THE CONNECTICUT AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION NEW HAVEN, CONN. S. N. SPRING, Forester, IN CO-OPERATION WITH THE FOREST SERVICE, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, HENRY S. GRAYES, Forester. BULLETIN 174, JANUARY, 1913. FORESTRY PUBLIC:\.TION No. 7 WOOD-USING INDUSTRIES OF CONNECTICUT JW ALBERT H. PIERSON, Statistician in Forest Products, U S, FOREST SERVICE. The Bulletins of this Station are mailed free to citizens of Con­ necticut who apply for them, and to others as far as the editions permit, CONNECTICUT AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. OFFICERS AJ:SrD STAFF_ BOARD OF CONTROL. His Excellency, SIMEON E. BALDWIN, ex officio, President. PRoF. H. W. CoNN, Vice Pres1dent. ........................ Middletown GEORGE A. HopsoN, Secretary .. ........................ , ... , . Wallingford E. H. JENKINS, Director and Treasurer ..................... New Haven JosEPH W. ALsoP ....•.....•...•.•.............•....•..•.•.•.•....• Avon WILSON I-L LEE •...•••••.....•......•..••.•.....•...•.....•..•.. Orange FRANK H. STADT:r.fUELLER ..................................•.•. Elmwood JAMES I-I. WEBB •...•.•......••...•.••.•..••.................•..Hamden STATION STAFF. ADMINISTRA·noN. E. H. JENKINS, PH.D.1 Director and Trt:a~·u,~el', M1ss V. E. CoLE, L-ibraria.n ttrld Steuvgrap!ter. 1'!1SS L. 1\I. BRAUTLECKT, Bool.:ke<-'}cr .a)z.d Stenograjtlur. lVrLLIAM VEtTCHl fn Chwrg._' of Euildin_Ks and Gro!f!tth~ CHEJ\11STR't.'. ANALYTICAL LABORATORY. JoHN PHILLIPS STREET, hf.S., Chemist l~t C/ur,rg·c. E. 1VIoNROE BArL.EY1 PH.D., C. B. J.\IoRRlSON, B.S., C. E. SHEPA-RD, As.r-h·b7Jlf.f. HuGo LANGE 1 Laboratory .lfdjer. V. L. CriURCHtLL, Samfliui( Agent. l\Itss E. B. ""....-HlTTLESEY1 Stt.:nagnr.jlur. PROTE41D RESEAliCH. T_. B. OsnOHNE, PH.D., Chu.mist ht CH.a·rge. ]\Irss E ..L. FERRY, A. n., Assistant. 11Iss LuvA FRANCIS1 Stenog-ra_f!a:r, BoTAN\'. G. P. CUNTON1 S.D., J)ota.uist, E. 1\L STODDAlW, B.S"~ Assislfr-1d. :Mtss 1L If. J AGGER1 S~ttd A na-ly.sf, 1\Irss E. n. \\'HlTTLESE'{, CuraftJr, EN1'0l'IIOLOGV. Y'-".... E. BrUTTON, PH.D., EniMnologist /also Slate' E1lt£!/!tobgist. B. H. \V"Al.DE:V, B.AGR., D. J. CAFFUEY, B.S., H. B. KmK, .rl s.rista~tts. l'vlrss F. l\1, VALENTINE, .ytct10,ff'J'a}lur. FoRR::..TRY. \VALT~R 0. FrLLEY1 Forester~' also State ForeJ·ter a1td State Forest Fl.'re ~v·a,-dt!tt.. A. E. 1\-Ioss, 1t!.F.1 rlssistant. ~ilss: E. L. AvERY, Ste,.w_ffra}_ln:r, Pr.ANT BREEDING. II. l{. HAYES, B.S., Plant Breeder. C~ D. HUBBELL, A:ulsftt-nL NOTE. The investigation upon which this report is based was under~ taken by the Forest Service in cooperation with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, the work being done under the direction of S. N. Spring, State Forester, and 0. T. Swan, Engi~ neer in Forest Products, in charge of the Office of Wood Utiliza­ tion, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. The statistics were compiled from data collected in 191 1, covering a period of one year. By the terms of the cooperative agreement, the Experiment Station is authorized to publish the findings of the investigation. CONTENTS. PAGE PAGE Introduction 5 Industries ................... 26 Kinds of Wood .. .. .. .... 6 Boxes ..................... 29 Planing Mill Products ...... 31 The Pines . 7 Sash, Doors, Blinds and Gen- White Pine . 7 eral Millwork ............ 33 Loblolly . 7 Musical Instruments ....... 35 Longleaf Pine . ro Ships and Boats ............ 37 Shortleaf Pine . ro Clocks . 39 Sugar Pine . ro Vehicles and Vehicle Parts ·. 41 Western Yellow Pine .. , . ro Handles . 43 Pitch Pine ........ , . II Carpenters' Tools • . 45 Idaho White Pine . n Woodenware and Novelties . 45 Spruce ..................... rr Miscellaneous . 48 Hemlock .................. II Chairs ..................... so Cypress ................... 12 Fixtures ................... 53 The Cedars . rz Shuttles, Spools, Bobbins, Etc...................... 53 Tamarack ................ 12 Electrical Equipment ....... 56 Douglas Fir . 13 Agricultural Implements . 56 The Oaks .................. 13 Firearms .................. 59 White Oak ............. 13 Machinery . 59 Red. Oak ............... IS Patterns . 59 Chestnut . IS Furniture . 6r Tulip Poplar . 16 Printing Materials ....... , . 6:3 Basswood . 18 Cigar Boxes . 63 The Maples ........... , . r8 Tanks ..................... 63 Sporting Goods . 66 The Ashes . 19 Laundry Appliances . 66 Hickory ................... 20 Butchers' Blocks . 66 The B1rches ............... 21 Woods Classified by Industries 66 The Gums ................. 21 The Elms .................. 22 Summary of Average Prices .. 68 Cherry . 24 APPENDIX. Beech ..................... 24 Black Walnut .............. 24 Wood Uses by Species ....... 69 Other Native Woods ....... 25 Directory . 82 Foreign Woods ........... 25 Lumber Cut in I9IO .......•.. g6 Wood-Using Industries of Connecticut. --.