162 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 
and soft. It is easily worked, and because of this fact is in 
great demand in Japan for various purposes, its chief use 
being in the manufacture of veneer. This industry, confined 
to Yamagata City in northern Japan, embraces ten establish- 
ments employing over three hundred people. In 1920, seven 
million sheets of veneer, each two by three feet, were manu- 
factured, worth from one to three cents a sheet, depending 
upon the quality. Its principal use is in the domestie trade 
for surfacing decorative boxes and fancy containers, but very 
little has been exported to the United States. 
For the manufacture of veneer the trees are cut in winter, 
the logs being stored in cellars to prevent drying out. They 
are subsequently cut up into bolts two to three feet long and 
split into quarters, all bark and defective wood being removed. 
A quarter is then placed in a clamp and in this position it is 
ready for the planing operation along the split end. The 
veneers are merely shavings made by hand with a big plane 
similar to that used by an American carpenter, only much 
larger, the blade being about six inches wide. A long bamboo 
spring pole may be used to supply an even pressure, the work- 
man simply guiding the plane backwards and forwards over 
the block. Fifty or sixty of the shavings are bundled together, 
these bundles then being boiled for approximately twenty 
minutes in dilute caustic soda after which they are immersed 
for a few minutes in dilute bleaching solution and washed in 
fresh water. To neutralize any alkali and to further prevent 
discoloration, they are thoroughly wetted with acid water at 
the rate of one part sulphuric acid to a thousand parts of 
water. While still wet the shavings are spread upon a smooth 
lacquered glass board, the edges being lapped slightly to make 
up a panel. The water is wiped off and paper backing ap- 
plied by means of glue. The sheets are then hung up to dry 
and later smoothed with a hot iron. Frequently faney-figured 
paper in color is used for a backing, which because of the 
transparency of the silvery wood tissue, produces an effect 
much in demand. In Japan this product is called Kiri-gami 
(paulownia paper), or when placed on the market it may ap- 
pear under the name Kiri-kyogi-gami (paulownia veneer 
paper). 
