Tupelo is like hickory in one respect--factories use more wood than the sawmills cut. The shops and manufacturing plants of ten states use as much tupelo as is cut by all the sawmills in the United States. These states are Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, and Texas. The reason for factory use exceeding the sawmill cut is that much reaches factories, in the form of veneer, which does not pass through a sawmill. The lumber output of most of the timber trees of this country is from one-third to one-half greater than the factory use. The difference represents the rough lumber used, and which never goes to a factory. Tupelo lately entered the general market, but the yearly demand now exceeds 100,000,000 feet. Its uses range from boxes and cheap handles to interior finish and material for musical instruments. It is particularly liked for containers for berries and small fruits, on their way to market. Its whiteness and clean appearance fit it for that use. Higher grades of shipping boxes are also made. Wholesale grocers order largely of this wood for spice, coffee, and tea boxes. These commodities are exacting in their requirements because their odor, which is often regarded as the criterion of their value, must not be impaired. A wood with an odor of its own is immediately ruled out. Cigar box makers use tupelo, sometimes as thin lumber for the whole box, but usually as backing over which to lay a thin veneer of Spanish cedar. Plug tobacco boxes are also made of tupelo. In Illinois and Michigan tupelo is listed among woods manufactured into pianos, organs, mandolins, and guitars. In Maryland they make scows and barges of it. In Arkansas and Louisiana it is worked into excelsior and slack cooperage stock. It is a favorite wood in Mississippi for pumplogs and broom handles. Its leading reported use in Texas is for porch columns. In Missouri it is manufactured into laundry appliances, such as washboards, clothes racks, and ironing boards. In nearly all manufacturing centers of the country it is made into furniture and interior finish. It is frequently substituted for yellow poplar in panels, not only in furniture and cabinet work, but in carriage bodies. The supply of tupelo in southern forests is fairly large, and will meet demand for some years, but it is a tree of slow growth, and when present stands are cut, a new supply will probably never come.