fine-grained and brittle. 

 Sixty per cent of the timber for handles comes from Ohio, Indiana, 

 and Arkansas. (See Pis. I and X.) 



Handle stock usually is sawed out directly from the log in order 

 to have the grain straight, and as a rule can not be made from 

 lumber sawed for general purposes. The price of ash stumpage for 

 handles is from $6 to $35 per 1,000 board feet, according to its loca- 

 tion and quality, the average being about $15. The cost of the raw 

 material, delivered at the factory, is from $25 to $50 (the average 

 is $30) per 1,000 board feet in logs and in sawed squares. 



In Maine some D-handle factories purchase ash in the form of rived 

 billets or blanks,^ for Avhich they pay an average of 85 cents per dozen 

 delivered at the railroad. It is possible for a workman to split out 

 about 40 dozen handles per 1,000 board feet of bolts, at a cost of about 

 $10 for cutting and riving, and worth about $34 delivered at the rail- 

 road. The hauling and freight charges on blanks are, of course, 

 much less than on logs or bolts, and often make it profitable to get 

 them out in this form where it would not pay in bolt form on account 

 of the distance from the market. 



DAIRY SUPPLIES. 



Practically all of the ash used for dairy supplies goes into butter- 

 tub staves and heading, and covers and hoops for butter churns; a 

 small amount is used for ladles, packers, and butterworkers. Butter 

 tubs are almost always made of ash. It is especially suitable for 

 this purpose because there is nothing in the wood to give butter a 

 disagreeable flavor and because it is very readily worked up into 

 the forms of material used in making the tubs. Slightly more than 

 60 per cent of the ash manufactured into dairy supplies is used in 

 Illinois, and 28| per cent in Iowa. The cost of the raw material 

 (manufactured staves, heading, and hoops) amounts to from $10 

 to $33 per 1,000 board feet delivered at the factory. The average is 

 about $25. 



Most of the ash butter-tub material is Mississippi Valley green ash. 

 The hoops, however, are made almost entirely from the black ash 

 of the Lake States. There is practically no difference in the relative 

 desirability of the different species of ash for butter tubs. 



The ash butter-tub stave and heading industry utilizes chiefly 

 short lengths cut from small, crooked trees, but only clear material. 

 Knotty stuff can be used for No. 2 staves and heading in lime and 

 other kinds of slack barrels. Logs too crooked to make lumber or 

 long handles can be readily cut up into short bolts 32 inches long and 

 used for making staves and heading. Ash staves are manufactured 



1 Information supplied by G. N. Lamb of the Forest Service. 



,( 



