10 BULLETIN 308, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



change is due chiefly to the recognition of the relation between the 

 strength and the density of the wood. 



Shortleaf pine is one of the chief house-building materials through- 

 out the eastern and middle western United States. It is used both for 

 house frames and for finish, including ceiling, weather boarding, 

 wainscoting, baseboards, cornice, carved work, railing, panels, sash 

 and doors, window and door frames and casing. The grain is hand- 

 some and shows well in natural finish or when stained. Because of its 

 wearing qualities, pleasing appearance, and ready response to oils, 

 wax, and other floor finishes and dressings, a good deal of shortleaf 

 is made into flooring. Many of the large lumber mills of the South, 

 particularly Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas, advertise shortleaf pine 

 as a specialty for finishing lumber and are producing it in great quan- 

 tities and in many forms. 



Furniture manufacturers find shortleaf an admirable wood for 

 frames for couches, lounges, tables, large chairs, stands, and desks. 

 It is also used for veneer in box, crate, and basket manufacture, and 

 for excelsior and slack cooperage, 1 in agricultural machinery and 

 tools, wagon bottoms and cart beds, hoppers, drawers, boxes, chutes, 

 and compartments in fanning mills, corn shellers, grain drills, and in 

 numerous other labor-saving machines and devices. Large quantities 

 are used in car construction for roofing and siding. Eailroad com- 

 panies buy a large amount, of which the heavier kinds are used, with 

 longleaf, in bridge and trestle work, and the rest for track timber, 

 piling and crossties, usually treated with wood preservatives. As a 

 material for ship and boat building, shortleaf has held a prominent 

 place during the past two centuries not only along the coast within a 

 hundred miles or so of the supply, but in practically all boat building 

 ports east of the Rocky Mountains. It is worked into nearly every- 

 thing of wood that is required in modern boat building. 



The southern pines seem particularly adapted for the manufac- 

 ture at low cost of strong, brown wrapping, or " kraf t " papers. 2 

 The wood fibers are long and thick walled, and the wood has high 

 specific gravity, implying large yields of pulp per cord. Several 

 species of pine are now used in large quantities for the making of 

 various kinds of wrapping paper, including kraft, and also for the 

 manufacture of white book paper. Small timber and woods and 

 mill waste are used for this purpose. Through recent development 



1 The quantities of shortleaf made into veneer, crates, baskets, excelsior, cooperage, 

 crossties, and piling are not known because the southern yellow pines so used are not 

 listed separately. 



2 The importance of this class of paper is shown by the fact that wrapping paper stands 

 third among the paper products of the United States, the amount and value being less 

 than that of news and book papers only. In 1909 the production of wrapping papers of 

 all kinds aggregated 764,000 sbort tons, with a value of $42,296,000. The value of wrap- 

 ping paper imported in 1912 was $846,500. 



