LUMBER INDUSTRY (probably connected with saved. bore, to resound. from dial. Swed. ljumm, Icel. h/j5m•, sound, h/iuma, hear ing; so called as being 'lumbering' things). The production and manufacture of timber for build ing purposes (boards, planks. joists, shingles, etc.). telegraph-poles, timber for ship-building, railroad-ties, pulp-wood, paving-blocks. wood for furniture manufacture and cabinet-work. is one of the most extensive and important industries of the world. The United States, British ..1meri ca. Russia, Barden, Germany. and France are the chief Innilwr-producing countries, though tropi cal States and colonies furnish many beautiful varieties of timber, such as mahogany, ebony, and rosewood, which are •hictly used in furniture making.
With the increasing demands for lumber there has been a corresponding increase in the varieties of wood available for various industrial purposes. Substitutes have been found for many of the varieties of lumber which served as standards for so Many years. and often such substitutes have proved superior to the woods displaced. With industrial progress, distant countries have been drawn upon to till the supply, and in this way Wunds eminently suited for particular purposes have been obtained.
LumnEn TRADE OF THE UNITED STATES. HiS tory.—In earlier days an important part of the lumber trade of the United States was the getting out of long timbers to be used as masts and spars. The tall evergreens of Maine and later of Dregon and Washington have been cut for this purpose. Since the introduction, in ISCO, of the process of making paper from wood-pulp, the procuring of this material has attained great impinlanee. For years wood was, and in many rural sections still is, the principal fuel. But the use of wood for building purposes creates the chief demand. espe cially for the white pine.
The lumber industry consists of three branches, which are defined in the sections on the lumber industry of the Twelfth United States Census as follows: "(I) The logging industry. including the felling of timber, cutting it into lengths, and transporting it by rail or river to the mill. This industry is carried on in part by individuals who own or operate sawmills. The raw mate rial of this industry consists of standing timber, the finished product consists of logs delivered at the mill. (2) The sawmill industry. in which the raw material consists of saw-logs, and the product of rough lumber, including beams. joists, scantlings, boards, shingles, laths, etc. (3) The planing-null industry, in which the raw material consists of rough lumber and the finished prod uct of planed, with such minor manufactures as are carried on in connection with these nulls.
Nome of the planing-mills are operated in con nection with sawmills, as a part of their opera tions, while others are under ottner ship and management." During the last half of the nineteenth century great improvements were introduced in all three branches of this industry.
The modern lumber camp is as completely or ganized as the modern factory. The laborers are divided into swampers, road makers. Anvers. sawyers. loaders, and teamsters. In the North and Lake States the business is conducted chiefly in the winter. but in other parts of the country it is carried on the year around. River driving is still practiced wherever possible, but as the timber-supply beside the watercourses has been exhausted, other means of transportation have been resorted to. The logs are carried nut of the woods by teams, on temporary log roads. In the Adirondack forests enormous loads are drawn on sleighs by a single pair of horses, the roads being previously flooded and frozen. so that their surface is a glare of ice. In the South and West temporary railroads are often built into the forest-3 to transport the logs. In the far West machinery is used to a far greater extent than in the East for handling logs, on account of the greater size of the timber. Donkey-engines are used in the woods for handling the logs and debris, and similar engines or wire cables for dragging the logs over skid or other roads to the railway. Cranes are employed for loading the logs onto the trains.
In sawmill machinery many changes were in troduced during the last century. The primitive frame or pit-saw was superseded by the cir cular saw, which was invented in England in 1777, but did not come into use in America till many years later.
used for cutting hard woods in the Maumee Valley of Ohio. Other improvements in saw-mill machinery are the direct steam-feed, the steam nigger. or log-turning device, endless chains for bringing the logs into the mill, and mechanical carriers for lumber and for refuse. In addition to these there are the shingle, lath, and slab saws. which last by using up inferior materials reduces the amount of refuse. There are also planing. molding, matching, and flooring ma chines. Lumber, instead of being seasoned by the slow process of natural drying. is often put into special drying-kilns. where the process is ex pedited by artificial heat. See WOOD-WORK1NG MACHINERY.