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Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



July 25, 1921 



YOU WILL not 

 appreciate the 

 Mengel grade and 

 the Mengel serv- 

 ice until you have 

 tried "something 

 just as good." But 

 will you not take 

 our word for it? 



y^ifj 



111 MeMQIL COMEWY 



INCORPORATED 



Louisville. Ky. 



THE PAST AND PRESENT IN MAHOGANY 



The Timbers of the World 



The cementing of the bonds of union between England 

 and America, the two great English-speaking peoples, 

 becomes easier of accomplishment the more knowledge 

 each possesses of the way of life and working conditions 

 of the other. Still more is this felt when the members 

 of an important industry such as that of lumbering each 

 becomes mutually interested in the standpoint of the 

 other on this particular matter. So this book on the 

 commercial timbers of the world by an acknowledged 

 English authority on the subject, which includes notes on 

 some forty of the chief woods of North America has a 

 definite interest for the American lumberman. Mr. 

 Howard has here brought to bear the experience of over 

 forty years' work in timber and his first-hand reports bear 

 the imprint of authority. 



in his notes on American oak he states that it constitutes 

 more than five-eighths of the whole supplies of oak for 

 the United Kingdom from abroad and says that this 

 remarkable result is not due to its superiority over other 

 supplies so much as to the enterprise and energy of the 

 American merchant in providing it in a suitable manner 

 and at a moderate price, while its transport is facilitated 

 by advantageous railway and steamer freights. In dis- 

 cussing the difficulties of specifications he suggests, with 

 a view to solving the conflicting problems of architects and 

 timber merchants, that timber should be classified in some 

 such manner as that adopted by the National Hardwood 

 Lumber Association of America, v^hich he considers 

 would enable those concerned to protect their different 

 interests. 



On the other hand the author complains with justice 

 that with most of the American timbers there is always a 

 difficulty in obtaining reliable supplies on account of the 

 fact that these always consist of several botanical species 

 mixed indiscriminately. Supplies of American elm, for 

 instance, may consist of the fine hard white rock elm or, 

 through less white and less hard transitional types, to the 

 soft swamp elm which is little wanted in England. This 

 practice he mentions with regard to American ash, oak, 

 elm, basswood and hickory amongst others. 



American lumbermen might here perhaps be guided 

 by the practice of the Government of India in its export of 

 Indian timbers to Europe, for every log in each consign- 

 ment is clearly marked so that the botanical species is at 

 once apparent. The many excellent timbers of these 

 Indian supplies, which are becoming increasingly impor- 

 tant, are fully dealt with by Mr. Howard, who gives 

 perhaps the first authentic reports upon them apart from 

 the official publications of the Indian Forest Service. 



• "A Jranual of the Timbers of the World. Their Characteristics and 

 Uses," by Alexander L. Howard. Macmillan & Co., London. 30s. net. 



AdolpK Preussler of Sheboygan, one of the pioneer furniture 

 manufacturers of eastern Wisconsin, died at his home in that city 

 on May 20 at the age of 74 years. He was a native of Germany 

 and emigrated to America in 1850. In 1880, with his brother, 

 he founded the present Plymouth Furniture Company, later organ- 

 izing the Sheboygan Novelty Company. In recent years he devoted 

 most of his attention to the Excelsior Wrapper Company. 



