The Sugar Maple 153 



from rolling pins and wooden dishes to organs 

 and pianos. It is the wood used in many bowling 

 alleys and roller-skating rinks, and it makes a 

 handsome hardwood floor. 



The present uses of maple are rarer and more 

 expensive than those of years ago, when maple 

 was a wood of general utility. In the settlement 

 of America the homemade rifle stock was fre- 

 quently of curly maple, and a great backlog of 

 this same wood was found in many a settler's 

 fireplace. For rough sleigh runners it was often 

 used, as well as in much of the old-style wooden- 

 ware; the ashes were considered very good for 

 soft-soap making; and in the cabins were often 

 violins and homemade spinning wheels of this 

 valuable hardwood. 



Sometimes the grain of the maple has a beau- 

 tiful "curly" look. This is known as "bird's- 

 eye maple," and furniture made of it is highly 

 prized. Bird's-eye maple is merely an accidental 

 variety of sugar maple. While growing in the for- 

 est, some of the buds have been unable to push 

 their way through the thick bark of the tree- 

 trunk. They therefore remained beneath it year 

 after year, while the various layers of new wood 



