HARDWOOD RECORD 



35 



Handles for these and for the carpet sweepers must be made 

 from the very best hard maple and are graded very closely — in 

 fact, handles for these machines must be perfect. A high price is 



put on them, as the makers are sure to get a large percentage 

 of handles which are not up to grade and must be either reworked 

 or burnt up. H. B. A. 



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Utilization of Hardwoods 



AKTICLE FIFTY SEVEN' 

 THE KITCHEN CABINET 



TYnCAr. KITCHEN CABINET. 



In some respects the kitchen cabinet 

 is the evolution from the old punctured 

 tin-front kitchen safe in which was car- 

 ried the cooked and uncooked food for 

 speedy consumption. Tn other respects 

 the kitchen cabinet is different, because 

 within its various drawers, pigeon-holes 

 and compartments are housed the flour, 

 meal, spices and various condiments of 

 cookery, as well as the sundry utensils 

 employed in preparing the food. From a 

 crude kitchen cupboard the modern 

 kitchen cabinet has resolved itself into 

 a compact arrangement for the storage 

 of nearly all kitchen paraphernalia, as 

 well as for the materials that go to make 

 up the regular menus of breakfast, lunch- 

 eon and dinner. 



The modern kitchen cabinet is made 

 from various kinds and grades of lumber 

 and other materials, and varies in charac- 

 ter of construction. Perhaps the past five 

 years have seen this evolution to a new era in this ideal type of 

 kitchen furniture. Some of these equipments are very modest in 

 character and sell as low as ten dollars each, while others are of 

 very substantial and elaborate workmanship, made of the finest 

 woods, finished in an excellent way, and retail as high as fifty 

 dollars each. Today there is an annual sale of kitchen cabinets 

 that taxes the capacity of scores of large factories, and to the minds 

 of housewives they are recognized as important labor-saving devises 

 essential in every kitchen. 



The remarkable expansion of the trade in kitchen cabinets is due 

 largely to their convenience to the housekeeper, supplemented by 

 a vast deal of money that has been spent in exploiting them. The 

 old-fashioned housewife would have been disposed to think that a 

 high-grade piece of furniture like a kitchen cabinet was altogether 

 too expensive to go into the kitchen of the house, but with growing 

 good taste and belief that even this room is entitled to some respect 

 in domestic economy, the kitchen cabinet has come into being and 

 is now a permanent feature of practically every well-conducted 

 household. 



The old perforated tin-front safe, as well as the tin-top deal table 

 and the wood bottom chair has disappeared from the well-ordered 

 kitchen forever. One kitchen cabinet manufacturing house alleges 

 that nearly a half million of its cabinets are in daily use the coun- 

 try over, and this is only one of numerous concerns which devote 

 their entire plants to the production of these modern kitchen neces- 

 sities. 



While the ordinary and cheaper types of kitchen cabinets are 

 manufactured from low-priced woods, man.y of them now are pro- 

 duced in a make-up of which are involved red gum, white and red 

 oak, elm, hard and soft maple and black ash, and in some excep- 

 tional instances fine specimens of kitchen cabinet work have been 

 produced with an exterior finish of mahogany. 



Illinois is not a remarkably large producer of kitchen cabinets, 

 but this state alone in the production of these goods annually util- 

 izes, according to the report of the Wood Utilization Department 

 of the Forest Service, 320,000 feet of red gum; 300,000 feet red oak; 



300,000 feet elm; 200,000 feet soft maple; 

 2.5,000 feet white oak and 5,000 feet black 

 ash, or a total of considerably more than 

 a million feet of lumber, showing an aver- 

 age cost of upwards of twenty and a half 

 dollars per thousand feet. 



For the manufacture of kitchen cabinets 

 lumber is bought in both firsts and seconds 

 and No. 1 and No. 2 common, and largely 

 in 4/4-inch thicknesses. Considerable of 

 this stock is resawed for panel work, and 

 it often happens that considerable quanti- 

 ties of the panels are made from three-ply 

 veneers. 



These cabinets vary from three to five 

 feet in length and have an average height 

 of about six feet. Red gum seems to be 

 the favorite material for their production, 

 although the oak cabinet is also very popu- 

 lar. The compartment sections are usually 

 made of sap gum, cypress, basswood or Cot- 

 tonwood, and occasionally some yellow pine 

 is employed, and in the very cheapest sort, yellow pine is now 

 generally utilized. 



In Chicago there are about a half dozen manufacturing insti- 

 tutions devoting themselves exclusively to the manufacture of 

 kitchen furniture, including kitchen cabinets, but perhaps Indiana 

 produces more of this kind of furniture than a half dozen of 

 any other states in the Union. 



A canvass of this industry throughout the country should prove 

 profitable as a source of distribution of many varieties of hard- 

 woods, because the kitchen cabinet can be made of almost any 

 variety of wood of substantial growth. It is a trade that is increas- 

 ing rather than decreasing in volume, and it promises to constitute 

 one of the most important places for hardwood distribution of all 

 manufacturing lines. 



"Don'ts" for Exporters 



The Hardwood Manufacturers' Association in a recent circular 

 publishes the following paragraphs, which constitute good advice to 

 everyone having foreign transactions: 



Don't let the oflSce boy mail foreign letters short of postage. 



Don 't send letters to foreign customers ' ' dictated but not read. ' ' 



Don't forget the courtesies in correspondence which are still cus- 

 tomary in foreign trade. 



Don't try to dictate instructions regarding shipping documents 

 or other technical details, unless the letter is cheeked carefully in 

 every detail before sending. 



Don't assume that the legal requirements in shipping documents 

 are mere "details" which can be left to an inexperienced clerk. 



Don't let an export shipment leave the house without thorough, 

 expert inspection of every detail in the specifications, bundling, 

 marking and documents. In some countries there are penalties 

 for marking with a brush without a stencil. 



Don't ship something "just as good." 



Don't quote "dumping" prices to a foreign merchant, or any 

 other prices that will interfere with any business previously con- 

 tracted for by you. 



