28 
BULLETIN" 316, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTTJKE. 
have been manufactured in the Middle Western States from planted 
groves of white and crack willow. The white and crack willow 
lumber is used locally in farm buildings and to a small extent in 
rough interior carpentry work. Much of the black willow is barged 
up the Mississippi to the vicinity of Cairo, HI., where it is graded 
and distributed through the Northern States, principally in Iowa, 
Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. 
The average grade of willow lumber on the market is high, be- 
cause only large clear logs are at present sawed into lumber. This 
entails great waste in the woods, as only a small part of the tree 
is taken. With a closer utilization the percentage of the poorer 
grades will increase considerably. The average willow now being 
cut is very little inferior to the average cottonwood. The following 
table shows the grades from average and select logs of willow, as 
compared with cottonwood, along the lower Mississippi: 
Cottonwood. 1 
Black willow. 2 
Black 
willow, 
Select logs. 
Average. 
Select logs. 
Average. 
mill run, 
lumber 
graded at 
Cairo, 111. 
Per cent. 
7 
40 
35 
15 
5 
Per cent. 
9 
18 
30 
42 
1 
Per cent. 
5 
30 
25 
38 
Per cent. 
Per cent. 
Firsts and seconds 
20 
30 
48 
32 
40 
No. 2 common 
25 
3 
Mill cull 
2 
2 
1 Department of Agriculture Bulletin 24. 
2 Based on annual mill-cut figures at two 20,000 daily capacity mills. 
The price of willow lumber has increased steadily since it was 
put on the market. It was first shipped North in 1909 or 1910 
and sold at from $10 to $12 per thousand, mill run, f. o. b. at the 
mill. At this price there was no profit for the manufacturer, and 
the lumber was secured and cut more or less as an experiment. 
It was easily marketed, and a request was immediately made for 
more. Since that time the price has risen to $16 per thousand, 
mill run. In Chicago and Grand Rapids furniture manufacturers 
pay from $24 to $25 per thousand for clear lumber. Further rises 
will only follow the general market. At present the cost of handling 
willow lumber is as high as is usually the case with a new product. 
Most of the willow shipped North is handled several times, and 
this adds materially to the cost. With a low-grade lumber it is 
especially important that it be handled as directly as possible. 
A number of sawmills and cooperage mills on the lower Missis- 
sippi, visited in the fall of 1913 in the course of this study, reported 
that they were using between 23,000,000 and 25,000,000 feet of 
black willow. Half of this went into box shooks or slack cooperage 
stock. Sawmills, in reporting their annual production of lumber, 
