00 



CAR CONSTRUCTION. 



No large car factories are located in Florida, but a con- 

 siderable amount of building and repairing is done. Twelve 

 woods are listed, but more than 81 per cent of all is long- 

 leaf pine. For many parts of car building it is ideal. It 

 is strong, stiflf, lasting. It is made into sills and frames 

 where it carries loads and sustains jars and strains. It 

 is good for car floors and siding, for braces and roofing. 

 It may be had in long pieces, measurably free from knots 

 and defects, and with little or no sap. 



No loblolly pine was reported by car builders, but it 

 grows of proper size and form in the State, and likely 

 some of that passing as longleaf is loblolly. It is not 

 considered quite as strong as longleaf, but for a num- 

 ber of purposes it is as good, and for some it is preferred. 



Cypress is an all-round car timber, but it lacks some 

 of the longleaf's strength and rigidity, and was not used 

 in one-tenth of the amount of pine in Florida, but what 

 was bought cost more by the thousand. The small 

 amount of white pine reported in Table 6 was for pat- 

 terns. It cuts so easily and holds its shape so well that 

 it stands pre-eminent among pattern woods. 



There is so much difference in the cost of the red oak 

 and white oak used by car builders in Florida that an 

 explanation is necessary. These two woods, if of the 

 same grade and in the same market, cost about the same ; 

 but in Table 6 the white oak is less than nineteen dollars 

 and the red oak more than seventy-two. They were not 

 of similar grade. The white oak was used for repair 

 of freight cars, and the red oak was for high-class finish. 

 Both came from outside the State. By reversing the 

 grades, the costs might have been reversed — the red oak 

 would have been cheap and the white oak expensive. 



Mahogany was the most costly lumber in the industry. 

 It is a cabinet wood and is employed for fine finish in 



