610 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOJ). 



2. Gun-stocks, Wind-instruments, etc. 



For gun-stocks and pistol-stocks, \Vavy wood of walnut, 

 maple, birch, elm and sycamore is used, chiefly from the 

 lower part of the stem and the roots. Beechwood also is used 

 : for inferior muskets. [American walnut-trees were sold at 

 40 each for this purpose in 1898 (Laslett). Tr.] The 

 various wind-instruments, clarionet, flute, fife, etc., are made 

 from boxwood, and wood of ebony, birch, service-tree, maple, 

 and grenadil ; wooden pipes from bruyere (Erica arborea, L.), 

 alder, maple, birch and sycamore. All the wood used must 

 first be dried, and again from time to time laid aside to dry 

 during the making of the instruments, or it would soon warp. 

 Klingental and Markneukirchen in the Erz mountains are 

 the chief places for the manufacture of flutes, etc. 



3. Children's Toys. 



Enormous numbers of these pretty articles are made by 

 dovetailing little cut pieces of wood, also by the turning-lathe 

 and by carving. Sprucewood chiefly is used, between 60 to 70 

 per cent, of the whole, also wood of lime, oak, aspen, birch 

 and alder. Kegarding the importance of this trade, it is 

 noted that at Olbernhau in .the Erz mountains 1,000 to 1,500 

 tons, worth <35,000, are made yearly. The work is done by 

 manual labour and by machinery ; and there are factories 

 where only one special toy is made (for instance, toy-guns). 



Little animals which are afterwards painted to imitate 

 nature, are, in the Erz mountains, split-out from rings of 

 sprucewood, which have been turned on a lathe, so that the 

 animals are roughly formed along their radii. 



This vast industry, of which Germany had for many years 

 a monopoly for the whole world, has now taken root in other 

 countries, under protective duties, and toys are now exported 

 largely from America. 



4. Artistic Wood-Carving. 



The art of wood-carving attained its highest perfection in 

 the 14th and 15th centuries A.D., but after a long slumber has 

 revived recently. Moderately hard, fine and homogeneous 



