96 Discussion of Industries 
of strength and capability of taking a good finish is essential. 
The oaks are best suited with ash following closely. Outside 
finish also consumes a small amount of mahogany, maple, 
birch, and chestnut. Ash and elm are especially suited for 
slats in refrigerators, for ice counters or frames, where great 
strength, stiffness, and damp-resistance must be found in 
slender strips of wood. For inside partitions where the wood 
is hidden by metal linings, chestnut, spruce, and white pine are 
generally used. There has been recently a heavy increase in 
the amount of chestnut used for this purpose. Ordinary ice 
boxes for cellar use are sometimes made entirely of spruce. 
Ice-cream freezers are made of redwood, this species coming 
all the way from the Pacific Coast as the sole raw material 
going into this article. Ice-cream cabinets are made of the 
various pines. A large amount of white pine is used for 
refrigerator backs, and much of the yellow pine reported is 
also used for this purpose. 
The second largest item in the table is that of kitchen 
cabinets, the rather modern earry-all or storage place for cook- 
ing utensils and dry foodstuffs. Generally speaking, the prin- 
cipal species used for this branch of the industry are white 
oak, red oak, yellow poplar, sugar maple, basswood, birch, red 
gum, and yellow pine. There is much confusion in the uses 
of the woods, but the particular uses of some can be pointed 
out. Red gum, for example, is very generally used for drawer 
bottoms. Maple, basswood, birch, and ash are generally used 
for inside construction, and the oaks for exterior finish. A 
large amount of yellow poplar is consumed for kitchen-cabinet 
tops. 
Spruce is, next to ash, the most important home-grown wood 
in the industry, and the principal woed used for interior walls 
and partitions of refrigerators. It is the lowest priced wood in 
the list. 
There is not much waste in this industry. Larger firms 
report the manufacture of brackets of various kinds from re- 
frigerator dimension stock. Small blocks for brackets, carv- 
