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Show What Barrels Mean to Us I rpHE seriousness of the danger threatening the cooperago industry, in this country, through exhaustion of the supply of raw material, will bo in some degree appreciated when It Is oxplaincd that upward of 160,000,-000 160,000,-000 barrels, kegs and other such "circular "cir-cular packages" of wood for containing contain-ing merchandise of various kinds are manufactured In the United Statos annually. Civilization demands tho 'barrel. It Is tho ono kind of packago that satisfies satis-fies requirements for a multltudo of purposes. It Is cheapest, it is most durable, and it is most convenient In shape. Being inexpensive, it may be discarded at the end of its Journey when used for shipping merchandise. Modern machinery has made tho production of barrels very Inexpensive, and this is ono reason why tho demand de-mand for them has steadily increased. But, unfortunately, at tho presont time the cooperago industry '(so vital for war purposes) Is threatened with destruction by tho exhaustion of tho wood supply. A general wood famine has been froely prophesied, but whore the barrel-making business Is concerned con-cerned it has already arrlvod. Unluckily, only a few kinds of wood are adapted for making barrels. Indeed, In-deed, the Industry demands material of a quality even better than is required re-quired for furniture. The timber must bo solectcd with care, and the lumber, lum-ber, If It is to be first rate, must bo cured by slow air-drying under shelter. shel-ter. This Is especially true where barrels or kegs to hold liquids, which must be constructed with close-fitting tight joints, aro concerned. White oak is the chief material for barrels. One of the earliest usoa of our forest resources was of this kind of wood for staves. There was already a dearth of cooperage oak in Europe, and tho discovery of a new source of supply was welcomed. But the white Ifi oak has boon nearly used up, and barrol makers have already been H obliged to fall back upon othor kinds S of wood, ,auch as red oak, red gum, B cypress, spruco, white ash, elm, bass- H wood and Douglas fir. K Tho available supply of these 6ubstl- K tutus, however, is limited, and when K they aro gone there will bo nothing left K out of which to manufacture barrels. Rp What will bocome of the .cooperage In-dustry In-dustry then? And how will commerce after the war manage to got a.long jjf' W without these Indispensable recepta- 'v cles. Steel barrels for gasoline and alcohol are being tried, but they are jBjj. heavy and costly. Ifi Tho oil trade consumes by far tho n largest number of barrels about B .7,000,000 per annum. Vast quantities B of them are usod for flour, for sugar H nnrl fflf nvmn.. A tin Vinon nnmn 11 nails, roasted coffee, spices, crockery, J fruits and vegetables. There is an Immense Im-mense demand for barrels to contain molasses, lard and pork, dry paints, tobacco, to-bacco, cheese, candy, oatmeal, glue and snuff. It Is commonly understood in the trade that the life of a barrel is one year, but la reality It lasts very much longer than this. Most barrels are used many times. Thoy begin as sugar su-gar or flour barrels, perhaps, and then are sold to the farmer for shipping his produce to market It may bo that they are returned to him several times, carrying potatoes on the first trip, tobacco to-bacco or lettuce on the next, and so ( on, each cargo bolngjlghter than the previous one, owing to tho weakoned condition of the barrels. Finally they may serve out their termo as receptacles recepta-cles for refuse. Thus it may bo said that a barrel has as useful a life as any other manufactured article, and its career Is often a long one, filled with vicissitudes which bring It at last lj inevitably to tho fuel pile. ' rsfl |