Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1903-05-06
BIG OUTPUT OF TooTHp1cKs.
Many Millions Are Manufactured in
America and More Fancy Ones
Are Imported.

The1e is one article of manufacture
that is used so extensively in the
United States that no one has an idea
of the annual quantity consumed,
namely, wooden toothpicks. Accord
ing to an expert, the number is sim
ply incalculable. Millions upon mil.
lions of the tiny wooden sliyers are
turned out every year from American
factories alone, and on top of this ire
mendous output come importations
from Portugal and Japan and other
countries nearly as large as the domes-
tic product, reports the New York
Times.
Most of the American toothpicks
come from Franklin county, in Maine,
near the forest home of the white birch,
out of which 95 per cent. of the domes-
tic toothpicks are made. This wood is
soft and pliable and of admirable re-
sistance for the purpose for which it
is used. Whole mills in Maine are de-
voted to supplying the country with
toothpicks, and in the industry is to
be found some of the finest and most
intricate of machinery. So tremendous
is the output of these machines that in
brief season, during the spring.
enough toothpicks can be made to sup.
ply the markets of the entire country
for the year to come.
further idea of the capacity of the
machines may be had from the fact
that only 100 men are necessary to
operate and run all the mills in Frank
lin county. Other mills of this kind
are scattered throughout Pennsyl
vania and Massachusetts, and western
New York, but the real home of the
toothpick is Maine.
White birch is not the only wood used
for the domestic toothpick, maple and
poplar are employed as well, but birch
has the property of retaining it's for
est odor and sweetness.
The telling of toothpick trees is
only incidental to the regular lum-
Der work of the Maine foresters. No
especial men are sent out to hunt up
suitable trees. But whenever the
foreman of a gang of woodsmen
comes across tree especially adapt
ed to toothpicks he orders it felled
and laid aside. The branches of the
tree are then. trimmed and only the
trunk itself is transported to the
mills. There the bark is skinned and
the naked trunk is run through a
machine which sewers it into veneers.
"Veneers'' is the technical expression
for thin strips of wood no thicker
than piece of plotting paper and no
wider than the length of a toothpick
Once the trunk has been cut into
these sheets Of wood, only one pro-
cess remains to turn out the tooth
picks fit for packing and shipping to
market. The veneers are fed into a
second machine supplied with sharp
rotary knives that whirl at tremen-
dous high speed, shipping the veneers
INTO toothpicks at the rate of hun.
dreds of thousands an hour.
1t is only the so-called fancy
toothpick. that is not made in this
country. In Portugal. from where
most of the orangewood picks are i'm
ported, the sticks are sharpened by
young girls who, in return for turn
ing out picks" sharp as needles and
smooth as ivory, are paid three cents
a day.
The Japanese toothpicks are made
of fine reeds, and are distinct from
those sent to this country by the Por.
tuguese manufacturers. A Japanese
toothpick is delicate and thin as It's
sue paper, and nevertheless strong
and pliable. The Japanese toothpick
maker earns even less than his Portu.
guese fellow-craftsman,h his renumer.
alton being but fraction more than
two cents day. In short, a thous.
and toothpicks may be bought in
Japan for as much as it costs only to
pack and box 5000 of American make