The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1907-07-10
Washington Letter.
tI3y James S. AIcCarthy.)

Washington, D. c.. July-A compil-
alton by the Forest Service of the Un
tied States Department of Agriculture
of the reports received from over 1000
saw mills in the United States upon their
operations in 1905 shows the proportion
of lumber kiln-dried and the proportion
surfaced, amount of slab wood. sold and
the proportion of logs out on lands be-
longing to the saw mill operators. No
figures along these lines are available
for New York, and none are given for
several of the States in which the cut
was very small.
The States in which the largest pro-
portion of lumber is kiln-drled by mar
ufacturers are South Carolina, with 3l.3
per cent: North Carolina, with 36.3 per
cent: Florida. with 35.9 per cent; Ala
bama. with 34.S per cent; and Georgia,
with 30.6 per cent. In other States the
amount is less than 80 per cent. Alto
ge;her, l,G42 mills reported the use OF
dry kilns.
\ large amount OF the pine cut in the
South is kiln-dried in order 10 reduce its
shipping weight. and this is especially
true or loblolly or North Carolina pine.
Kiln-drying is practiced to a less extent
in the Rocky Mountain and Pacific
coast States, and very little lumber is
kiln-dried by the saw mill operators in
the hard wood region Or where the cut
is principally by portable lsills For the
country as whole. about l5 per cent OF
the lumber out is kiln-bried at the mill.
4 much larger proportion of the ont
\ lie 40 ic III In -6 los 16
Of the mills reporting, more than $500
surfaced portion OF their cut. For the
country as a whole, at least 33 per cent
is surfaced before it is shipped. In this
respect Iowa leads, with 77.2 per cent
surfaced: but this is because most of the
lumber cut 10 that State is in L few big
mills along the Mississippi which
operate exclusively on northern pine.
Aside from Iowa, the States in which
the larger proportion of the cut is sur
faced at the saw mill are Texas, with
Ill per cent; Louisiana, with 60.3
per cent: Idaho, 59.4 per cent: Montana,
55.2 per cent: and Arkansas, with 500
per cent. In all the other States less
than half the cut is surfaced ov the saw
mill operators, and, as in kiln-drying, q
relatively small proportion OF the total
cut is surfaced in the hard Eood regions.
Some 1000 mills reported sales of slab
wood sold totaiinG 3,503, 2S7 cords.
Washington leads in this respect, with
569.23l cords, followed by Michigan,
with 525, SIS cords: Wisconsin, with $685.
47S cords: and Virginia, with 1882
cords. It is probably safe to assume
that slab and waste wood brought on
an average ST a cord; hence its sale was
considerable source OF revenue to
many mills.
Considering only the important
lumber-producing State. it is interesting
to note that the proportion Of output
reported as sawed from logs cut on the
lands owned by the saw mill operations
range from 97.4 per cent in California
to 34.5 per cent Il Washington. The
lumber companies in California do their
logging largely on their own holdings,
and get but relatively small quantity
of logs from other sources. In Wash
ington most OF the logging is done by
firms which buy stumpage and deliver
logs to the saw mills for fixed con.
tract price, so in this case the operator
of Il mill may own little or no tim
berland.