142 



Table 95. Wood for Rollers and Curtain Poles, year tnding June, 1912. 



MANUAL TRAINING PRACTICE. 



Improved systems of public school education today endeavor to give not 

 only a thorough grounding in the usual elementary subjects but also offer op- 

 portunities to acquire the fundamentals of various artisan trades by methods 

 of practical work in the laboratory, the shop, or the field. These specialized 

 schools or departments are known as "Manual Training" and in connection 

 with the excellent system of public education in Pennsylvania there has been 

 established a large number of them throughout the State. They offer instruc- 

 tion in a diversity of practical courses. Important among these is wood craft. 

 Shops equipped with tool* of all kinds and with wood-working machinery af- 

 ford training in the making of many kinds of commodities and an insight into 

 all lines and processes of wood-working. Woods that are soft and possess 

 properties to work easily are naturally the kints in greatest demand. That 

 white pine, yellow poplar, and basswood head the list in Table 96, therefore, 

 is not surprising, but that so -small amounts of yellow pine and hemlock are 

 employed, these being the cheapest woods, is interesting, especially as these 

 woods are important in many wood manufacturing industries. If both the 

 red and white oaks hd been compiled under one heading, oak, this wood 

 would have been first in the table. Of the twenty species used, mahogany is 

 the highest priced and beach the lowest. 



