KILNS

2)/o to )0/o c.orc capacity due to solid edge-to-edge rtacl:rng. Bettcr quality drying on low tcmpcraturer with e fart revcnibrc cirsulation, Lower rtacking costs-just eolid edge-to-edge rtacking in the simplcst form.

California Manzanita for Smoking Pipes

Several mills have been established recently in the Santa Cruz-Monterey region of California for cutting pipe blocks from manzanita burl. This industry has resulted from a search for suitable woods to take the place of genuine brierwood which has been cut off from American markets by war conditions. The only domestic competition for manzanita is found in Kalmia and Rhododendron in the Appalachians; however, the supplies of these woods are reported to be limited.

The burl-forming manzanita species have a wide range of distribution in the California Coast Ranges, the rnountains of southern California, and the Sierra Nevada foothills as shown by the vegetation type maps of the federal Forest Survey of California and Western Nevada. Manzanita belongs to the same botanical family as genuine brierwood and the burls yield a similar flamegrain figure in the rvood. It has many of the same qualities that make briervrood a favored pipe wood.

The amount of available material is limited by the extent of brush fire damage in the stands. Fires cause defects in the burls. which often make them unmerchantable. It has been found that stands containing burlforming manzanita which have not been seriously burned in the past 25 or 30 years will usually yield burls suitable for pipe blocks.

The burls are removed from the ground by hand tools, stump pullers or tractors. Care is taken to keep them from drying until they are to be cut. The mills cut out the burls into blocks of varying sizes and shapes corresponding to individual pipe models. These blocks are boiled and then seasoned slowly before shipment to pipe manufacturers in the East. The manufacturer's cost is about three times the ore-war cost of Mediterranean brierwood.