HARDWOOD RECORD 



13 



SKIIiWAV OF BASSWOOD COGS AT A WIS- 

 CONSIN VEX EKi: FACTOEY. 



foot. It is erne of the softest and most 

 easily worked of the so-called hardwoods 

 of commerce. It has neither smell nor 

 taste. The grain is very fine and even, 

 though open. The surface is lustrous in 

 radial section. The uses of the wood are 

 multitudinous. It is employed for beveled 

 siding, house finish, moldings, woodenware, 

 cheap furniture and for drawer ends, backs 

 and bottoms, and backing of high-class fur- 

 niture, panels and bodies for carriages and 

 sleighs, boxes, turnery, paper pulp and 

 boards, and is very largely employed lat- 

 terly in the rotary veneer industry. In the 

 1 1 neer trade it is used not only as a base 

 on which to veneer higher classed hard- 

 woods, but also as an individual piece, or 



in three or five-ply, for an infinity of pur- 

 poses. The wood is growing in the estima- 

 tion of the foreign trade and is exported in 

 the form of legs, and occasionally in boards 

 and p]anks. 



The color of the w [ is ecru white, and 



is remarkably uniform, although s etimes 



tinge, 1 with red mel occasionally its appear- 

 ance is marred by small dark-colored 

 streaks. The rings are very inconspicuous, 

 but clear under a lens, when the boundary 

 line appears whiter. The contour is undu- 

 lating. The inner bark of basswond is \ery 

 tough ami the aborigines employed it in 

 making coarse ropes. 



The European linden is sometimes mis- 

 taken for basswood, to which it bears seme 

 resemblance, notably in the leaves. How- 

 ever, the European growth is rarelj over 

 thirty-five to forty feet high, and its top 

 usually tapers to a point. The botanical 

 difference is found in the flowers. In the 

 European variety there is no petal-like scale 

 attached to the stamens, and the wood has 

 very little commercial value. 



The basswood bloom contains a super- 

 abundance of sweets, which makes it a 

 favorite source of saccharine supply for the 

 honey-bee and often the hollow trunk of a 

 giant basswood is made the hive of wild 

 bees, thus explaining the appellation of bee- 

 tree, prevalent in many rural sections. The 

 honey gathered by bees from basswood 

 bloom is dark in color and has a remarkably 

 fine flavor and sweetness. 



Within the United States the highest type 

 of basswood grows in northern Wisconsin 





FLOWER. LEAVES AND FRUIT OF BASS- 



Win ID. 



and in the upper peninsula of the state of 

 Michigan. There the wood seems to attain 

 absolute perfection. The proportion of 

 clear lumber is remarkably high and the 

 wood is free from blemish or defect, and 

 when properly seasoned goes upon the mar- 

 ket with an absolute perfection of color 

 and excellent physical qualities. 



Pictured herewith is a typical specimen of 

 Wisconsin basswood in forest growth, and a 

 skidway of basswood logs piled at a veneer 

 factory. 



Anecdote, Incident and Observation. 



Handicapped. 

 B. F. McMillan of B. F. McMillan & 

 Brother, McMillan, Wis., tells a good story 

 on himself, lie is one of those not unusual 

 individuals who invariably take possession 

 of their companion's lend pencils. One day 

 a while ago, a lumber buyer showed up at 

 the McMillan plant, and, after going over 

 the stock of lumber in company with Mr. 

 -McMillan, repaired to the office, and taking 

 ' lead pencil from his pocket, calculated a 

 proposition on a lot of the stock. Mr. 

 McMillan immediately reached for his cus- 

 tomer's pencil, and figured out a counter 

 proposition. A few moments later the man 

 1 ipped into his pocket for another pencil 

 and made a second proposition. McMillan 

 grabbed the peneil and made a counter pro- 

 posal. Thus the matter went on for some 

 time, when eventually the buyer, feeling in 

 his vest pocket, observed to McMillan. 

 "Say. Mac, if I had another pencil I would 

 make you another proposition." On McMil- 

 lan's making an inventory of the contents of 

 his vest pocket he found that he had relieved 

 his would-be patron during the day of just 

 31 ■ en lead pencils. 



A Millionaire as a Bootblack. 

 Than 1 ash M. Carrier of Buffalo there 



is no lumberman fonder of his joke. Mr. 

 1 airier is nowadays ranked as one of the 

 wealthy lumbermen of the country, being 

 heavily interested in timber lands in Mis- 

 sissippi, Arkansas and Cuba, besides having 

 important sawmill interests at Sardis, Miss. 

 It is related that some years ago, when his 

 fortune was not so considerable as it is 

 today, but still at a time when he was 

 looked upon as a rich man, he was conduct- 

 ing a lumber manufacturing operation at 

 Brookville, Pa. While he maintained a 

 home at that sawmill town, he and his 

 family ordinarily took their meals at the 

 \ ill.ige hotel. Like all lumbermen, he is a 

 man who never has been particularly punc- 

 tilious about his dress, and it happened that 

 frequently he was about the office of the 

 hotel arrayed in a pea-jacket. One day a 

 New York drummer mistook Mr. Carrier 

 for the hotel porter and brusquely ordered 

 him to get busy and black his shoes. Mr. 

 Carrier apparently took the command as a 

 matter of course, and, knowing the location 

 of the porter's blacking kit, succeeded in 

 polishing the drummer's shoes to his entire 

 satisfaction. When he had finished the 

 commercial man handed him a dollar, which 

 Carrier immediately slipped into his pocket 

 and walked away. 



"Here, you," shouted the drummer, 

 "where is my change?" 



"You have no change coming to you, " 

 answered Carrier, "a dollar is the price 

 when I black a man's shoes." 



Thereupon some bystanders who had been 

 enjoying the situation explained to the 

 drummer that he had been having his boots 

 blacked by the commercial autocrat of all 

 that part of Pennsylvania. The humor of 

 the situation appealed to him, and, in place 

 of making any further demands for the re- 

 turn of his change, he bought drinks for 

 the crowd. 



A Fair Notice. 



A good story leaks out from the office of 

 P. G. Dodge & Co. over on Lumber street. 

 Mr. Appleby, one of Ed. Dodge's chief as- 

 sistants, on dropping into the office recently 

 found a note on a spindle, written by one of 

 the teamsters who had recently return. 



• ard from the deliver-- of a lot of lum- 

 ber, and addressed to him. The 

 as follow a ■ 



''Mr. Appleby: Please go down to Max- 

 well Brothers and e a kick." 



If Mr. Appleby went he surely had suit- 

 able advance notice of what he was going 

 after. 



