Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1874 — What Wood Is Used For. [ARTICLE]

What Wood Is Used For.

The last census, referring to the business of 186!*, reports 63,5)28 establishments manufacturing articles made entirely from wood, employing 393,387 persons, and using materials worth $309,921,403 annually. There are besides 109,512 industries in which wood is an important part—-for example, carriages, furniture, bridges, ships, etc., employing 700,915 persons, and using materials worth $488,530,844. If we assume that half of the class of mixed manufactories are employed upon wood alone, we have a grand total of 118,684 establishments, employing 7.439.840 persons, and using wood valued at $554,186,825 annually. We cannot conceive the consequences that would happen to our civilization were the supplies for these great industries consumed. While no one would wish to see the consumption of wood for use in the arts reduced below the proper wants ot the country, we. may justly hope that the economies of forestry and manufacture may be most carefully studied, and that there may no longer prevail that wasteful disregard of material which is now everywhere observed. It is hoped that the important lesson may be clearly learned, that timber culture is in many cases the most profitable investment of labor and capital when viewed simply as to the value of its material, to say nothing of the incidental benefits resulting to agriculture in the protection which woodlands offer to insectivorous birds. Although costly experiments have been made to find inorganic materials for the roadbed of railways, nothing has yet been found that will supply the place of wood; nor havs we reason to hope that the demand for ties will ever be less per mile than at present. At the end of 1873 there were reported 71,564.9 miles of main lines, and 13,512 miles of sidings and double tracks, making 85.077.9 miles of railroad within the United States. Of the main lines, 5,462.3 miles were in the New England States, 14,209 in the Middle States, 33.905.9 miles in the Western States, 15,316.4 in the Southern States, and 2,681.3 in the Pacific States. Upon these roads locomotives were running, and a large proportion of these used wood for their fuel. The number of ties used varies from 2,200 to 2,800 per mile. If we take 2,500 as a mean, we find that 212,692,500 pieces of timber, eight feet long and from six to eight inches between upper and lower surfaces, are requited to supply this single item. The durability of ties varies with the ranging from four to ten years. Taking six as an average, the* amount requited for annual supply must be 35.448,750 pieces, or 94,530,000 cubic feet. In considering this, we must remember that a large amount of waste occurs from hewing and from leaving the upper part of the trees, some of which are used for firewood, the remainder being a total loss. Northwestern Lumberman.

i The Laporte (Ind.) Democrat tells i this dog story: “ A large dog, about a i year old, belonging to a neighbor, who had. been bitten in his ears, had his head washed several times: with carbolized water. Several weeks later he saw one of the children of the family bath- . ing her head with liniment for the earache. when, watching an opportunity, he gets the Tmiment bottle on the floor, spills it, and dabs his own head in the spilled liniment, and then rubs it in with his fore-paws. This was witnessed byfour members of the household.” Paste fob Takts. —Equal quantities of loaf sugar, flour and butter ; mix thoroughly by beating with a rolling-pin for half an hour; fold it and beat it again and again. ‘ -V-