HARDWOOD RECORD 



19 



manufacturer of uortberu hardwoods gets 

 but a small quantity of balm of Gilead logs, 

 and many do not even pile the wood sepa- 



;alm of gilead. 



rately, but put it in with cull lumber of 

 ether varieties. 



The wood is very easily affected by the 

 atmosphere and owing to its weakness of 

 fibre will stand very little exposure to the 

 weather. In fact, after it is piled out of 

 doors for two years it ' ' dotes ' ' to such an 

 extent as to almost disintegrate, and be- 

 comes of practically no value. While balm 

 of Gilead contains a fair percentage of clear 

 lumber, averaging about twenty logs to the 

 thousand, owing to its physical defects and 

 paucity of stand it probably will never cut 

 any considerable figure in the commercial 

 woods of the world. In 1907 it brought $16 

 per thousand feet. The fact that it is a 

 very fast growing tree accounts largely for 

 its physical defects. 



The individual specimen shown in con- 

 nection with this article is from a photo- 

 graph made by the editor of the Record 

 on the north shore of Grand Island, in 

 Munising bay, Lake Superior. The gentle- 

 man standing beside the tree is Thomas B. 

 Wyman of Munising, forester for the Cleve- 

 land Cliffs Iron Company. Mr. "Wyman has 

 been engaged with this great iron and tim- 

 ber corporation for several years, and has 

 general charge of the company's forestry 

 and timber operations; he is a graduate of 

 the Schenck forestry school at Biltraore, 

 N. C. The group of balm of Gilead trees, 

 with a birch tree in the center, was also 

 pictured on Grand Island, and is unusual, 

 as the growth rarely occurs in groups, but 

 is scattered through hardwood and cedar 

 stands in individual specimens. The half- 



tone engraving of the leaf shows all its 

 characteristic features; it is pictured a little 

 than actual size. 



LEAF OF BALM OF GILEAD. 



Ehe Utilization of HardWoods 



The Presidential chair is, at this time es- 

 pecially, a subject of general interest, and 

 theiefore of much discussion. It is not the 

 purpose of this article to tell how the "Big 

 Stick ' ' might be wielded most advantageous- 

 ly, but rather how it might be cut up into 

 smaller pieces and utilized. We believe, after 

 having seen a few of the many different 

 styles of chairs turned out by the modern 

 manufacturers, that, for every possible use a 

 separate type of chair is on the market to- 

 day. 



Tlie manufacture of chairs is of national 

 importance. This is due to the fact that in 

 this line especially convict labor is employed 

 to a surprisingly large extent. In Kentucky 

 Tnany of the state convicts arc engaged in 

 this work, as also those in the prisons of De- 

 troit, Mich. Of course the very cheapest 

 grades of chairs are made by these men, be- 

 cause such types do not require any great 

 skill in manufacture. 



The kinds of lumber used in the making 

 of chairs follow closely the prevailing styles 

 of other furniture. In the days when walnut 

 was the principal wood used in the base and 

 casing and in the furnishing of the house, 

 the majority of chairs were made of this ma- 



Choirs. 



terial. Later followed cherry, birch, and 

 then oak, although the finest chairs made 

 during all these periods were of mahogany. 



CAFE CHAIR, SADDLE SEAT. 



and in fact, these still bring the highest 

 prices. The cheaper grades of chairs for 

 )nany years were nmde of Michigan, or soft 



elm, and this wood is still largely used, but 

 when, a few years ago, elm scored such a 

 marked advance in price the manufacturer 

 began substituting gum for it, and today 

 millions of feet of gum are being consumed 

 in the manufacture of chairs alone. 



Following the modern theory that there is 

 no such thing as waste, the chair manufac- 

 turer has opened to the sawmill man a source 

 of revenue wliich formerly was entirely over- 

 looked. This is in regard to dimension stock. 

 Not many years ago the refuse and waste 

 lumber of an ordinary mill was considered 

 an irredeemable loss, being only fit for burn- 

 ing; today even the smallest pieces are cut 

 into dimension stock by means of the rip and 

 cut-off saws, and shipped direct to the chair 

 factories. This is especially true of the mill 

 whose output is largely oak, and in fact nu- 

 merous dimension mills have lately been es- 

 tablished at points where low-grade oak can 

 be readily concentrated. Although if cut into 

 ordinary boards such lumber would undoubt- 

 edly be cull, yet when onlv small dimension 

 stock is required many first-class pieces are 

 obtained. That such a system is entirely 

 practical is shown by the fact that during 

 the recent "hnrd times" the mill catering to 



