THE CABINET WOODS OF THE FUTURE 



By C, D, MELL, Assistant Dendrologist, Forest Service 



WHERE shall we look for new are now becoming rapidly exhausted, 

 cabinet woods? This is an in- and the prices are consequently high, 

 quiry very frequently made In certain parts of these countries, 

 by those concerned in wood using in- there are trees yielding timber that can 

 dustries. Comparatively few of the be substituted and utilized to equal ad- 

 foreign woods now in common use are vantage. Lower priced woods are often 

 of recent introduction. A number of equally well suited for certain special 

 the important and well-known cabinet purposes for which some of the higher 

 timbers have been so extensively ex- priced sorts are now almost exclusively 

 ploited that they are becoming scarce used. It is hoped that this fact, to 

 or are difficult of access. The cost of which further attention will be called 

 felling, transporting, and other handling i a t e r in this article, will aid in remov- 

 is so high that it greatly militates against i n g the prevailing notion that certain 

 their use. Among such woods are ma- woods are the only ones suitable for the 

 hogany, cedar, rosewood, ebony, pa- manufacture of certain articles of fur- 

 douk, sabicu, jarrah of West Australia, niture, and may help toward the intro- 

 and scores of others which are less fa- duction of new woods with substantially 

 miliar. These woods are so closely as^ similar or even superior properties, 

 sociated with certain special uses that One of the best known woods in the 

 manufacturers are exceedingly reluc- WO rld is mahogany , Swiefcnia mail ogam 

 tant to substitute other woods for fear j ac q j t j s naturally confined to the 

 that customers would regard them as Western Hemisphere, where its range 

 inferior. Importers are attempting to j s comparatively small, though by plant- 

 bring into prominence some of the ex- m g j ts distribution has been extended 

 cellent cabinet timbers of India, Africa, to southern Asia and tropical Africa. 

 Australia, Philippine Islands, and Cen- -phis timber has been cut down for sev- 

 tral and South America, for there are era j hundred years with a recklessness 

 many in these countries that are equal t hat is as prodigal and wasteful as that 

 both in beauty and in quality to the best wn ich has characterized the lumbering 

 now in use. For example, a great many o f some o f our own timbers. There is 

 'South American trees yield timbers a cons tantly increasing demand for ma- 

 with remarkable firmness of texture, hogany, and the exhaustion of this no- 

 exquisite coloration, durability, and ^ tree j s no t f ar distant. Within a 

 good weight. The same can be said of comparatively few years the mahogany 

 many West Indian and Central American tra( j e w j t h Central and South America 

 woods not yet exploited to any great xv ;u he a thing of the past, 

 extent. Among the several hundred r n as king, now. what the possibilities 

 timber trees of Costa Rica, San Sal- are or t j lc introduction of woods suit- 

 vador, and Panama, there are at least ^ Q ag su h s titutes for mahogany we 

 forty that yield high-class cabinet enter into a many - s ided inquiry. There 

 woods. j course, an enormous dispropor- 

 A few of the well-known am. h, S Hy % ' total ,,,- ,,f Is 



^"Mi^and'tpocUla't Splnish Z will be offered as substitutes for 



cedar of Mexko and Central America, mahogany by importers ;m,l the number 



723 



