52 USES OF COMMERCIAL, WOODS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



In some of the sawmill towns of Michigan, where sawdust was 

 superabundant, it was turned to accoount by paving streets with it, 

 packing it down as a macadam road is built. The result was usually 

 satisfactory. 



When Minneapolis laid its white-cedar pavements it used 2-inch 

 white-pine planking as a foundation on which to lay the blocks. 



Between 1860 and 1870 Brooklyn paved some of its streets with 

 white pine blocks which had been dipped in coal tar. They gave an 

 average of 6 years' service. The city of Toronto laid a small 

 amount of white-pine pavement in 1895, but found it a less satis- 

 factory wood for that purpose than the northern white cedar. 



No other wood equaling white pine has been found in this country 

 for pattern making, though fairly satisfactory substitutes have been 

 found in yellow poplar, redwood, and a few others. The pumpkin 

 pine was the best, but that can no longer be had. The pattern maker 

 wants a soft, solid material, and spongy woods and those of crooked 

 grain and with knots will not do. Modern lumber yards supply 

 little that meets the requirements, because old, mature trees grown 

 in fertile soil the kind that yielded pattern wood are now very 

 scarce. Pattern makers buy the frames of old mills and other 

 buildings, erected and perhaps abandoned 20 to 40 years ago in 

 Michigan and Wisconsin, and use the pine beams and timbers. The 

 timbers taken from old mills and barns in northwestern Pennsyl- 

 vania have been put to the same purpose. 



White pine is one of the many woods manufactured into excelsior. 

 It also furnishes a large part of the wood made into matches in this 

 country. The quickness with which the coal dies after the blaze is 

 extinguished is one of its principal recommendations for match 

 making. 



Its clear grain and the ease with which it may be cut makes it a 

 favorite for scroll work and for cornice and capital decorations. 



White pine is preferred to all other woods for the bodies of chil- 

 dren's wheelbarrows and for hobbyhorses. The saving of a few 

 ounces or pounds in weight in toys that are constantly in motion is 

 an important consideration. The seats* 1 and other wooden parts of 

 baby buggies and children's chairs, stools, carts, and swings are 

 frequently of white pine. 



Its softness and its light weight are properties considered in 

 choosing it for drawing boards, cutting boards, and cloth boards, 

 penholders, and toys of many kinds. Snow shovels, protected with 

 metal cutting edges, are made of this wood. One of its competitors 

 in this field is butternut, which is of nearly the same weight. 



It is used in making shoe racks, a kind of truck employed in fac- 

 tories and large stores to carry shoes from one part of the building 

 to another. 



