The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-21
WOOD FOR OPEN FIRES.
PLENTY or HTCKORY ~ SIGHT
ron THE CTTY'S USE.
Dr;TtwOOd with Its Rainbow Tinted Flames
Harder 10 Get-WOOdeR Sheathing
or whaling SHIPS Used since Wreck
supply Gave Out-"DriftwOod."

The city dealer in hickory wood for open
fires does occasionally ship an order for
Use in a country house, but not often. As
a rule the owner OF a country estate finds
the wood for his open fires on his own prop
erty.
If for any reason a tree on the property
il to be cut down il is not wasted, but II in
any way suitable il is cut up and used in
part, at least, for fires in open freplaces.
And some owners having houses in city
and country, too, supply their town house
with wood for its open fires from the same
source.
The hickory burned in open fires in this
city comes from a range OF territory east
OF the Alleghenies stretching from YER
mont to North Carolina. With the large
and constantly increasing consumption Of
il in this use it might be supposed that
the supply would be exhausted, but il is
not yet.
One New York concern dealing largely
in hickory owns in Virginia 1900 acres Of
woodland in which there Is more or less
hickory. Here, for instance, hickory trees
! strictly suitable growths, all smaller hick-
ory timber being left standing to be culled
out in due time. And there are other
forest owners who follow the same plan.
Sometimes hickory into the mar
ket unexpectedly. There are men who
have a love for the hickory tree, and here
or there may be a farmer who has on his
! place a clump or a grove OF fine hickory
trees which he will never sell. ~
But his heirs may not have for these
trees the same feeling Of affection. They
might prefer the two, three, OF four thou
sand dollars hat the trees would bring for
iirewood, and when he dies they may cut
the hickory and stack it up and sell II.
There are dealers looking for hickory
and there are owners Of hickory trees who
know their valUe looking for a market, and
while the area from which the supply for
this market il drawn N in a way limited,
still it " q tolerably wide stretch OF country,
and like all others, hickory trees grow
and so, while II il getting scarcer, there is
still a supply Of hickory Tor open fires for
those to whom hat luxury appeals.
Driftwood for open fires, the Woo from
old ships that gives out when burned flames
OF the hues Of the rainbow owing TO it's
-impregnation with copper, from copper
bolts and shesthing, Is another matter,
for driftwood doesn't grow. Originally the
driftwOod sold in cities was gathered from
old wrecks along shore, but with that
source exhausted ecour was had to the
wooden sheathing stripped from whaling
vesseD when these vessels cane into port
to rent, which now constitutes the CON-
mercial supply.
Down East, in a New England city OF an
! Gent whaling renown, there h a business
concern that makes a speciality Of his
driftwood, buying up and selling all the
sheathing Of that character 10 be had at
that port. And when, not very long since,
the supply Of II ran short there this con-
Germ bought in San Francisco the strippings
from q whaling vessel reftted at that port
and had this material shipped around the
Horn TO its own headquarters ON this coast
for packing and distribution from there,
and II Is distributed widely.
For while hickory wood for open fires
rarely gets beyOad the confines Of the city
10 which Il N originally shipped. driftwood,
which has no local natura souroe OF supply,
y. packed IN barrels. shipped everywhere
like any other commodity