The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-06-27

quarters of the kindling wood used IN
New York was being sawed and split
IN the wood yards At that time, also,
manufacturers had just begun 10 put
kindling wood up into bundles or
punches. The primary reason for this
was to put unsold split wood into more
compact shape to store. The many adj
vantages of putting up wood in bundles
for the market became, however, at
once apparent. In this shape wood
could be retailed in small portions and
il made a package convenient to handle,
which could be Sold out of any grocery
like any other necessity
During the war there was almost a
wood famine in New York. The sup
ply of Virginia pine wood, the wood
principally used here. was practically
cut off; it sold up to fifteen dollars
cord by the cargo. During that period
the bundle trade did not grow very
much. After the war the entire kind
ling wood industry took great start
upward and grew rapidly. In 1870
there were probably sixty firms en-
gagged in the manufacture of kindling
wood sold in bulk or in bundles. The
bundle trade was then increased
largely. There were at that time re-
manning in the city only two
or three yards in which cordwood
was sold. In 1870 appeared, following
closely the building of the first apart
ment houses, the oil stove and not long
afterward the gas stove. The gas stove
had been before that in somewhat linn
| tied use, but it was now applied to the
more general household uses. The use
of oil stoves and gas stoves increased
steadily and very largely, and affected
very curiously the kindling wood bust
ness The use of oil and gas stoves
here is steadily increasing.
In 1880 the city manufacture of kind
| ling wood began to be affected further
| by the introduction of bundle wood
made from the refuse of spruce
and hemlock lumber mills. These
mills are numerous in Connect
cut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and
! New York, this state furnishing a
very large proportion OF the bundles
used. This wood is put up at the
mills and shipped here by the car load,
and from the cars distributed by trucks
to grocers and other dealers. That has
now largely taken the place Of the Viz
GINA pine bundle packed in this city.
More than fifty per cent. of the bundles
used here now come from the mills.
OF all the kindling wood that is sold in
this city about half is sold in bulk and
about half in bundles. Nearly all the
kindling wood sold in bulk is of Vir-
pinia pine. The standard length in
| which this is cut is eight inches; it is
sold at thirteen dollars cord and in
any quantity from one-eighth of cord
up. The bundle wood is usually cut
two and a half or three inches in
length, and the ordinary sized bundle
is eight inches by nine inches in dia-
meter 1t retails at two cents bundle.
The consumption of the bundle wood
in this city is the spruce and hemlocls
bundles, about two hundred thousand
bundles daily and of the Virginia pine
bundles about two hundred thousand
daily.
While the growth of the kindling-
wood business has been retarded fer
the reasons stated, the increase in
population has been so great that the
business has actually increased in vol
ume, and more kindling wood is sold
here now than ever. The use of Vir'
ginia pine wood, however, is decreas-
ing slightly as is the city manufacture
of kindling wood. But the kindling
wood business is. nevertheless, a very
large and active business here
There are now about twenty
factories in the city as agains'
sixty in 1870, but while their mum
Der has so materially decreased
there are now more large establish
ments. The kindling wood factories
of the city use engines aggregatine
about one thousand five hundred hors'
power. and employ about two Thousand
people, men and boys. The totalvalu'
of all the lzindling wood consumed il
this city, reckoned at wholesale prices
J is about ten thousand dollars daily.
! There are engaged in the business o
bringing Virginia wood to this cit.
! about one hundred schooners. Most o
them are larger than the schooners EN-
, ployed in the wood business invent,
, years ago: about half of them are three
| LQdSltES- hAlHp>I al VI bAiC HpOt NJ
5 cessible from the rivers and almost al
the original growth from near tn
| | water courses has been cut. At leas
= half Of the wood now brought here
cut back from the water and brough
, to river landings by railroad.
7 Kindling wood or kindling materia
!, of some sort is used almost everywhere
but kindling wood such as is used her
is only where anthracite coal is burned
. A New York manufacturer of kindlin
wood searched for two days in Londo
: without finding anybody in the bus
= ness. A rich London householder sal
: that he had kept house for forty year
and had never paid penny for kindlin
wood. The sweepings of the hous'
splinters and scraps from boxes an
: crates with little paper would suite
: 10 ignite the coal used there. OF I'll
: worlds great cities New York Is Ia
c only one using practically none but al
thracite coal. There are in this couI
n try. taking them all together. man
!, cities and towns that burn hard con
x and use substantial kindling wood br
'! this city Is much the Frestest of a
J consumers. and here naturally Is n
home Of kindling wood IN is highe:
n development