Second-growth white ash and hickory always find a ready market for handle stuff. Cedar is easily marketed in any size from posts three inches in diameter at the small end. As this timber is very light, it is often profitable to transport it on water even of small streams. As the tree gener ally grows in swampy situations, it is best pre pared for market in winter and transported in spring. It is necessary first to peel the bark with draw knives. Trees large enough for telephone poles command high price. The available quantity is now so small in the East that poles are being shipped from as far west as Idaho to supply eastern markets.
Chestnut not suitable for poles is now sold for tannin, thus making use'of what otherwise might be wasted.
The uses of trees large enough for sawed lum ber are very numerous. Chairs, coaches, tables, tanks, beds, boxes, shingles, spokes, floors, frames, and a long list of articles of familiar and common use are examples.
Hard maple of the best quality should be mar keted for flooring, but if no mill for its manufac ture is at hand, it can be used for medium priced furniture and other commodities, such as shoe lasts, boot-trees and fuel. The intrinsic value of this wood is such that it should command a much higher price than at present.
White ash has long been the common wood for ba' bats. but now maple, beech and black ash are all used for low-priced goods of this class.
Immense quantities of all the cheaper grades of timber are used for dry barrels and a large num ber of articles classed as "pail stuff." Elm has experienced a rapid and steady increase in price as its possibilities have become better known. It is now used for a large part of the cheaper grades of furniture. When steamed it bends readily, and for this reason is largely used for flat hoops. Attention was drawn to the possibilities of all the elms when it was discovered that rock elm is an excellent wood for the manufacture of wood-rims for bicycles. The quantity of rock and red elm is very limited, but the supply of white elm, in spite of the fact that the timber decays readily and does not grow rapidly, is holding out well, probably because it withstands exposure well and frequently occupies land that is not well adapted to cultiva tion or grazing. Small trees, four to twelve inches in diameter, are sometimes sold for hubs. This
requires the sacrifice of young, growing stock, which, under most circumstances, would best be left in the stand. It may be stated in this connec tion that the pepperidge of the North, which is the black gum of the South, of suitable size, would better be used for hubs than for any other purpose.
Because of wind-shake and other defects, hem lock is uniformly used for dimension stuff. Al though not a first-class lumber, there is steady demand for it at reasonable prices.
With the increased value of wood has come a substitute of the poorer sorts, where formerly only the better quality would answer. Not long since, black walnut was considered the only wood suit able for certain kinds of furniture. This has been replaced almost entirely by oak ; but now oak is increasing in value to such an extent that some other wood must soon take its place. The art of veneering is helping to extend the use of the more valuable woods. Tables, desks, doors, and other articles of common use, are now made of hemlock and veneered with yellow pine, oak, or some other wood susceptible of a high finish. Consequently, timber good enough for work of this nature can be placed on the market almost any day at a good price. The owner of a fine specimen of white oak has been offered one hundred dollars for the tree on the stump, which was more than the value of an acre of the land on which the tree was growing.
Three-fourths of our timber product is from cone bearing trees. A large proportion of this is pine. The extensive tracts of timber, composed largely of cone-bearing trees, are owned by men of large means, companies or corporations, but these or ganizations have not yet gained such control of supplies but that the owner of a small patch of pine, if it is properly managed and marketed, may realize rich returns from the crop. Stands that twenty years ago brought two dollars and a half per acre now bring a hundred or more. In Michi gan, white pine is now worth ten dollars to twenty five dollars per thousand feet on the stump. In Fig. 4S4 is seen a load of pine logs starting for market. The logs in the booms shown in Fig. 481 are mostly pine and hemlock. The car shown in Fig. 485 is loaded with 35-foot \ hite pine logs, except a small Norway pine log (Pious resinosa) on top.