Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/598

* LUMBER INDUSTRY. 532 LUMBER INDUSTRY. driving is still practiced wherever possible, but as the tiinhor-supply beside the watercourses has been exhausted, other means of transportation have been resorted to. The lops are carried out 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 ])rcviously flooded and frozen, so that their surface is a glare of ice. In the South and West teni]>orary railroads are often built into the forests to lrans|)ort 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 timlier. 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 The primitive frame or pit-saw was superseded by the cir- cular saw, which was invented in England in 1777, but did not come into use in America till many years later.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 tlooring ma- chines. Lumber, instead of l)cing 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-Workint, JLCniXERY. Stati.stics of Lumber Industry in the United States. The steady growth in the vari- ous brandies of this industrv is shown by tlie following statistics of the Twelfth (inOO) United States Census. The tendency toward concentra- tion and consolidation, so marked in all branches of manufacture, is evident in this industry, for the increase in number of establishments has not kept pace with the increase in capital invested and annual product. 1 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 Number of establishments Capital invested Value of product (annual). 18.769 «1.444.364 60.413.187 20.G59 S74..53l).090 96,715,856 23.832 $143,493,232 210,159,327 25,708 $181,186,122 233,268,729 22,617 $557,881,054 437,957.382 33.035 $611,611,624 666.832,984 I The first insertible teeth for this saw were in- vented by V. Kendall, an American, in 1826, Gang-saws, which had been known in Europe since the sixteenth century, kept pace with the rotary saws in their introduction into American forests. The band-saw, the perfection of sawmill machin- ery, though invented in England in 180.S. and patented soon afterwards in America, did not come into operation till 1872, when it was first During 1899 the timber cut of the LTnited States was estimated by the Bureau of Statistics at Washington as 100.000,000 tons (reckoning a ton as equal to 400 feet board measure). Of this amount, 7.5,000.000 tons is coniferous timber and the remainder oak and other liard woods. The total forest area is given as 700..'jOO,000 acres, being about 37 per cent, of the total area of the country, and giving a wooded area of nine acres Table I.— Expohts of Timber, Lumber, and Manufactured Wood* KINDS 1898 1899 1900 Timber and unmanufactured wood $7,767,291 12,467.989 8,189,753 SS.212.527 1.1.4113.(116 8.128.698 $11,569,166 18.282,191 Boards, deals, planks, joist, and scantling 9,514.221 Total $28,415,033 $31,774,241 $39,365,678 Table II. — Exports of Wood and Manufactures of Wood, by Classes KINDS Sawed timber M feet Hewn timber cubic feet I.,ojiH and other dollars Boards, deals, planks M feet Joist and scantling Shingles Shooks, box dollars Shooks, other Staves number All other lumber dollars KINDS Sawed timber M feet Hewn timber cubic feet Logs and other dollars Boards, deals, planks M feet Joist and scantling Shingles " Shocks, box dollars Shooks, other Staves number All other lumber dollars 1891 214.612 235,550 6.900,073 6.736,446 2.274,102 1.923,604 613,406 692,596 11,324 16,131 42,463 31,198 199.674 195,618 450,492 685,919 886,133 1,051.397 1893 214,198 7,836,921 2.270.072 629.355 13,475 22,938 238.605 702,403 1894 237,830 4,082,709 2,636,608 574,920 12,412 28,277 275.140 620,311 i!662,293 1895 297,693 6,039,539 1,813,894 588,781 27.454 40,122 369.451 665.404 i!642,'376 1896 332.934 6,616.476 2,796.043 694,799 31,415 56,047 514.976 638,339 2,149,891 1897 391,291 6.406.824 3.945.106 876,689 36,2,53 58,508 529,492 697.606 3,162,470 1898 338,575 5,489,714 3,189,820 790,659 35,610 50,524 486,860 557,896 64,142,759 3,256,880 1899 406,448 4,796.658 3,262,i)89 970,170 34,294 73,791 434,290 588,961 44.382,689 3,081,295 1900 473..542 4,416,741 5.020,471 1,046,758 41,043 86.118 687,047 773,019 49,011,533 3,091,336
 * Not including: doors, eash, blinds, furniture, barrels, etc., valued at $11,230,798 in 1900.