The Republican journal., 1908-03-19
tine BIRCH IS VALUABLE.

age person seldom has more Cnan d
passing introduction. The summer
visitor often gains fair acquaintance
with it's bark and learns that it is used
for making canoes. baskets and similar
ornamental and useful articles. In
some places the wood also supplies the
local demand for fuel. Outside OF
these uses, the public has little knoWl-
edge of the practical value of the birch.
As a matter of fact, it is an exceed.
ingly important wood in number OF
wood working industries, and there are
certain articles for the manufacture OF
which no satisfactory substitute has
yet been found.
The most important OF these minor
industries which are dependent upon
paper birch is the spool industry.
Practically every spool used in this
country is made from this species alone.
In the neighborhood of 20 million feet
of it, board measure, are cut every
year for this purpose, and OF this ABOUT
4 million feet are shipped to England
in the form of spool bars for use over
there. insignificant as a spool may
seem, its manufacture is by no means
an easy task. From the tiny spools
holding only 200 yards of thread, to the
large, three piece ones holding $1,000
wards, there is an almost lnnumerable
variety of shapes and sizes. Yet each
of these types must have every single
spool belonging to it precisely Identical.
In order that the thread may after
wards be wound upon the spools with
out difficulty, accuracy in manufacture
is a prime requisite. This necessity
has led to the invention of number
of very ingenious automatic machines
which not only turn the spool with
great accuracy, but also with great
speed, some of them at a rate OF a
spool a second.
In order that all of the spools of a
particular type may be absolutely uni
form. the wood must be thoroughly
seasoned before it is used and it must
also be of some species which holds its
shape after it has once been seasoned.
Paper birch possesses this quality to
large degree. and this is one thing which
adapts it so we'll to spool manufacture.
Another thing is the fact that it is hard
enough not to be easily denied, While
at the same time it is not too hard TO
work easily. 1t is wood particularly
adapted to all sorts OF lathe-Work ana
this is perhaps its most Important quail
fication, since it turns readily and pre-
sents a clean, smooth surface. Various
other woods have been tried as substi-
suites for it, as well as pulp and saw
dust, consolidated by hydraulic pres
sure, but none of these have as yet
proved satisfactory.
Still another industry which uses
nothing but paper birch is that OF the
manufacture of shoe pegs and shoe
shanks. These are used quite largely
in this country in making the cheaper
grades of shoes; they are also exported
to quite an extent to foreign countries,
principally to Germany and Japan.
The industry does not consume SO
much wood as the spool industry, but 1t
is nevertheless an important one in the
Northeast, and helps to make lnroads
into the forest.
The toothplck is still another article
for which the paper birch is used al
most exclusively. Perhaps it may seem
to some that so small an article as the
toothpick can not consume very much
wood. IN comparison with many other
things, this is relatively true of course;
cords of birch every year for this pur-
of toothpicks to England, France and
Germany have begun to be made, and
this is now an important part of the
industry.
The dowel and novelty mills also use
paper birch very largely in their work,
although many Of these also use other
hard woods to limited extent. The
bobbin and shuttle manufacturers may
also be included in this same class,
which altogether consumes nearly as
much paper birch as the spool industry
Still another very interesting pecu-
liarity of these industries, particularly
of the three first mentioned, is that
they not only contine themselves to
paper birch, but that they are also linn
tied almost entirely to Il very small
section of the country, Maine and east
ern New Hampshire. Although paper
birch is one of the few North American
trees with tranScontinental range,
being found from Newfoundland and
Labrador on the East to Alaska on the
West, it occurs in the United States
only along the northern border, and is
most abundant and most accessible in
the extreme Northeast. Maine, in par
ticular, is the great paper birch State,
and here large tracts of it in almost
pure stands are found. This is due to
the fact that the birch readily takes
possession of land that has been burnt
over, and the great Miramichi fire in
1925, together with other similar fires
of about that same period, gave it a
chance to obtain quite foothold there.
Unfortunately the paper birch is a
short-lived tree and becomes red heart
ed quite early in life, SO that many of
these stands are now over-mature, and
ought to be cut at once. The red heart
is inferior wood and can not be used
! except for the cheapest grade of spools
and novelties, SO that these old stands
are constantly decreasing in value. The
birch near the railroads has also been
very largely cut and the lumbermen
are having to 60 far back to get the
necessary supply. In the case of these
species, as well as practically all others
in the country, the decreasing supply is
beginning to make itself felt, and con
servation in its use must be practiced
if the Woodworking industries now de-
pendent upon it are to continue.
THE BEST CURE FOR collie IN HORSES