_. UTILIZATION OF ASH. 29 
Old-growth ash is usually considered too fine-grained and brittle. 
Sixty per cent of the timber for handles comes fron Ohio, Indiana, 
and Arkansas. (See Pls. I and X.) 
Handle stock usually is sawed out directly from the log in order 
to have the grain straight, and as a rule can not be made from 
lumber sawed for general purposes. The price of ash stumpage for 
handles is from $5 to $385 per 1,000 board feet, according to its loca- 
tion and quality, the average being about $15. The cost of the raw 
material, delivered at the factory, is from $25 to $50 (the average 
is $30) per 1,000 board feet in logs and in sawed squares. 
In Maine some D-handle factories purchase ash in the form of rived 
billets or blanks, for which they pay an average of 85 cents per dozen' 
delivered at the railroad. It is possible for a workman to split out 
about 40 dozen handles per 1,000 board feet of bolts, at a cost of about 
$10 for cutting and riving, oa worth about $34 delivered at the rail.’ 
road. The hauling and freight charges on blanks are, of course, 
much less than on logs or bolts, and often make it proneable to get 
them out in this form where it would not pay in bolt form on account 
of the distance from the market. 
DAIRY SUPPLIES. 
Practically all of the ash used for dairy supplies goes into butter- 
tub staves and heading, and covers and hoops for butter churns; a 
small amount is used for ladles, packers, and butterwerkers. Butter 
tubs are almost always made of ash. It is especially suitable for 
this purpose because there is nothing in the wood to give butter a 
disagreeable fiavor and because it is very readily worked up into 
the forms of material used in making the tubs. Slightly more than 
50 per cent of the ash sneENne Te odL into dairy supplies is used in 
Illinois, and 284 per cent in Iowa. The cost of the raw material 
(Guenmitactued staves, heading, and hoops) amounts to from $10. 
to $33 per 1,000 board feet delivered at the factory. The average is 
about $25. . 
Most of the ash butter-tub material is Mississippi Valley green ash." 
The hoops, however, are made almost entirely from the black ash 
of the Lake States. There is practically no difference in the relative 
desirability of the different species of ash for butter tubs. 
The ash butter-tub stave and heading industry utilizes chietly 
short lengths cut from small, creoked trees, but only clear material. 
Knotty stuff can be used for No. 2 staves and heading in lime and 
other kinds of slack barrels. Logs too crooked to make lumber or 
long handles can be readily cut up into short belts 32 inches long and 
used for making staves and heading. Ash staves are manufactured 
— 
1Janformation supplied by G. N. Lamb of the Forest Service. 
