28 



BULLETIN 316, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



have been manufactured in the Middle Western States from planted 

 groves of white and crack willow. The white and crack willow 

 lumber is used locally in farm buildings and to a small extent in 

 rough interior carpentry work. Much of the black willow is barged 

 up the Mississippi to the vicinity of Cairo, ILL, where it is graded 

 and distributed through the Northern States, principally in Iowa, 

 Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. 



The average grade of willow lumber on the market is high, be- 

 cause only large clear logs are at present sawed into lumber. This 

 entails great waste in the woods, as only a small part of the tree 

 is taken. With a closer utilization the percentage of the poorer 

 grades will increase considerably. The average willow now being 

 cut is very little inferior to the average cottonwood. The following 

 table shows the grades from average and select logs of willow, as 

 compared with cottonwood, along the lower Mississippi: 





Cottonwood. 1 



Black willow. 2 



Black 

 willow, 





Select logs. 



Average. 



Select logs. 



Average. 



mill run, 

 1 umber 

 graded at 

 Cairo, HI. 





Per cent. 



7 

 40 

 35 

 15 



5 



Per cent. 



9 



18 

 30 

 42 



1 



Per cent. 

 5 



30 

 25 

 38 



Per cent. 



Per cent. 





20 

 30 



48 



32 





40 





25 





3 



Mill cull 



2 



2 













i Department of Agriculture Bulletin 24. 



2 Based on annual mill-cut figures at two 20,000 daily capacity mills. 



The price of willow lumber has increased steadily since it was 

 put on the market. It was first shipped North in 1909 or 1910 

 and sold at from $10 to $12 per thousand, mill run, f. o. b. at the 

 mill. At this price there was no profit for the manufacturer, and 

 the lumber was secured and cut more or less as an experiment. 

 It was easily marketed, and a request was immediately made for 

 more. Since that time the price has risen to $16 per thousand, 

 mill run. In Chicago and Grand Rapids furniture manufacturers 

 pay from $24 to $25 per thousand for clear lumber. Further rises 

 will only follow the general market. At present the cost of handling 

 willow lumber is as high as is usually the case with a new product. 

 Most of the willow shipped North is handled several times, and 

 this adds materially to the cost. With a low-grade lumber it is 

 especially important that it be handled as directly as possible. 



A number of sawmills and cooperage mills on the lower Missis- 

 sippi, visited in the fall of 1913 in the course of this study, reported 

 that they were using between 23,000,000 and 25,000,000 feet of 

 black willow. Half of this went into box shooks or slack cooperage 

 stock. Sawmills, in reporting their annual production of lumber, 



