Telegram-herald., 1889-11-11
LOTS OF LUMBER.
Immense Quantity of Timber Used by
Grand Rapids Factories.

Immense Quantity of Timber Used by
Grand Rapids Factories.
From the Chicago Lumberman.
A prominent bat modest Grand Rap
Ids man-rare combinauon-was IN
town this week, and was willing 10 give
al desired information in his posses
SION.
Tie is a furniture manufacturer and
IS Well informed, and may be consid-
o7cd an authority. lie said:
"Mu>kcSon and Saginaw have great
repu,atoas as lumber producing points
and Ch,oAgo claims to be the greatest
lumber center IN the world" he OBJ
served as a preliminary remark. Il do
not intend 20 dispute the claims of any
Of these cities, but instead / viii tell
you what we IN the Valley City stake
our regulations on in the lumber line.
We probably consume more hardwood
lumber IN the course of single year
than any other city in the country, if
not in the world. Just let me give you
s few figures. There are in the neigh
borhooI of thirty furniture factories IN
Grand Rapids, and every one OF them
: eating up hardwood lumber, running
ten hours day, ity-twO weeks IN the
year.
The value of the furniture product
extends far up into the millions every
year, and the quantity Of lumber con-
sumed IS simply enormous. We have
one factory alOne-the WlddlcOmb-
that dispOses of at least 5000, 900 feet of
hardwood IN the course of year, five
or six that viii consume over 100000
feet each, as many more with an appe-
tite for 1000 900 or more each, and
dozen more that consume lumber IN
smaller quantities. The grand aggre-
gate of lumber used in the furniture
factories alone Is upward of 10000, 900
feet annually. Beside the furniture
factories, we have veneer factory one
of the largest OF the kind IN the cOun-
try, and It's capacity Is about 1000, 900
fetal hardwood IN the log. We
also have three excelsior factories
which grind up many thousand cords
of bass and whiteWOOd every year. In
addition to all these we have half
dozen sash, door and blind factories
and as many more planning mills, all of
which can be depended upon TO con-
sumo more or less hardwood lumber.
In all, I should think the total amount
of hardwood used IN our town annually
would closely approximate 00,OlO,OOO,
and 10 might run up as nigh as 90, ,OO0,-
600. | have never looked up what
other cities consume, but 1t must be a
pretty lively town that gets away with
more hardwood than we do. And the
amount Is getting larger every year.
"a 70 the kinds OF lumber used. 3"
continued tine Grand Rapids man, talk
luga new tack, coax leads by several
lengths. OF the forty million feet OF
lumber used iu the furniture factories,
fully fifteen million is oak. Then
comes uaulr. birch, ash. cherry, bass
wood. el aud mahogany ia the order
named. Sycamore is coming IN use
some. principally for interior finlshlngs
and for the .nsides of desks and book
eases. and walnut. once 50 popular Is
not called for ~ all. All these woods
are found i'm Michigan and are easily
procured. except the mahogany, Nhlch
is imported from Honduras, and which
IS used iu only three or four OF the fac
tories.
coax is today, by long odds the most
popular furniture wood. 1t IS suscep-
tblc Of n splendid finish, and when
Quartcr->awed is as pretty rs the finest
mahogany. and must say It IS almost
a- expensive. Tho finest goods are now
made of Quarter--awcd oak as much as
mahogany and tlerc Is NO apparent de-