The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-04-07
sLACK.COOPERAGE WOODS
AND THEIR MANUFACTURE.
The Species Used for Barrels,
Kegs, and Tubs Studied by the
Government With View to
Economy.

/ Three hundred million barrels, ac-
cording to trust wogthy estimates, are
manufactured every year. OF these,
probably the greater number are used
to hold solid contents, such as floor.
sugar, cement, lime, and potatoes or
other farm products, and are called
slack" barrels, as distinguished from
tight" barrels, which are used for
Oil, liquors, wines, and other fluids.
Woods suitable for slack cooperage are
commoner lind cheaper than those
used for tight barrels, which were
once made exclusively from the finest
white oak obtainable, and which must
always require material of a high
grade. Neverless, slack barrels of the
better grade, notably flour barrels.
require material which, like elm, is
rapidly becoming scarcer. With the
enormous drain on supplies, manufac-
turers are already feeling the need of
economizing In the use of the rarer
woods and of finding .serviceable SUBJ
stitutes among those more plentiful.
In the past, the copperage industry,
which is highly fastidious in its choice
OF woods, has culled the best large
trees on hundreds of thousands of
acres Of forest, from which II can
not again obtain material for long
period. Moreover, the amount of wood
discarded In slack-cooperage manu-
facture Is necessarily very large, rang
ing from 45 per cent of the timber in
slaves to "a per cent in headings.
This discarded wood is in large part
not disable for cooperage, but some
OF it could, III many cases, be used for
the manufacture of small-dimensfon
stuff and other similar products. Here
again, as In the case of numbering.
lumber manufacture, and woodwork
Ing Industries in general, the question
OF the utilization of waste assumes
prime Importance. The necessary con-
sumption of all wood products not
only must continue, but must continue
to grow, and conservation of resources
must largely take the form of substi-
tuting use for waste. To convert the
great waste of the slack-cooperage
mills into salable products, and thus to
restrain needless forest destruction,
merits, therefore, careful study.
In consequence of this two-fold drain
upon supplies, first, in the exploita-
ton of the. forest and second, in the
high percentage of loss at the mill,
slack coOperage must now depend on
small holdings for supplies. In the
Northern states 1t is, like the vehicle
industry, commonly forced to go to
the farmers woodlot to secure timber
OF the needed dimensions and quality.
Even as it is, the average life of hoop
mill in Ohio is only about four years,
after which the manufacturer either
goes out of business or moves to fresh
fields. Throughout that state and
Michigan the large number of aban-
doned cooperage mills and the constant
shutting down of expensive modern
plants indicate the exhaustion of the
region. Under the pressure of these
conditions the industry is shifting
steadily southwark.
Manufacturers of slack-cooperage
woods are we'll aware, form their
long experience, of the difficulties
which beset their business, and are
ready to profit by any principles which
a broad study of Its conditions may
bring out. Such a study, however, they
do not feel" in a position to carry on
| individually. For this reason the
United States forest service has taken
up the subject, with a view to ascer-
tanning what improvements and econ
omies in manufacture are practicable;
what woods can be added to the present
list of cooperage woods; what woods