March 25. 1917 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Rough or Polished 



There is some excuse for failure 4o- appreciate many richly-eol- 

 ored woods, because most people who know them, are familiar only 

 with rough forms. No wood appears to good advantage in point of 

 color or figure, unless it is finished and polished. Even a diamond 

 makes a poor showing in the rough. There are woods in the south- 

 ern parts of the United States which are thought of as fuel only, 

 which are so beautiful when finished that their colors suggest onyx, 

 agate, or some other variegated mineral, but most woods of that 

 class are valueless as lumber because of scarcity and of small size 

 of trunks. They should go to the shop of the novelty maker to be 

 manufactured into paper knives, paper weights, napkin and cur- 

 tain rings, card and pin trays, jewel caskets, game pieces, button 

 boxes, canes, carvings, buttons, pen racks, dishes, candlesticks, 

 handles for knives and small tools, palettes, maulsticks, knobs, cas- 



OLD TIME KENTUCKY FIRE.\RMS 



The stock of the deadl.v rifle of the pioneer was often of yellow-wood. The 



revolver handle was of black walnut. 



tors, picture frames, musical instruments, small furniture, umbrella 

 sticks, gavels, steering wheels, brush backs, billiard cues, rulers, 

 etc. 



A little along that line of manufacture has been done in some 

 parts of the country. Tourists leaving Florida carry away artistic 

 carvings and turnings of native woods but the trade is small. The 

 Texas tourist has a limited choice of colored wood souvenirs. The 

 Californians, with fewer colored species and more tourists, have 

 made much of their opportunities, and samples of their finest col- 

 ored woods, manzanita, laurel and feather tree, are carried by trav- 

 elers to the four corners of earth but the finest of these woods, the 

 laurel, is largely wasted by using it for bridge floors and pumping 

 beams for oil wells. This wood, when seasoned under water, is 

 known to connoisseurs as "black myrtle," but as a bridge floor it is 

 no better than oak, and in so coarse a use its fine colors count for 

 nothing. 



The early Kentuekians were so favorably impressed with the color 

 of their yellow wood (Cladrastis lutea), that they shaped stocks of 

 it for the long and deadly rifles that made Kentucky famous; but 

 since the passing of the homemade rifle, the wood apparently does 

 not meet a single demand. Simmons does not mention it in his 

 report on the wood-using industries of Kentucky. 



Partial List op Colored ■ Woods 



It is not practicable to seggregate the woods used because of their 

 color from those not so used. There is no certain line of separation. 

 Choice is influenced by figure as well as color and often both go to- 

 gether. The following list contains some of the American woods 

 which are occasionally employed because a pleasing color is the chief 

 consideration: 



Species Where best developed 



Cypress (Taaodium distichum) Louisiana 



Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) California 



Red Cedar Uiniipcrus Y irginiana) Tennessee 



Walnut (Juglans nigra) Missouri 



Birch IBctuta lenta) Michigan 



Oak (Quercus, sp.) Indiana 



Laurel {Vmbenularia Valifomica) (water seasoned) California 



Cherrv (Pn/mi.f .\crotina) Pennsylvania 



Yellow wood (Cladrastis lutea) Kentucky 



Osage Orange (Toxylon pomiferum) Oklahoma 



Locust I Robiniii iixruilacacia) West Virginia 



Sumac (Rliiis liirta) • ■ -Ohio 



Mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) North Carolina 



BoIIy (Ilea: opaca) .\labama 



Catsclaw (Acacia wrightii) • i^^*^ 



Devilsclaw (Acacia greggii) i^'^^® 



Huisache (Acacia famesiana) Texas 



Lignum vitje (G-uiiarum anpustifoliwn) ijii f^^ 



Blackwood (Avicennia nitida) * lonaa 



Feather-tree (Circocarpus parvifolius) ■ California 



-Mimzacita i .1 rrto.slaplu/los nmnzanita i California 



Alganta (/;. r/x'W.s- triloliata) New Mexico 



Bluewood (Cnndalia obovata) Texas 



Mnsican waluut (Junlanx ritpestris) Texas 



Red bay (Persea borboniaf Florida 



Texas ebony (Zygia flexicaulis) ".'.'.". Texas 



Junco (Ka:berlinia spinosa) Texas 



Railroads Appoint Lumber Committee 



A committee to bring about more prompt transportation of lum- 

 ber from the South will at once open oflSces at Norfolk, Va". The com- 

 mittee represents the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad; the Chesapeake 

 & Ohio; the New York, Philadelphia & Norfolk; the Norfolk South- 

 ern; the Norfolk & Western; the Pennsylvania Company; the Rich- 

 mond, Fredericksburg & Potomac; the Seaboard Air Line Railway; 

 the Southern Eailway, and the Virginian Railwa.y. 



Much of the lumber traffic passes over the lines of these com- 

 panies. 



The committee will virtually act as a clearing house in handling 

 applications for special modifications of embargoes against do- 

 mestic lumber and forest product shipments which the eastern rail- 

 roads were compelled to place on .January 30, 1917, on account of 

 the general congestion and car shortage. 



The purpose of establishing the committee is to facilitate, as far 

 as is in the power of the carriers to do so, the granting of special 

 permits for shipments of domestic lumber and forest products when- 

 ever transportation conditions permit. This has been felt by the 

 railroads to be especially important at this time in view of the 

 heavy demand for lumber to supply the spring building operations. 

 The committee will be composed of the following representatives: 



SFMAXWtLL 



CALIFORNIA'S COLORED WOODS 



Pallette ol water-seasoned laurel. Maulstick of redwood. Candlestick of 



feather tree. Penholder of blue myrtle. Penra^ck, manzanita. 



Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, S. A. Stockard and H. L. King; 

 Chesapeake & Ohio, E. P. Goodwin; Norfolk Southern, J. F. Dalton 

 and C. P. Dugan; Norfolk & Western, H. L. Daw; Pennsylvania, 

 John T. Wray, chairman, S. J. Henderson and H. B. Arledge; Sea- 

 board Air Line Railway, F. H. Smith; Southern Railway, H. P. 

 Friedman; Virginian Eailway, A. F. Shafhirt. 



E Pluribus Unum 



That classic phrase is said to uiean: "Many are called and few 

 chosen." It is about the fix that the proposed lumber commission 

 to Europe finds itself in. The original proposal was to send half a 

 dozen or more men over. Their knowledge must equal the combined 

 knowledge of a dozen university professors on a dozen specialties, 

 and besides, all the languages of Babel must be spoken. Examina- 

 tions were held and re-held to sift out the incompetents. Scores of 

 applicants, who had supposed they knew something about the lum- 

 ber business, were marked zero on their examination papers because 

 they could not tell the difference between the Transcendental Ego 

 and the Analects of Confucius. It now appears, according to latest 

 reports, that it was all a false alarm, that there is no expense money 

 for the trip, and maybe one man will go, and maybe not. 



