The age-herald., 1898-03-06

steel mill is necessary to Birming- hams greater prosperity, but such a mill will cost nearly, if not quite, a million dollars. And yet it must be built But another million is needed to go along with it-for what? To build and equip thirty furniture factories and a half dozen tam neries! These two industries should in this section be promoted side by side, be- cause the tree that furnishes raw material for the one furnishes excellent raw ma terialssfor the other.
 Within fifty miles of Birmingham enough oak, cottonwood, poplar an9@sweet gum timber is wasted each year to supply all the factofies-and tanneries that l have called for. The farmers cut down and destroy on the spot enough timber each year within fifty miles of Birmingham to stock that number of factories. They are annually destroying vast deal of wealth, quite unconsciously too, and quite reas- onably, too, because the factories are not at hand to take the trees. If this ruth less destruction go on, soon the wealth of the state in standing timber will be sadly depleted, and the opportunity to es- tablish valuable industries will be lost.
 
 than one state, and the time will come when it will be regretted in Alabama
 
 The chestnut oak is perhaps the most valuable tree that grows in this neighbor- hood, and its value is partly due to the value of it's bark for. tanning purposes. It grows on all the hills about this city in every direction There are many kinds of +n he. fl,o science of forestry to know them all. But the chestnut oak is a very common tree in. Alabama, and. especially in this district It resembles white oak so close ly that only experts can detect the diff ference Why not extol white oak then? perhaps, you ask. The reason is this-the bark of the chestnut oak is superior tan ming material, and the tanneries and bark extract works will not buy other barks when they can get a supply from the chestnut oak. This section has chest nut oaks-not to burn-to supply tan neries through many years. And the wood of the oak from which the bark is peeled is just the wood that furniture factories need in the manufacture of all grades of good furniture. The handsomest oak furniture can be made from the chest nut oak, and no one nowadays wants other than oak furniture.
 The cheaper woods that go along with it are poplar, cottonwood and sweet gum all growing in abundance on the hills and in the valleys that surround this city. These woods are not hard in the sense that oak is and are easily manipulated. Kitchen furniture and cheap bedroom sets are made from these woods, and so are the backs and drawers and other hidden portions of good furniture. The oak with it's beautiful. grain is for the eye, and the other woods supplement it in more humble positions.
 The furniture woods of Alabama are ship ped in considerable quantities to Michigan, Ohio and even to New York state. Those states all have cities as large or larger than Birmingham, based upon and spring. ing from the manufacture of furniture from southern woods. and based in part upon the Q southern demand for the goods they make. The city of Grand Rapids, in Mich igan, is literally furniture city, and 1t is larger than Birmingham. Jamestown, a very prosperous '61y in New York, has up- wards of twenty factories; but it is not necessary to go so far from home to see what southern hard woods are capable of. Take the city of High Point, on the main line of the Southern railroad, in North Car olina. There are about @ dozen furniture factories in High Point. and High Point goods are sold in all parts of the south. The times are never hard in High Point.
 
 Perhaps the great furniture factory of Loomis & Hart, in Chattanooga.~is the best illustration of the uses to which the woods of this section can be put. They have large and well-equipped saw mill on the Tennessee rlver as well as furniture factory. When they convert an oak log into lumber they first select from the prod uct of the saws the best of it and send it to market reserving for their furniture factory the seconds" and all grades below