THE CABINET WOODS OF THE FUTURE 



By C, D, MELL, Assistant Dendrologist, Forest Service 



WHERE shall we look for new 

 cabinet woods ? This is an in- 

 quiry very frequently made 

 by those concerned in wood using in- 

 dustries. Comparatively fev; of the 

 foreign woods now in common use are 

 of recent introduction. A number of 

 the important and well-known cabinet 

 timbers have been so extensively ex- 

 ploited that they are becoming scarce 

 or are difficult of access. The cost of 

 felling, transporting, and other handling 

 is so high that it greatly militates against 

 their use. Among such woods are ma- 

 hogany, cedar, rosewood, ebony, pa- 

 douk, sabicu, jarrah of West Australia, 

 and scores of others which are less fa- 

 miliar. These woods are so closely as- 

 sociated with certain special uses that 

 manufacturers are exceedingly reluc- 

 tant to substitute other woods for fear 

 that customers would regard them as 

 inferior. Importers are attempting to 

 bring into prominence some of the ex- 

 cellent cabinet timbers of India, Africa, 

 Australia, Philippine Islands, and Cen- 

 tral and South America, for there are 

 many in these countries that are equal 

 both in beauty and in quality to the best 

 now in use. For example, a great many 

 South American trees yield timbers 

 with remarkable firmness of texture, 

 exquisite coloration, durability, _ and 

 good weight. The same can be said of 

 many West Indian and Central American 

 woods not yet exploited to any great 

 extent. Among the several hundred 

 timber trees of Costa Rica, San Sal- 

 vador, and Panama, there are at least 

 forty that yield high-class cabinet 

 woods. 



A few of the well-known and highly 

 esteemed sorts, like the sabicu of the 

 West Indies and sapodilla and Spanish 

 cedar of Mexico and Central America, 



are now becoming rapidly exhausted, 

 and the prices are consequently high. 

 In certain parts of these countries, 

 there are trees yielding timber that can 

 be substituted and utilized to equal ad- 

 vantage. Lower priced woods are often 

 equally well suited for certain special 

 purposes for which some of the higher 

 priced sorts are now almost exclusively 

 used. It is hoped that this fact, to 

 which further attention will be called 

 later in this article, will aid in remov- 

 ing the prevailing notion that certain 

 woods are the only ones suitable for the 

 manufacture of certain articles of fur- 

 niture, and may help toward the intro- 

 duction of new woods with substantially 

 similar or even superior properties. 



One of the best known woods in the 

 world is mah.og2iny,Szviefcnia mahogam 

 Jacq. It is naturally confined to the 

 Western Hemisphere, where its range 

 is comparatively small, though by plant- 

 ing its distribution has been extended 

 to" southern Asia and tropical Africa. 

 This timber has been cut down for sev- 

 eral hundred years with a recklessness 

 that is as prodigal and wasteful as that 

 which has characterized the lumbering 

 of some of our own timbers. There is 

 a constantly increasing demand for ma- 

 hogany, and the exhaustion of this no- 

 ble tree is not far distant. Within a 

 comparatively few years the mahogany 

 trade with Central and South America 

 will be a thing of the past. 



In asking, now, what the possibilities 

 are for the introduction of woods suit- 

 able as substitutes for mahogany we 

 enter into a many-sided inquiry. There 

 is, of course, an enormous dispropor- 

 tion between the total number of woods 

 that will be offered as substitutes for 

 mahogany by importers and the number 



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