1948 (fig. 30). No reason appears for anv sharp 

 change in production in the near future. Wood 

 supplies should be adequate, but some companies 

 may have to operate over a wider radius than 

 heretofore. 



Wood Distillation Plants 



Only three hardwood distillation plants were in 

 operation in 1946, one in Wisconsin, t^\•o in Mich- 

 igan. These consumed about 157,000 cords of wood, 

 mostly birch, beech, and maple, of which apjaroxi- 

 mately 100,000 cords were cull or other salvage 

 material. Wood used in 1948 by distillation plants 

 totaled only 82,000 cords, about half the amount 

 used in 1946, and only 16 percent of the amount 

 used in 1925 (fig. 30). 



Chemical wood operations can be very beneficial 

 to the northern hardwood forests, by removing de- 

 fective trees, salvaging badly suppressed small trees, 

 and generally cleaning up the woods. Likewise, 

 they can improve utilization when combined with 

 lumbering operations, by taking in the slabs, cull 

 logs, and top sections. The remaining mills have 

 progressed far along these lines. 



The long-time trend in chemical Avood conversion 

 has been downward in this region, but may now 

 have been stabilized inasmuch as the remaining 

 companies enjoy special advantages of one kind or 

 another. Development of new products is always 

 a possibility. Raw material is available for addi- 

 tional plants. 



Slack Cooperage Mills ' 



Only seven mills were manufactiu-ing staves from 

 local timber in 1946. Three were in Minnesota, 

 four in Wisconsin. Together they consumed 3.3 

 million board feet and 3,600 cords of hard^vood 

 logs and bolts. 



The Lake States cooperage industry still is im- 

 portant in that it supplies the needs of local dairies 

 and meat packing plants and also because it can 

 use elm and poplar, species not fully utilized else- 

 where. Wood supplies are adequate to support 

 this industry indefinitely, provided they are ob- 

 tained by selective logging over a fairly wide radius. 



Lath Mills 



Lath manufacture in the Lake States is relatively 

 insignificant today. In 1945, 87 mills (20 in Minne- 

 sota, 59 in Wisconsin, and 8 in Michigan) produced 



9,600,000 pieces— only one-fourth the number made 

 10 years earlier and less than 1 percent of the 

 number sawed in the peak year 1906 (fig. 30). The 

 region contributed less than 1 percent of the Na- 

 tion's total production in 1945. 



Lath mills Avhere they occur are commonly asso- 

 ciated with sawmills and make use of slabs, edarinos. 

 and other byproducts. A few use round timber 

 from the forest but the drain on standing timber 

 at present is not large. Operators prefer softwood 

 species but use some aspen. 



If the demand for local lath— now mainly for snow 

 fencing and temporary corn cribs— remains stead\, 

 it is likely that future operations will create a some- 

 \v'hat larger drain upon the forest, inasmuch as a 

 number of sawmills from which part of the present 

 supply comes as a byproduct will be closing down. 



SInngle Mills 



In 1945, 170 shingle mills (32 in Minnesota, 102 

 in Wisconsin, and 36 in Michigan) produced 9.4 

 thousand squares— about 4 jDercent of the number 

 made in 1936, and only a small fraction of 1 percent 

 of the number made during the peak year 1899. 



The typical shingle mill in this region is a very 

 small plant operating a fe^v months of the year. 

 Usually it employs 4 or 5 men. For shingle bolts, 

 it uses mostly butt sections of white-cedar, relatively 

 inferior material useful for very little else. A few 

 operators make shingles or shakes from white or 

 red pine, and occasionally one uses other species, 

 even hardwood. 



Because of the small size of the industry and tlic 

 short lenoth of bolts used, it can be considered :i 

 useful supplement to, rather than a competitor with, 

 other wood-using industries. 



Producers of Rough Forest Products 



Fuel ]Vood 



Farmers and commercial cutters produced an 

 estimated 5.5 million cords of firewood in 1948. 

 They obtained about 64 percent of this by salvaging 

 slabs and edgings from sawmills, cores from veneer 

 mills, tops and limbs from logging operations, small 

 trees from land clearing, cull trees from farm woods 

 and shelter belts, and used railroad ties, fence posts, 

 and old lumber (table 25). About 2 million cords 

 Avere obtained by cutting commercial timber trees. 

 I'he use of fuel wood is declining even in iiii;tl 

 areas (fig. 30). 



36 



Forest Resource Report No. 1, U. S. Departiuenl of Agriculture 



