The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-08-23


 tablishments In the United States. cap italized at s3o.o0o,000, employing about 5000 men at an annual wage of $s,- 900 ,00D, and putting out a product with a market value of s50,000,000. The number of barrels and circular pack ages these men make every year ap- proximates 150,000.0 900. The loose cooperage Industry supplies the means for packing and shipping flour, sugar. salt, coffee, cereals, lime, cement, veg stables, hardware, china, glass, and like non-spiIlable articles. Barrels are preferred to sacks being handler | for shipping and more sanitary. The | tight cooperage industry looks after l the demands of the pork packers. the | oil shippers. the makers of glue and | paint. molasses and syrups, whiskeys | and wines. and such sptllable and leak able commodities.
 Because of the wide variety of com modities carried in the output of their shops. the coopers of this country keep their eyes more closely on | weather conditions and crop reports | than do the members of any other | trade. When It was discovered that l only three -fourths of the mills of the Northwests were grinding wheat in July. the cooperage industry was l threatened with poor trade, until a | later report showed that by the middle of August all mills would be found running their full time. then the skies grew brighter for the coopers. for flour barrels would be in as great demand as ever. The heavy rains of early spring caused many long faces. Tne summer gave more promise or good crops and now the late summer and early fall will bring bumper crops of vegetables. applies and other fruits that will call for arge supply Of fruit -. .as Af~ an average demand for molasses bar rels.
 The barrels produced every year are estimated to be worth about $3S,00O'- 900. and the industry consumes large percentage of the 0O,000, 100000 feet of lumber that manufacturing indus tries take from the forests every year. This industry will help mateflaiy IT reducing the acreage of standing tlm-
 Der. Already the depletion of fors4
 ests in certain sections is causing the center of industry to swing toward other places Saginaw, Mich. was once the chief home of the slack staye industry. Now 1t is northern instead
 southern Michigan that holds the trade of the State in that especial commodity. Where ohio once made 10000 staves' if now makes 1000. On the other hand, so far southward Is the center swinging that Louisiana now has ten stave plants wh ere 1t had one ten years ago. One center of the industry lies in a section that includes Arkansas.
 Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee | where the red gum still abounds. There is a great waste in stave and heading manufacture. Some l clever figurer from the cimmittee on l inc Conservation of Natural Re- l sources must devise some way to pre- | vent such waste. In the making of slaves only 60 per cent. of the log | Is used. while in the making of head l inRs only 25 per cent. is used. The l rest so far has been left unuttlized. l The supply of white oak. a great | factor in stave making, has caused a | decrease in exports in the past year, 1 and a raise in price. Last year the | decrease In exports was ten per cent. | the increase in price of exported coop | craze 20 per cent, cne-fifth of the
 annual output of white oak slaves Is usually exported.
 In making slaves. heading and hoops. some fourteen different Kinds | of wood are used. Elm leads in slave manufacture In slack cooperage, more l than one-ffth the total number of | slaves being furnished from this spe-
 cies, white elm. pine and red gum
 taken together make up one-half the material used in slack barrels In
 
 red gum, bass wood and elm furnish ing two thirds of the heading ma- terial. Pennsylvania as a State, leads the country in stave manufacture, though in the value of the slaves
 Michigan leads. Virginia makes near ly half the pine slaves used. Mis- souri leads in the manufacture of almost all the chestnut slaves. show ing a record of over four-hfths of the
 69, ,000, 900 made in the past fiscal year. Barrel hoops are in themselves quite an item of expense If taken in the
 aggregate. There are over 330.000. 900
 made every year for the slack coop
 craze use and their value is two and a half million dollars. Elm Is used
 almost exclusively for this article,
 though oak hickory, birch and ash
 enter in competition with elm in a
 small way. Ohio, Michigan, Indiana. Missouri, Tennessee and Arkansas
 make fve-sixths of the hoops used.
 Last years production of tight coop
 craze is said to have barely met
 the demand. The Pure Food law was
 largely responsible for the increased
 manufacture of tight barrels creating
 a stronger market for alcoholic pack
 ages to meet the demand on distll-
 lers~.for bonded goods Back of this
 demand was the heavy one of three
 years ago, when there was an enor-
 nous production of petroleum. 17,000,-
 900 barrels over any previous year,
 and like strong production of cot
 tonseed oil all of which was as great
 finish in the net of the tight cooper
 age industry. Prices went up, too in
 these past three years. White oak is
 used almost exclusively in this in-
 dustry and when other manufacturers
 found it. a needful thing in their bus
 mess the competition raised the
 price.
 Tn the production of sawed slaves
 for tight barrels. Arkansas leads. fol-
 lowed by Kentucky, Tennessee and
 West Virginia. With the depletion of
 oak forests came the attempt to make
 substitutes for the wooden containers,
 just as tanks are taking the place of
 barrels in the oil industry. Bottles have been used in large quantities for
 transporting and storing beer and ale, but nothing has been found to
 take the place of the white oak wood en packages for wines. whiskies and other alcoholic products. In the West, where the problem of securing barrels Is a big one. redwood and cypress have been tried but for trans portation these woods have been found too soft New Orleans. however. tried red gum last year In tight coop- craze with marked success.
 The export trade in cooperage pro- ducts Is a profitable one. One-ffth of the tight cooperage slaves made in the United States are exported. About -fifths of all exported slaves go to Europe, the other fifth to other North American countries. These white oak
 Q Cn