94 FOREST PRODUCTS 



and West Virginia. Log prices vary from $18.00 to $30.00 per thousand 

 board feet or more at the veneer mill. 



Basswood is in strong demand for door and panel purposes, but it is 

 very limited in its available supply. Birch is commonly used in the North 

 for all kinds of veneers. Curly birch brings excellent prices. Elm is cut 

 almost entirely for cheese boxes and for hoops and crates. Chestnut, 

 especially the " sound wormy " variety, is widely used in built-up stock. 



Other woods frequently used for veneers are Douglas fir, which is 

 coming into well-merited prominence, together with western yellow pine, 

 on the Pacific coast. Tupelo, beech, ash, red oak, cypress, sycamore, 

 white pine, spruce and many others are also used. 



Mahogany, Circassian walnut, Spanish cedar, the native black 

 walnut and cherry and a few other valuable foreign woods such as rose- 

 wood, satinwood, English and Japanese oak, vermilion, padouk, etc., 

 are usually made by the slicing or sawing process. Altogether they 

 do not comprise more than 18,000,000 to 20,000,000 bd. ft. annually. 

 Much of the black walnut and some of the mahogany is cut by the 

 rotary process. More walnut is used for veneers than for any other 

 purpose. About 5,000,000 ft. each of mahogany, black walnut and 

 Spanish cedar logs are annually made into veneers. Mahogany logs are 

 worth from $120 to $160, black walnut from $75 to $150 and Spanish 

 cedar from $100 to $135 per thousand board feet in the log, delivered at 

 the mills. 



Annual Production and Values. 



As mentioned above, over 500,000,000 bd. ft. of forest material, 

 in the form of logs and flitches, are annually manufactured into veneer 

 in the United States. It is estimated that there are over 1000 firms now 

 engaged in the industry scattered over 35 states. In 1905 only 181,- 

 000,000 bd. ft. of logs were manufactured into veneers, and yet there 

 is a general feeling in the industry that the demands for the output of the 

 mills in their present capacity are far from stabilized. It is likely that 

 over 1,000,000,000 ft. of logs will be annually consumed for veneers in 

 this country within a few years. 



Veneers may be cut in any thickness from rsir up to i an inch or 

 more. For commercial purposes, thicknesses of less than ^^^r of an 

 inch or more than i in. are seldom cut. Spanish cedar for cigar boxes 

 are the thinnest veneers found on the market. 



Rotary cut veneers are commonly cut from -ro- to | in. in thickness, but 

 those from -i^ to 2V in. constitute the largest amount. Sawed veneers 



