Musical Instruments 67 
Tonawanda, Rochester, Syracuse, and Utica, are among the 
important centers of piano and organ manufacture. 
The number of active plants in the State is very small com- 
pared with the number of firms engaged indirectly in the pro- 
duction of instruments. This is because one active plant, such 
as a large producer of action parts, will sometimes supply 
scores of firms with its output. Likewise, one large plant manu- 
facturing piano cases will supply a large number of wholesale 
assemblers. ‘The piano industry is specialized and the firms 
engaged in the business are mainly manufacturers of one part 
of the instrument, such as action, case, or sounding board, 
while the great majority of wholesale firms are only assembling 
establishments. New York is also the headquarters for a large 
number of corporations that have active factories in other States 
and whose consumption of wood is not included in this study. 
Sugar maple is the leading species and contributes over one- 
fifth of the raw material, one-half of which species is reported 
as homegrown. It is one of the high-grade woods required by 
the industry, and no doubt its local abundance is one of the 
reasons for the concentration of the industry in the State. 
The industry consumes a great variety of woods, but most 
of them are used to meet the various styles in cases. ‘Such 
woods as maple, chestnut, white oak, mahogany, birch, walnut, 
cherry, rosewood, satinwood, Circassian walnut, and others are 
largely used in the form of veneer for outside finish and give 
a great variety of styles. Some weods, however, are used 
because of their special qualifications for certain parts. 
Spruce, for example, is perhaps the most resonant of woods, 
and its capability of amplifying sound makes it the most valu- 
able wood for piano sounding boards, organ pipes, and ribbing 
on smaller instruments, such as guitars and mandolins, as well 
as for essential parts of violins. One violin maker stated that 
in order to get old, well-seasoned spruce he was in the habit of 
buying spruce timbers from old buildings which were being 
torn down. Rosewood and other foreign woods in the form of 
veneer are important, supplying much of the material used in 
guitars and mandolins. Sugar maple and yellow poplar strips 
