14 



PAKT I. 



KINDS OP WOOD. 



A summary of the kinds of wood consumed in Pennsylvania manufacture, 

 together with the cost, total quantity, and average price are presented in 

 Table I following. Seventy-two kinds of wood were used within the State 

 in the year 1911-12. White pine heads the list, representing nearly 14^% 

 of the total, but had longleaf, loblolly, and shortleaf pine been grouped 

 under the term "southern yellow pine" it would have stood first in the list, 

 and in amount equal to more than 1 of the total consumption. 



It is interesting to know that the consumption of lumber in Pennsylvania 

 exceeds the production. In 1912 the lumber cut by the State was 992,180,000 

 feet while the quantity consumed by the wood-using factories was 1,114,000,000 

 feet. Of the quantity used, 313,683,000 feet or 28% was accredited to the 

 State, leaving 800,536,000 feet as coming from the forests of other States 

 and from foreign countries. Cost is the principal consideration with the 

 manufacturer purchasing raw material and the fact that his own State pro- 

 duces the same kind of lumber that he uses is of little consideration unless 

 that material be the cheapest and readily and conveniently procured. That 

 only a little more than one-fourth of the State's lumber production is con- 

 sumed in factories within the State suggests a probable duplication in distribu- 

 tion that does not tend to economy. This condition is worthy of considera- 

 tion by both lumber consumers and lumber producers, and when generally 

 understood, can, through the medium of the regular trade agencies, be con- 

 siderably improved. 



So far as possible in this study, the data were presented by species rather 

 than by genus in order to enable one more easily to study uses according to in- 

 herent properties. It is of far greater value to know that a wood is white 

 oak, yellow poplar, or sugar maple than to have merely the generic name, 

 oak, poplar, or maple. Owing to the many difficulties encountered this effort 

 was but partially successful and was followed only to th'e extent warranted 

 by the information furnished by the manufacturers and by general information 

 as the particular uses of woods or the location where they were cut. 



The southern states, and next to them the Lake states, contribute more of 

 the shipped-in material than any other lumber producing region. Shipments 

 of white pine, sugar maple, beech, birch, ash and elm were reported as 

 originating in the Lake region. The largest part of the shipped-in supply of 

 oak, yellow poplar, hickory, chestnut, and sycamore came from the forests 

 of West Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, and Tennessee, included within the 

 hardwood region. Canada contributed a larger amount of wood but not as 

 many kinds as the region embracing New York and the New England states, 

 while the Pacific coast states sent a supply of six woods that aggregated nearly 

 10,000,000 feet. That such a large amount should have been brought over so 

 great a distance to meet the demands of the Pennsylvania wood-users is 

 significant of the growing scarcity of native eastern soft-woods. 



