HARDWOOD RECORD 



33 



up. These articles are made of both solid and built-up stock, and 

 are principally of oak, finished in various ways. The concern 

 referred to buys a considerable amount of lumber annually foe 

 pedestal manufacture, and for this purpose requires a bone-dry 

 stock. A considerable amount of stock for various purposes is 

 bought in built-up squares made of %", 1%" or 1%" stock glued 

 together. Squares bought for this purpose will run from 2 to (i 

 inches in diameter and of random lengths. The wood going into 

 the squares at present is niostlj' gum, but with changing styles the 

 material also changes. The manufacture of specialties, and notably 

 of pedestals, represents a comprehensive field for the sale of 

 dimension stock. The above mentioned concern consumes approxi- 

 mately 100,000 feet of dimension annually. In lumber it buys 

 about 25,000 feet monthly. 



The manufacture of pedestals is undoubtedly a line of spe- 

 cialty work which has come to stay, as it has been put on an 

 entirely different plane within the last six or seven years. It 

 should form an increasing source of consumption for hardwood 

 lumber and dimension stock. 



Another line of manufacture in which hardwoods exclusively are 

 used is store or window display fixtures. Under former mer- 

 chandising conditions the retail store, except in the larger cities, 

 overlooked entirely the possible advantages to be derived from 

 attractive window displays. In a few instances the larger city 

 stores were well equipped to decorate their windows artistically, 

 but the development of the permanent window display has been, 

 generally speaking, of comparatively recent origin. With its suc- 

 cessful application in the big department stores it has been spread- 

 ing to the smaller towns throughout the country, and as a result 



a very considerable industry has been built up in the manufacture 

 of the necessary appurtenances. Formerly the retail store man 

 demanded brass fixtures entirely, but the choice is now running 

 almost exclusively to ornamental wooden fixtures. Under this 

 heading are a great many articles intended to most attractively 

 display the storekeeper's wares. There are various kinds of trees 

 for haberdashery for displaying gloves, collars, ties and shirts, 

 while the shoe retailer has an entirely different line of fixtures 

 consisting in the main of what might be termed a draftsman's 

 board in miniature. Hardwood lumber in various forms is used 

 exclusively in the manufacture of these fixtures, and oak seems to 

 have the lead in desirability. Mahoganized gum, however, as in 

 the case of the pedestal, is coming into considerable favor. Tho 

 raw material is bought either in the form of lumber and cut up at 

 the specialty plant, or in dimension stock from the mill. This 

 goes into the smaller parts, while the larger slabs, such as the 

 shirt-stands and the shoe stands, are made of three-ply panels. A 

 new idea in window decoration is illustrated in an accompanying 

 cut showing a window divider. This is used to block ofi: one dis- 

 play from another, and is portable so that the window space can 

 be apportioned in different ways. 



Pages could be written on the myriad of articles turned out by 

 the specialty man, but by the time it was finished he would very 

 likely have some new idea to add which might put some of the 

 other ones out of date entirely. Only a few of the most important 

 and apparently stable of these lines have been touched upon in this 

 article, and it certainly seems that, taken as a whole, the manufac- 

 ture of hardwood specialties would provide a very considerable 

 market for hardwood lumber and panel stock. 



|g>:awi^;^y3tmiTOi<!^^giCTi^!^^^^K^'i^:)j|^^3TT';iv/;^^;^ 



Yellow Poplar and Cucumber 



The question of the proper identification and classification of 

 various kinds of lumber is a constant source of annoyance to the 

 distributors of forest products. This is most notably true iu 

 cases of the various species of oak lumber coming from different 

 sections of the country. In other cases, however, the less abundant 

 species, in the form of lumber, are very often mixed with impor- 

 tant commercial timber trees growing intermingled with them when 

 their physical characteristics are of about the same nature. This 

 is notably true in the case of yellow poplar (Liriodcndron tulipi- 

 fera) and cucumber tree {magnolia acuminata). These trees grow 

 closely intermingled in southern Appalachian and Great Smoky 

 mountain regions, the poplar of course representing a much more 

 abundant growth than the cucumber. 



For all practical purposes it is feasible to include the product 

 of the cucumber tree in shipments of yellow poplar lumber, as the 

 physical characteristics of the two woods are very nearly of a 

 parity. The similarity of their cell structure can be readily seen 



in the two accompa- 

 ny i n g illustrations, 

 showing the wood in 

 thin radial sections 

 under a powerful mi- 

 croscope. 



An analytical key 

 of wood species 

 shows the two woods 

 to be practically of 

 the same classifica- 

 tion. Both are ring 

 porous woods, name- 

 ly, woods in which 

 the pores are ar- 

 ranged evenly 

 throughout the tex- 

 ture rather than 

 RADIAL SECTION YELLOW POPL.\R grouped along the 



rings of annual growth, and are of the same general size. They 

 are small and indistinct, but can be readily seen with an ordinary 

 magnifying glass. The pith rays in both species are small but 

 distinguishable, and form a point of distinction in the two woods. 

 In yellow poplar they are considerably larger than in the cucumber 

 tree, and in the illustration shown herewith it can be seen that 

 in the poplar they are mostly three cells wide and usually from 

 twenty to forty cells high. Those in the cucumber tree are usually 

 not more than two cells wide and from ten to fifteen cells 

 usually not more than two cells wide and from ten to fifteen cells 

 high. This difference in the width and height of the rays can be 

 seen under an ordinary magnifying lens, whereas the difference in 

 individual cells can only be seen under a compound microscope. 



It is difficult to give any specific manner by which a layman 

 ordinarily equipped can successfully identify the two woods in the 

 form of lumber except from his woodsman's instinct, but for accu- 

 rate purposes the most successful means of identification is found 

 in the character of the pitting of the cell walls. This requires 

 a powerful micro- 

 scope and thin sec- 

 tions made in a longi- 

 tudinal direction. It 

 will be found that 

 the pits in the ves- 

 sels of the cucumber 

 tree are long and nar- 

 row and arranged 

 ladder like. This ar- 

 rangement is tech- 

 nically described a s 

 scalariform bordered 

 pits. n t h e other 

 hand, those in the 

 vessel walls of yellow 

 poplar are usually 

 round or elliptical. RADIAL SECTION CUCUMBER 



