AMERICAN FORESTRY 



WOODEN DOORS DATING BACK TO 



MIDDLE AGES. 

 ^MONG the famous doors of history are 

 the carved wooden doors of the church 

 of Santa Sabina, Rome, depicting in relief, 

 scenes from the Old and New Testament. 

 These are one of the most remarkable ex- 

 amples of early Christian sculpture extant. 

 In the earliest times, as in Babylon, doors 

 swung on sockets instead of hinges. In 

 Roman days wooden doors were decorated 

 with bronze and inlaid, and throughout the 

 Middle Ages richly carved doors of wood 

 adorned the churches. In the Gothic per- 

 iod, wooden doors were decorated with 

 wrought iron hinges which were often 

 elaborated into intricate ornamentation, 

 covering a large part of the door. The 

 doors of the cathedral of Notre Dame in 

 Paris of the Thirteenth Century, are the 

 finest examples of this class. During the 

 Renaissance in Germany and France, elab- 

 orately carved doors were among the most 

 beautiful products of wood sculpture. 



Some of the old English doors were 

 formed of narrow planks placed side by 

 side, and in dwelling houses generally, in 

 the Middle Ages, the doors were small 

 and fairly simple, meant for strictly prac- 

 ticable purposes and often provided with 

 some means of defense. The doors of the 

 Norman period were round-headed, while 

 with the 13th century came the doorway 

 with the pointed arch and later the flat- 

 tened arch. 



In the case of interior doors, splendid 

 old polished mahogany doors were im- 

 portant features in some old English homes 

 and there were old oak doors of wonder- 

 ful beauty, especially when found in oak 

 paneled rooms. 



Haphazard selection of doors of the 

 ready-made variety should not be allowed 

 in the building of a fine home, but the 

 doors should be designed by the architect 

 who builds the structure that they may 

 be in keeping with the general style ot 

 the house. Upon the attractiveness and 

 distmction of the door and doorway de- 

 pends the visitor's first impression of the 

 home he is about to enter. 



539 



THE "FORD" FOREST 



rpHE properties of Henry Ford have ex- 

 panded to take in a railroad, a mine 

 and a forest. Now timber from virgin 

 forests of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan 

 will be used to furnish lumber for Ford 

 automobile bodies and other requiremetns. 

 Another link added to the chain of Ford in- 

 dustries is the Ford sawmill, located just 

 outside of Detroit. Thus this great manu- 

 facturer protects his interests by gradually 

 becoming less and less dependent upon out- 

 side sources of supply through the ac- 

 quisition of valuable resources within his 

 own organization. 



The Saw 



In History 



Once upon a time. 

 A man wanted to make. 

 Two pieces of board. 

 Out of one piece. 

 The thing he used. 

 To work with was. 

 The first saw. 

 It was the nose. 

 Of a fish. 



IVould you care to read about it? If so, write us for " The 

 Saw in History. " It is a sixt^-five page book, completely illustrated 

 We will send it to you free of charge. Address your letter to 

 T>epartment . 



Henry Disston & Sons, Inc. 



Philadelphia, U. S. A. 



SPLIT POSTS AND ROUND POSTS 



TS a split fence post as durable as a 

 *- round fence post? This is a question 

 frequently asked of the U. S. Forest Pro- 

 ducts Laboratory. The fact is, one kind 

 of post will last about as long as the other 

 if the amount of heartwood is the same 

 in both says the Laboratory. But if the 

 percentage of sapwood is increased by 

 splitting, the split post will be less durable, 

 and if the percentage of heartwood is in- 

 creased, it will be more durable than a 

 round one. Posts of spruce, hemlock, or 

 any of the true firs are exceptions to this 



rule, because their heartwood an'd sapwood 

 are about equally durable. 



When posts are to be treated with creo- 

 sote or other preservative, a round post is 

 preferable to a split post, because of the 

 comparative ease with which the sapwood 

 can be treated. The heart faces on split 

 posts do not, as a rule, absorb preserva- 

 tive well. Split red-oak posts will take 

 treatment, because the wood is very por- 

 ous, but the heart faces of split posts of 

 many other species, notably white oak, 

 red gum, and Douglas fir, resist the pene- 

 tration of preservative, even under heavy 

 pressures. 



