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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



able. Its surface takes the smoothest, finest polish, and 

 enamel adheres to it perfectly. This is true also when 

 goldleaf finish is designed, in work of very high grade. 

 Most maple furniture, however, is finished in the wood's 

 natural color. Curly, wavy, smoked, cloudy and bird's- 

 eye effects are brought out to fine advantage. Maple dark- 

 ens and the tones grow richer with age, though the actual 

 outlines of the figures may lose something of their 

 distinctness. 



Those who consider chair making separate from furni- 

 ture manufacture, accord maple a high place. The ma- 

 jority of chairs made in separate factories or mills are 

 of common patterns and medium prices. They are pri- 

 marily for use, while the high-priced chairs that come 

 from furniture factories are often designed primarily 

 for ornament. 



One of the first requisites of a common chair is that 

 it shall be strong. Only handles and vehicles call for 

 stronger woods than chairs, and the diflference is only 

 slight. Maple ranks among the very strongest of Amer- 

 ican woods, and for that reason it occupies a command- 

 ing position among chair stock materials. This stock 

 is usually worked out by small, portable mills, equipped 

 with special machinery. They move from site to site, 

 frequently cleaning up the slashings left by hardwood 



Courtesy the Manual Arts Press. 



MAGNIFIED CROSSSF.CTION 



OK SUGAR MAPLE 



Showing one complete annual ring, included between the two dark lines, 

 and parts of two other annual rings. The small openings arc pores or 

 vessels. Faint lines running at right angles to annual rings are pith 

 rays. 



sawmills; because chair mills utilize logs and bolts, 

 crooked and short lengths, which the sawmill is obliged 

 to leave in the woods. In the northern hardwoods, and 

 wherever maple grows, the chair mill finds it a valuable 

 pick-up after the sawmill has cut the large, smooth 

 logs, and moved on. The dimension stock, for rounds, 

 spindles and braces, which the chair mill roughs out. 



is shipped to central factories to be finished and assem- 

 bled, and to be turned out as completed chairs. 



BOXES AND CRATES 



The making of shipping boxes and crates constitutes 

 the third largest demand by manufacturers upon the 

 maple supply. The wood possesses two qualities which 

 are not considered favorably by box makers hardness 

 and weight but in spite of these, it is consumed in enor- 



Coltrtcsy the Manual Arts Press. 



AREA OF SUGAR MAPLE GROWTH 



mous quantities by box factories. Hardness is a disad- 

 vantage from the nailers' viewpoint, while the purchaser 

 of commodities shipped in boxes has reason to object 

 to excessive weight on which freight must be paid at the 

 same rate as on the merchandise within. But these draw- 

 backs are more than compensated for by the good points 

 of maple box lumber. It is so strong and stiff that the 

 lumber may be cut thin, thereby making a given quantity 

 go farther. It is a clean wood, which is a point insisted 

 on by many purchasers of boxes that carry articles of 

 food. The wood contains no stains or odors to contami- 

 nate the contents. Though it is heavy, yet by cutting 

 it thin, a smaller amount of material is needed for a box 

 of given size than might be required if a lighter, weaker 

 wood were chosen, consequently, the cost may be less. 



The bulk of maple box lumber comes from the culls 

 and low grades of maple sawmills; and the largest use 

 is found in regions near where the maple output of lum- 

 ber is largest. More than one-half of all the maple box 

 lumber used in the United States is reported by box 

 makers in Michigan and Illinois, and the latter State 

 draws the principal supply of that wood from Michigan. 

 It is probable that fully one-half of all the maple box 

 lumber consumed in the United States grows in Michi- 

 gan. The industry affords a market for much low-grade 

 maple lumber which might not otherwise find buyers. It 

 holds true of this wood, as of all others, that high grades 

 sell readily, while the low grades are often hard to dis- 

 pose of. A reason commonly assigned for that condi- 

 tion is that the low grades cannot pay freight charges 

 necessary to reach distant markets. 



