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Developing the Hardwood Habit 



The incidental mention in a recent editorial in Hakdwood 

 Eecord on hardwood becoming more popular in home building r.hat 

 what is needed is a broad campaign of education, touches an idea that 

 is worth more elaboration. This matter of educating the building 

 public and of developing the hardwood habit means a lot more busi- 

 ness for the hardwood trade, and it means better houses and that 

 home builders will be better satisfied with their homes. 



Xot only is there room for extensive boosting of hardwood prod- 

 ucts in doors, interior trim and floors, and finally extending to much 

 greater use of paneling, but there are many special points about it all 

 that can be taken care of and worked out in this process of educa- 

 tion and cultivation. 



As pointed out in the editorial referred to, it is the carpenter, 

 contractor, and builder who holds the pivotal position in the building 

 world. He is the man to keep in touch with. Many times a pro- 

 <lucer of hardwood has found liimself depending directly on the 

 whims and habits of the builder. Por example, there is the builder 

 who first starts using hardwood flooring. His natural inclination at 

 first is to want to get the hardwood flooring in as long strips as 

 possible. He talks long strips to his customers, and then wrangles 

 over the matter with the hardwood flooring man, kicks about short 

 stock in his flooring supply, and insists on getting more long pieces. 



One hardwood flooring man, speaking of this matter, said that he 

 had been annoyed so much by it that he had taken the matter up 

 actively with the builders and had been doing some demonstrating 

 with parquetry and with the short stock paved in with suitable 

 borders to show them how they could get a floor with more distinctive 

 <iualities about it out of the shortest stock, a floor really worth more 

 than that made of long strips without it costing them any more to 

 lay it. He has been persistently urging certain of the progressive 

 builders to get the habit of doing this and of featuring it in their 

 oft'erings. Of course that is selfish in a way, for it means giving him 

 a better opportunity to clean up his raw material and use his short 

 stock, but if it helps the builder at the same time without costing him 

 any more, it has served a good purpose and his selfishness is justified. 

 It is simply a species of the education for which there is room for 

 more in various branches of the hardwood business. 



There is another instance of peisistent effort along this line, 

 directed toward the architect instead of the contractor, which is 

 bearing fruit. That is the effort to push the hardwood veneered 

 door with a crossbanding of asbestos under the face veneer. The 

 promoters of this idea have been working on it for a number of 

 years and it has been quite an up-hill fight because a door of this 

 kind costs considerably more than a plain door on the one hand, and 

 it has taken a long time to convince the architects and promoters of 



big buildings that it was practically as fireproof as the metal and 

 composition doors. Persistent effort, however, is winning out and 

 today this veneered door with a fire-proofing sheet of asbestos under 

 the face veneer is not only being accepted by architects for office 

 and other public buildings, but it is carrying with it other woodwork 

 of the same class. Wood panels and trim treated in the same way 

 are now being used in some of the modern fireproof buildings, and a 

 steady and persistent campaign of education is putting wood back 

 in the place it belongs. 



Many specific instances of this kind could be cited where enter- 

 prising manufacturers ot woodwork for houses and buildings have 

 succeeded, by advertising and educational campaigns, in introducing 

 more. good hardwood into home building. One of the first and most 

 conspicuous was that of the birch veneered door which has been made 

 known the country over, and is not only extensively used now but 

 has led to the use of many other veneered doors and to hardwood 

 taking a very conspicuous place in the door trade, which was formerly 

 practically controlled by pine. 



Wliat has been done in the past is but a sample of what may be 

 doue in the future. Some may be going on the false assumption that 

 all the educating of this kind that is necessary has already been 

 done, and that there is not much more room to spread the doctrine of 

 hardwood in home building to the end of materially enlarging the 

 trade. There is really more room now than ever before and more 

 opportunity to obtain direct and immediate results from a campaign 

 of education. So far only a small amount of wood work has been 

 entering the average home as compared to what might be introduced 

 therein. The floor, doors, casing, base, picture moulding, when all 

 made of hardwood, constitute a good start, but it is only a start. 

 There are the stairways and then come wall paneling, overhead 

 beams and paneling, and often the building in of bookcases and other 

 articles formerly classed as furniture but now often included in the 

 home building itself and made a part thereof. 



There are many different people to reach and work on in develop- 

 ing this hardwood habit. An important class is that of the car- 

 penters, contractors and builders. There is the architect, and there 

 are the real estate people and speculative builders who build to sell. 

 It is only a matter of convincing them tliat they can increase the 

 selling value of their houses more than the extra cost involved to 

 include hardwood and they will take it up instantly. And finally 

 there is the great general public to reach and train to a taste for 

 hardwood. Right now, too, all of these seem to be in just the right 

 mood to receive favorably the many arguments which can be offered 

 in behalf of hardwood for interior trim and to develop the hardwood 

 habit. T. C. J. 



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^W ood-TJ sing Industries of Vermont 



Vermont is a small, rugged state, made up of green hills and nar- 

 row valleys. Its area is 9,13o square miles, its population 35.5,956. 

 It is among the smallest in size and lowest in population of all the 

 states. It is not growing much. Its population and wealth are nearly 

 stationary, and the habits and customs of its people are subject to 

 little change. The natural resources are moderate, but dependable. 

 Maple sugar and fine building stone are the best-known commodities 

 sent to market, and no alarm has been sounded that either is in 

 danger of exhaustion. The people appear to know how to take care 

 of what they have and to make the most of it. 



The state's timber resources have not been widely advertised, and 

 many persons will learn with surprise that, in proportion to popula- 

 tion, Vermont is hardly surpassed by any state in the quantity of its 

 wood manufactures. It might be added, too, that in quality its 

 forest products are of a high order. The thrift and economy of its 



jieople are proverbial, and the factories of little Vermont have worked 

 out ways to save waste which other regions might copy with profit. 

 Vermont in cooperation with the Forest Service has published a 

 report in the form of a pamphlet of IIS pages, giving the status of 

 the wood-using industries of the state. The period covered is one 

 year, ending December 31, 1911, and seventeen principal industries 

 and several in the minor class were investigated. Forty-two woods 

 were reported, all but three of which are native of the United States. 

 The highest priced wood was Circassian walnut, the second was 

 mahogany. No other wood cost an average of $100 or more, though 

 white oak came near it. Its average cost at the factory was $99.24 

 per thousand feet. The next highest in price was California redwood 

 at $75, and next to it was black walnut at $67.50. The manufac- 

 turers in Vermont pay more for the lumber they use than is paid by 

 similar industries in most of the southern states, but less than the 



