The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1900-08-16
TOOTHPICK MAKING.
Vast Quantities of Timber Are Con-
sumed and Many People
Employed.

Nintty-five per cent. of all the tooth
picks made i'll these United States are
formed from white birch timber in
Franklin county, Me, and yet scarcely
more than 100 persons are employed
in the industry in that state, says the
Philadelphia Times. Outside of the
pine tree commonwealth the principal
factories are in Pennsylvania, Massa-
chusetts and western New York. Ma
pie and poplar are sometimes used in
the manufacture of American tooth
picks. but white birch is the standard
timber in all the factories. The in
dustry is very simple one. First, of
course, comes the work of the forest
ers. In the woods of Maine every win
ter there are great camps OF lumber
men engaged in telling and hauling
out timber for various commercial
uses. Whenever the foreman of
camp comes across a particularly fine
white birch tree he orders it cut down
and the main part of the trunk laid
aside to be reserved for the toothpiclz
factories. That the vast supply of
toothnicks comes from a very small
quantity of timber is shown by the
fact that not more than 1000 cords of
wood are used in this industry an
nually.
When the logs first reach the factory
they are stripped of their bark. They
are then placed on trucks moving on
rails and pushed to the automatic ma
! chimes by which they are cut into
veneers, which are thin strips of wood
of about the dimensions of an ordinary
piece of plotting paper-that is, the
strips are about as thick as the tooth
picks are intended to be and as
wide as the picks will be long. The
machine works automatically and with
tremendous speed and is so construct
ed that the finished picks come forth
sharpened at both ends at the rate of
tens of thousands an hour. 1t requires
only a few weeks for the factories to
turn out a supply sufficient to meet
the demand for a whole year. The fac
tories are shut down again, to remain
until the following spring. The wages
paid to American workers in this in
dustry range from $3.50 to $3.50 a day.
Many of the toothpicks 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 retaining sufficient firm
ness. Kiln-dried wood is apt to result
in too much brittleness, causing sharp
splinters to break off, which injuTe
the enamel of the teeth.
The best toothpicks made anywhere
in the world come from Portugal.
They are whitfield by hand from or
angewood splints by peasant girls,
the only tool used being an ordinary
jackknife. These picks are as smooth
as ivory and will not break into splin-
ters. They are expensive. Few ho-
tells in Philadelphia supply them. The
girls who make the picks receive less
than ten cents a day. AS the duty on
the foreign-made picks is only 35 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 of Amer,
lean picks is almost exclusively on the
cheaper products. Some of the Portu.
guese picks are highly ornamented
with hand carving.
Next to Portugal, Japan sends the
greatest supply of toothpicks to the
United States. These are made by
hand from fine reeds. They. too, are
sold in close competition with the
American product, owing to ths
cheaper labor in Japan. The cases
in which the japanese picks are in
closed are fine specimens of skill with
the jackknife. They are of wood, cut
into strips as thin and delicate as
tissue paper, but very strong, The
cases are ornamented with hand
painted japanese scenes and are of {
size convenient to be carried in thu
vest pocket.