Qualities and Uses of the Woods of Ohio 
109 
About one and one-half million cords of wood are now distilled 
annually. Both hardwoods and softwoods are used. Beech, birch, 
and maple are the principal hardwoods consumed with much smaller 
quantities of oak, chestnut, hickory, elm, and ash. The yellow pine of 
the south is the principal softwood used. In the charcoal kiln process 
the gases, vapors, and tar products of wood are usually lost. Charcoal 
is the product saved. Two cords of hardwood yield 1 ton of charcoal. 
In this rather wasteful form of making charcoal the wood used loses 
about 75 per cent in weight and 50 per cent in volume. 
Fuel—Inasmuch as nearly all the woods are used to a greater or 
less extent as fuel, it is unnecessary to specify them. The abundance 
and cheapness of coal, oil, and gas have largely taken the place of 
firewood except as a waste product. Farmers who own woodlots are 
the principal users of wood for heating and cooking purposes. In 
some sections wood is still largely used as fuel in the manufacture 
of tile, brick, lime, etc. Slabs, sawdust, and other forms of wood 
waste are quite generally used as a fuel to furnish power for sawmills 
and woodworking factories. 
WOODS USED FOR SPECIFIC BUT MINOR PURPOSES. 
Alder—Cigar boxes, wooden bowls, toys. 
Ash—Barrel hoops, tool handles, ball bats, oars, tennis racquets. 
Beech—Shoe lasts, plane stocks, clothes pins, hames, paving blocks. 
Birch—Toothpicks, clothes pins, spools, bobbins, spindles, skewers, brushes, but¬ 
tons, match boxes, imitation mahogany. 
Black gum—Mangles, rollers in glass factories, wooden shoes. 
Black cherry—Surveyors’ instruments, backing for metal engraving plates. 
Buckeye—Artificial limbs, wooden hats. 
Catalpa—Single trees, neckyokes, boys’ ball bats. 
Cedar—Buckets, pencils, chests, racing boats. 
Chestnut—Coffins, Jacob staff for compasses, backing for veneers. 
Common locust—Police clubs, tree nails, insulator pins, cross bars. 
Cotton woods—Wooden ware, excelsior, matches. 
Crabapple—Pipes, canes, mallets. 
Cucumber—Ox yokes, pump logs. 
Cypress—Tanks, porch floors, window blinds, molasses barrels. 
Dogwood—Spools, bobbins, skewers, engraving blocks. 
Elm—Carriage hubs, saddle trees, bicycle rims, wheelbarrows. 
Fir—Masts, flag poles, packing cases. 
Hackberry—Hames, ax handles. 