--~- INTRODUCTION. Connecticut is one of the most densely populated states of the Union. Its 4,990 square miles are occupied by over a million inhabitants. A very large percentage of its people reside within two score manufacturing centers and depend directly upon indus­ trial employment for a livelihood. The various industries include nearly IO,ooo factories, with an invested capital of more than a third of a billion dollars, an annual output worth a like sum, and a payroll of some millions. A considerable number of these factories convert the raw material of the forest into finished products. The report of the lumber cut of the United States in rgw, prepared by the Bureau of the Census in coopera­ tion with the Forest Service, United States Department of Agri­ culture, shows that the Connecticut sawmills cut over 222,945,000 board feet in that year. Part. of the lumber made in the State is shipped away, and of the total domestic consumption probably one-fourth isutilized in rough lumber and in general construction. The total consumed by the Connecticut wood-using industries in rgw, including lumber purchased from other states, amounted to II0,05I,323 feet. The amount of wood taken from the forests in forms other than lumber has been only roughly estimated, but the quantity of lumber annually milled in Connecticut has been determined for some years. This is the first attempt to follow the lumber ·,from the sawmill through the factories. The information here presented shmvs the relations between the wood-using industries of Connecticut and her forests. It also shows to what extent the State's native resources are drawn upon to meet home requirements, and to what extent manufacturers draw from outside. This report is intended to answer the question of what becomes of the seventy-two or seventy-three million feet of rough lum­ ber that are used each year in Connecticut's wood-uqing factories. It also discusses properties of the various woods that fit them for use in certain industries and the products made from these woods. It gives the average cost of lumber delivered at the factory, both home-grown and shipped-in materiaL The prices given, it must be remembered, are not market prices, but are merely an average computed from many different grades and forms of each kind of wood reported. 6 CONNECTICUT EXPERIMENT STATION, BULLETIN NO. I74· KINDS OF WOOD. There are fifty-eight kinds of wo~d used by Connecticut manu­ facturers. Twenty-six of them are from timber grown wholly or partially within the State. The remainder are obtained either from other states, from Canada, or from foreign countries. Table I shows that of the woods listed forty-eight are domestic and ten foreign-grown species. The first column of the table gives the common names of the different species used and the second column gives the botanical names. It will be noted that the above table gives the kinds of wood consumed by Connecticut wood manufacturing establishments arranged in order of quantity used. White pine heads the list, supplying one-fifth of all the raw material. Over 6o per cent. of the white pine goes to box makers at a lower price, delivered, than is paid by fourteen other industries using this wood. The most costly grades of white pine a~·e demanded by the ship build­ ers and the manufacturers of musical instruments. Chestnut is the most important hardwood used and comes second in the amount consumed. It forms a larger proportion of the forest than any other commercial tree. vVhy the lumber regions of other states are called on for a little over two-thirds of the chestnut needed is a difficult matter to explain. Nearly one-half of the chestnut consumed by the factories goes into pianos and cabinet organs, the larger part of it into piano cases. No other wood reported is used by a larger number of industries than tulip poplar. Nineteen of the twenty-six report using it. A study of the table brings out the fact that so per cent. of the white oak used is home-grown. Boat building uses more of it than any other industry. It is surprising that 75 per cent. of the hickory used. by the manufacturers of Connecticut grows in the State; for it would seem that the supply of a wood so useful and produced so near the place of consumption would have long since been completely exhausted. Dogwood is not called for in large quantities, but, like white birch, often called g-ray birch, the demand is met entirely by home-grown wood, as is also the demand for aspen, pitch pine, and applewood. Over 90 per cent. of the butternut or white walnut used is cut in the State. Loblolly, which leads the Southern pines, is sometimes sold ·with shortleaf pine as KINDS OF WOOD. 7 North Carolina pine; and since it is often difficult to separate the two, they have been classed rather arbitrarily. It is a matter of interest that longleaf pine occupies eighth place in Table I. Most of the cypress consumed come from the Carolinas. The Florida wood is also in demand, but Louisiana cypress is reported only in small quantities. The two general classes into which woods are divided by users are hardwoods and softwoods. This classification is not based absolutely on hardness or softness, but is an arbitrary distinction which has come into general use because it is convenient and holds true generally.