The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1882-06-02

ITS Timber supply and Saw
Mills. Lum b er.a SGave
Trade, Furniture,
wagon and Pump
Manu- ia CtOries.
Editor Southern Lum5erman.

Editor Southern Lum6errnan.
see from slip enclosed In your last
issue chat you desire to give, in an ext ra
edition, on the 10th of this month. the
lumbermen and saw mill owners of the
South as much general information as
possible pertaining to the industry in
which they are engaged, and if no one is
ahead of me in representing this section
Of our country. my random notes may be
Of interest to some of your many readers.
Wei mean the South western Kentuck-
ians and our neighbors of the adjoining
portion of West Tennessee-are essential
~ lunbermen. While we do net carry
on the business to the same extent as the
Michiganders and Wisconsians, every
man, woman and child of whom, indirect
ly breath, eat and clothe themselves with
pine lumber, the trade with us is meat
bread, and clothes to nearly every mer-
chant and farmer. in this section, as we'll
as to those engaged directly in it. Poplar
lumber, choice yellow, is the staple with
US, If l can call what constitutes seven
eighths of the entire product of our many
mills the staple, but our forests abound
in fine belts OF white oak. white ash, hick-
Org and gum, which have yet been hardly
touched by the ak. Saw mill men have,
for he past three years especially, made
good money here, getting 6ne figures for
their lumber and their timber and labor
costing them less than one W ould suppose
knowing the capacity of their mills and
their chance to market the product.
As might be inferred, the understandable
timber nearly adjacent to our highways,
the railroads, rivers and navigsble creeks,
has been cnlled out and cut from more
than that lying farther from such means
Of transportation, and mill men have had
to 60 farther and farther back yearly to
get their supplies. Yet. with the excep-
tion of the inevitable liability of damage
to lumber in long trips by wagon to
points of shipments this does not affect
the profit TO the mill man much, as the
farther he sets his mill from market the
less he has to pay for his timber, and
most of our millers are careful enough TO
make contracts for the delivery of timber
at their mill at price which is sufficient
ly below its market value on a stream or
railroad to cover the cost of hauling it to
the barge or car.
There are four points on which you of
course want your correspondents to treat:
LIST, What kinds of timber grow around
themi End, How much of each kind, and
how situated; Sd, How they cut il up, and
what they do with it when cut; ith. Its
cost, and the cost of manufacturing il in
to lumber
Answering for ourselves, 1 would
say tAst all through West
Tennessee (ncs;bly in ObiOu county,
and Southwestern Kentucky, there are
mili-seats without number at which choice
yellow poplar, tough white ash and oak,
hickory and gum can be procured at
prices which, added to the cost of saving,
will net the mill man a handsome profit.
The harder woods generally grow on ridg-
es, but in our river bottoms there are al
most inexhaustible supplies Of the ehoi
cest ash aud oak known TO dealers in and
consumers OF these woods; bodies of timber
which, however, require the expenditure
Of more money to put into lumber than
most Of our mill men have at their COM
mand.
The splendid red gum timber, indigen-
Gus to low, swampy land, which is so rspi-
dly gaining a high rank in the lumber mar
keis, especially amongst manufacturers
OF common furniture, grows in profusion
all through this country, aud, except
where the expense of putting il in the
log to the mill and thence as lumber to
the cars is nominal, possesses actually no
merchantable value.
You, very justly, gave this fac wood a
puff in your issue of, believe, February
LIST, last. 1t grows very large, straight
and long bodied, is of close grain. soft,
aud susceptible of fully as fine finish as
mahogany or rosewood, besides having n
varisgation OF color aud grain in some ca
SEES much more handsome than even ihos e
valuable woods. With careful stacking
it seasons straight and true, in this re-
speet being unlike all other members Of
the gum family. For turned work it is un
surpassed. and is used for bed posts, table
legs, elc.. by all the furniture manufac-
turers OF this section, and by all others
for that matter who have ever tried it,
and can procure il cheap enough. as a
subtituie for maple. The Hickman Lum-
Der and Manufacturing Company, located
here, aud with which am connected, use
il exclusively for these purposes, as dc
ths three furniture companies in Union
City, Tenn, one in Troy, Tenn, one in
Humboldt, Tenn, and one in Fulton, KY, IS
well as numerous others. Besides the
Hickman Company mentioned above sup
ply factories from here with this lumber
in New Orleans, La, Decatur, Ills, Otta
wa, Kansas, and other points.
Another timber, for which | predict a
great future, when the extravagauce with
which poplar is now cut around here
makes the latter scarce and rare, is cot
tonwood, billions and trillions of feet of
which grow here in bodies sufficient to
keep a mill of ordinary capacity in con-
slant operation for from Eve to ten years
on onsspet, and can be bought for g song.
We ourselves have not been able to work
up lucrative trade in this lumber, al
though it is used largely in the manufac-
ture of boxes for crackers and other edi-
bles, where it's character as thoroughly
tasteless wood gives il superiority over
poplar or any other. 1t is hard wood to
manufacture into lumber, and still har-
der to keep in shape after sawed, but by
care these objections can be overcome.
Now about our mills. Their average
capacity is small, say from ten to fifteen
thousand feet per day of inch boards.
Messrs Thompson s. Co.-four miles from
here-Boyle s. White, of Palestine, Tenn,
aud the Keystone Mill Company (compos
ed of members Of the firm of the well
known saw-mill builders, Stearns & Co..
of Erie, Pa. near Tiptonville, Tenn have
q daily capacity of double that amount.
Gang edgers, gang muieys, and all the
modern appliances for ''chewing up" luah-
Der in hurry, so generally in use in
Northern mills, are exceptional with us,
mainly from want of capital to keep
them fed.
We have very few mill men who mar
ket their own lumber. Last year we
controlled the product of Eve mills in
our vicinity, and the lumber from as
many more was handled by lumber mer,
chants and manufacturers of Union City.
Tenn, seventeen miles from here.
The inability of our mill men TO dispose
of their lumber directly to dealers and
consumers, lies first in their lack of
means to run their business, pay for
their logs, pay their hands and cover all
other incidental expenses during the six
months in each year that not a foot of
lumber can leave their yards, owing to
the condition of the roads. 1t may be
necessary here TO state that nine out of
ten of our mills are situated from six to
fifteen miles from any point Of shipment,
and the large amounts Of lumber accumu
l-lated on the yards during the winter
months have TO await the laying by Of
crops before sufficient number Of teams