196 FOREST PRODUCTS 



Statistics of Wood Consumption. 



For a long time New York was the leader in the consumption of wood 

 in the hardwood distillation industry. In the early nineties, however, the 

 industry spread into Pennsylvania and the greatest consumption at 

 present is found in Michigan where, although there are comparatively 

 few plants, the total consumption of wood exceeds that of any other state. 

 From an investigation carried on in the spring of 1916, the New York 

 State College of Forestry has determined that the annual consumption 

 of hardwood for the industry in New York at that time was 192,330 cords. 

 The daily capacity as reported by these plants was 643I cords. These 

 figures have been compiled as a result of both the daily and annual 

 capacities of the twenty-five plants in the state, as estimated by the 

 plants themselves. The latest available statistics as compiled by the 

 Bureau of Census at Washington, D. C, for the consumption of hard- 

 woods in New York State in this industry was for 1911, for which year 

 it was announced that 132,400 cords were consumed. 



The largest plant in the state in the spring of 19 16 consumed 80 cords 

 per day. This was an 8-oven plant located in Delaware County. The 

 smallest plant in the state was one consuming only 12 cords per day in 

 Sullivan County. This was an old cylinder retort plant containing 8 

 pairs of retorts. The average daily capacity of the individual New York 

 plant is 25.74 cords and the average annual capacity is 7691 cords. 



As a rule the oven retort plants are much larger in daily capacity than 

 the round retort plants. The smallest oven retort plant is a 2-oven 

 affair consvuning 16 cords per day with an 80-cord plant per day the 

 largest. The smallest round retort plant also consumes 12 cords per day 

 with the largest one consuming 30 cords per day. 



The latest available statistics of wood consumption in the hardwood 

 distillation industry in the United States were for 19 11, when it was 

 reported that 1,058,955 cords were consimied. Of this amount Michi- 

 gan with 13 plants led with 396,916 cords; Pennsyhania was second with 

 50 plants consvuning 364,539 cords and New York third with 25 plants 

 consimaing 132,400 cords. Seventeen other plants scattered in 11 

 different states, chiefly in the northeast, reported a consumption of 

 165,100 cords. 



It is very likely that with the stimulation of high prices for products 

 of the wood distillation industry, due to the European War, the total 

 consumption in the whole country in hardwood distillation amounts to 

 at least 1,200,000 cords, although this is a very rough estimate. The 

 following table shows the statistics of wood consumption for the United 



