26 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



have little or nothing to carry after the first onslaught upon the 

 resources of the forest is over. 



The instance referred to in California is not the only undertak- 

 ing of the kind by thi; Forest Service, to use and at the same time 

 preserve the forest resources. Precisely the same kind of work, 

 and on a very large scale, is being carried out elsewhere. At 

 first it was difficult to induce lumbermen of large means to buy 

 government timber. They feared that the restrictions under which 

 it must be cut — low stump, brush piling, cutting only mature trees, 

 and precautions against fire — would make logging too expensive; 

 but a few practical demonstrations sufficed to prove the fear 

 groundless, and now it is not difficult to find buyers of strong 

 financial backing who are willing to sign long term contracts. 



The examples are doing good. If the government can lumber 

 its land, and not destroj' its ability to produce succeeding crops 

 of timber, private owners can do the same. When this becomes 

 the rule instead of the rare exception, the lumber business in a 

 region will be as permanent as the agricultural industry. 



Nearly side by side with the tract in California which is to be 

 Numbered in the right way is a tract constituting a terrible 

 •example of the wrong way of lumbering wliich has Ijeen going 

 •on there for twenty years, and which cannot continue much longer, 

 because when land is reduced to a desert, lumbering must cease. 

 The tract in question has been worked in the old way — the way 

 ■which ruined timber prospects in many another region. It was 

 formerly as fine a piece of mountain land as could be found in 

 California, covered with dense forests of sugar and yellow pine, 

 fir, and cedar. Single trees cut from 4,000 to 25,000 feet, and the 

 tract contained hundreds of millions of feet. Lumbermen went 

 to work on it in the old way, cut, wasted, burned, with no interest 



in anything except the immediate rakeoff. Nothing was left, and 

 what was a magnificent forest twenty years ago, is now a desert, 

 a mass of rocks so white that winter snow does not change their 

 appearance. 



This is cited as an example, not because it is peculiar or unusual, 

 but for the reason that it lies so near the tract now about to be 

 lumbered in the new way, that the full lesson of the contrast may 

 be studied. One piece of forest land has been ruined for all time 

 by wrong methods, ihe other is entering upon perpetual useful- 

 ness by right methods. 



Fortunately, there Is a tendency to face about in some quarters. 

 Destruction still stalks in the lumber regions, but conservation is 

 gaining a little ground. It is being found out that -second and 

 third crops of timber are possible. Massachusetts and Connecticut 

 produce 180,000,000 feet of white pine lumber yearly, and it is all 

 second growth. It "s more than the total output of pine in Michi- 

 gan now, although that state was once the greatest pine producer 

 iu the world. 



As sources of freight there is little comparison between the 

 tract that is stripped of its timber once for all time, and the tract 

 which is cared for r.nd made to yield perpetual tonnage. The 

 latter is permanent and can be depended upon to produce its 

 share of prosjierity; the former is a dead weight on the community 

 where it is situated. 



Forest products yield enormous tonnage to transportation com- 

 panies — not less than 193,000,000 tons yearly according to sta- 

 tistics compiled by the Interstate Commerce Commission. There 

 is no necessity that it ever should be less. There is woodland 

 enough to grow yearly as much as is now being cut, but it will 

 not grow unless methods are changed. 



^™'j iTOiro5TO My)t ro i) 4m-^>;^!)M^twti'^^ 



Wood Disappearing in Barber Shops §^ 



At the present time an important change is taking place in the 

 manufacture of all barber shop furniture and fixtures, but more 

 particularly in the chairs. It is not so much a change of style as 

 of material. The use of wood seems to be losing ground. This 

 holds more in large cities than in towns and villages, but the 

 tendency is general. It cannot be stated in exact figures just what 

 ground wood has lost in the past two or three years, because few 

 statistics have been collected in a way to bring that point out, 

 but as far as Chicago is concerned, the loss of wood is very 

 noticeable. 



The Forest Service investigated the manufacture of barber shop 

 furniture in Illinois, for the year 1909, as far as the use of wood 

 was concerned, and the table which follows gives the result in kinds 

 of wood, quantity, and cbst. 



Woods T'sed in the JIanufactore of Bakber Shop Furxitlre in Illi- 

 nois IN 1900 



Average 



cost per 



Kind of wood— Feet B. M. 1,000 toot 



White oak 740,000 $40.99 



Uea oak -■ 361,000 46.63 



Birch 91,000 20.00 



Chestnut S3,000 23.00 



Basswoo-l TS.OOO 14.92 



Ueecb 50,000 20.00 



Hock elm - 25,000 22.00 



Southern nine , 24,000 28.00 



Yellow poplar 5,000 48.00 



Total 1,457,000 $41.99 



Statistics have not been collected for a year later than 1909, and 

 figures cannot be quoted to show the increase or decrease in the 

 use of wood for barber shop furniture since that time; but it is the 

 opinion of men in a position to procure reliable information that 

 less wood is used now than was used three or four years ago. 

 Knameled iron is taking its place This is true especially of 



barber chairs. A Chicago manufacturer of barber furniture stated 

 recently that it is now almost impossible to sell wooden barber 

 chairs in large cities, and barbers who still have chairs of that kind 

 ;ire getting rid of them at every opportunity. The makers of 

 enameled iron chairs usually accept the second-hand wooden chairs 

 in part payment for now equipment. The wooden furniture is then 

 disposed of to barbers in villages and small towns who do not feel 

 justified in making the investment necessary to equip their shops 

 with e."peusive enameled furniture. It thus appears that the 

 wooden barber chairs are going out of use. 



The reason for it :s not found in any objection to wood in the 

 matter of strengtlfc and beauty, but the style is changing. Boards 

 of health inspect bari'er shops pretty rigidly, and white enameled 

 iron is regarded as more sanitary in that particular place. No one 

 claims that it is more handsome than wood, or that the chairs are 

 more comfortable or more durable. 



The change to enamel has extended farther than the chairs, in 

 the barber shop equipment; but it is Jess complete elsewhere. The 

 fixtures are still of wood iu many shops where chairs are of enam- 

 eled iron. The fixtures include the frames of the mirrors, the 

 cabinets of drawers, and the shelves and brackets belonging with 

 the outfit. Along this line the change from wood to metal has 

 been shown. Wood has been satisfactory, and the only argument 

 against it is that it does not harmonize with the white metal 

 chairs. The result '.s that some shops arc making a complete 

 change. 



The new installments have not escaped criticism. Many people 

 object to the appearance of the dead white fittings of the barber 

 shop on the ground that the place looks too much like an operating 

 ward of a hospital. It lacks the cheerful warmness of wood, and 

 looks, cold anu uucsnn}-. The barber shop that banishes its 

 wooden furniture and fixtures may gain a point in the opinion of 

 hoards of health and sanitary engineers; but in handsome appear- 



