The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1900-08-09
THE TooTHPTCK INDUSTRY.
A Forest of Timber Used and Many
People Employed.
Frnm The PhfIadelnlia Tfmes.l


Ninety-fve per cent of all the toothpicks
made in these United States are formed
from white birch timber in Franklin Coun-
~ Ne, and yet scarcely more than 100
persons are employed in the industry in
that State Outside OF the Pine Tree Com
monweaith the principal factories are in
Pennsylvania Massachusetts. and Western
New York. Maple and poplar are sometimes
used in the manufacture of American
toothpicks, but white birch is the standaI j
timber in all the factories. The industry
is a very simple one. First, of course.
comes the work OF the foresters. In the
woods OF Maine every winter there are
great camps of lumbermen engaged in
telling and hauling out timber for various
commercial uses. Whenever the foreman
OF a camp comes across q particularly fine
white birch tree he orders il cut down
and the main part of the trunk laid aside
TO be reserved for the to0thpick factories.
That the vast supply Of to0thpicks comes
from q very small quantity Of timber is
shown by the fact that not more than
5000 cords OF wood are used in this indus
try annually.
When the logs first reach the factory
they are first stripped OF their bark They
are then placed on trucks moving on rails
and pushed to the automatic machines by
which they are cut into veneers, which are
thin strips of wood OF about the dimensions
of an ordinary piece of blotting paper
that is, the strips are about as thick as
the toothpicks are intended to be and as
wide as the picks viii be long The ma-
chine works automatically and with ire
mendous speed and is so constructed that
the finished picks come forth sharpened
at poth ends at the rate Of tens of thou
sands in an hour. 1t requires only few
weeks for the factories to turn out sup
ply sufficient to meet the demand for a
whole year The factories are shut down
again to remain closed until the follow
ing spring. The wages paid to American
workers in this industry range from $1.50
10 So so a day.
Many of the toothpfcks made in Maine
come from timber that has been seasoned
in the open air and retain something of
the natural sweetness of the birch and
maple and are soft and pliable, while re-
tanning sufficient frmness. Kiln-dried
wood is apt to result in too much bitter
ness causing sharp splinters to break OF
which injure the enamel of the teeth
The best toothpicks made anywhere IL
the world come from Portugal. They are
Whitfield by hand from orangewood splinss
by peasant girls, the only tool used being
an ordinary jackknife. These picks are
as smooth as ivory and will not break in
to splinters. They are expensive. Few
hotels in Philadelphia supply them The
girls who make the picks receive less than
10 cents day. AS the duty on foreign
made picks is only So per cent. they can
be sold here for less than picks of similar
quality could be manufactured in this
country, despite the improved American
machinery and skilled labor The profit
on American picks is almost exclusively
on the cheaper products. Some of the Por-
tugese picks are highly oTnamented with
hand carving.
Next to Portugal Japan sends the great
est supply of toothpicks to the United
States. These are made by hand from fine
reeds. They, too, are sold in close COM
petition with the American product, owing
to the cheaper labor in Japan. The cases
in which the Japanese picks are enclosed
are fine specimens of skill with the lack
knife. They are of wood. cut into strfps
as thin and delicate as tissue paper. but
very strong The cases are ornamsntad
with hand-painted japanese scenes and
are of size convenient to be carried in
the vest DOCket