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Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



July 25, 191 



Veneer for Corsets 



A Vegetable Substitute for Whalebone Is Coming Into Use 



HALES ARE VERY SCARCE in the ocean, and 

 it is no longer easy to kill enough of them to 

 supply the demands for whalebone; besides, the 

 cost of the bone has advanced to a figure where 

 few are willing to buy. Fortunately, a fairly satisfactory 

 substitute has been found and the manufacturers of cor- 

 sets are making use of it. The substitute comes from 

 the tough, fibrous stem of the yucca palm. The stem 

 may be a foot in 

 diameter, occas- 

 ionally more, but 

 usually less, and it 

 is cut into veneer 

 and in that form 

 goes to the corset 

 makers. The ve- 

 neer is reduced to 

 strips of proper 

 width. The ap- 

 pearance of the 

 material is in its 

 favor, it being 

 white, clear, fib- 

 rous, tough and 

 strong. it looks 

 more like while 

 horn than like 

 wood. The body 

 of the wood con- 

 sists of interlacing 

 fibers resembling 

 coarse linen 

 threads, crossing one another like lattice 



VHI'.OUIX'I 



This gives 



porous structure adapted to ventilation. 



if it is desirable to bend the splints in particular forms 

 it may be easily done by first soaking them in water or 

 subjecting them to steam. This treatment renders them 

 soft and pliant. They may then be bent and molded as 

 desired, and when dried in that form, they retain it ever 

 after. This constitutes one of the most valuable char- 

 acters of yucca veneer, and fits it admirably for corsets' 

 and surgeons' braces. 



The supply comes from California and Arizona, prin- 

 cipally from the former state, and the supply is large 

 enough to meet all present wants and all that are antici- 

 pated for the near future. 



The yucca is called a palm or a cactus, depending 

 upon the viewpoint of the person who speaks of it. It 

 belongs to the lily family, but no person seeing it for 

 the first time would suspect it to be a lily. It looks 

 more like a thistle. There are eight yuccas in the United 

 States that grow to tree size. Among them are the Span- 



ish dagger of South Carolina; Spanish bayonet that is 

 the curse of Texas; Joshua-tree that is planted for orna- 

 ment where it can stand the climate, but whose native 

 home is in Utah, Nevada and California; and the Mohave 

 yucca, which takes its name from the Mohave desert, 

 where it attains its largest size and ugliest form. 



The last named is the source of most of the veneer cut 

 from yucca, though any of the other yuccas, that attain 

 sufficient size, 

 would probably 

 be as valuable for 

 veneer. The total 

 >utput of yucca 

 veneer is not 

 known. In Arm- 

 strong's "Wood- 

 using Industries of 

 California" it is 

 s cited that the an- 

 n'lal production ir> 

 that state alone is 

 39 800 feet, log 

 measure, which is 

 equivalent to sev- 

 eral hundred thou- 

 bt>nd surface feet 

 of veneer, the ex- 

 act equivalent de- 

 pending upon the 

 thinness of the ve- 

 neer sheets. 



The yucca ve- 

 neer industry is capable of expansion. The trees grow 

 in enormous numbers, though the trunks are usually fai; 

 apart, and in some portions of the yucca range no trees 

 may be found large enough for the veneer lathe. Some 

 species of yucca can be converted into food for cattle by 

 crushing the stems before they become too old and tough; 

 but veneer and provender cannot be made from the same 

 stem, because the trunk must be old and tough before it 

 is fit for veneer, and when it has reached that stage, cattle 

 could no more eat the crushed fiber than they could eat 

 wire. 



\I{ MOIWL DE 



