202 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 



AFTER THE OAK, WHAT? 



A Word with Manufacturers. 



The present fashionable wood witli which to manufacture house finishing, 

 furniture, etc. is white oak, quarter sawed. 



In the cheaper grades of work, much plain sawed white oak is used, and red 

 oak comes into use in greatly increasing quantities as prices advance from the 

 unprecedented demand for oak lumber, necessitating economy in grade of timber. 



The oldest furniture in existence, dating back into the middle ages, was made 

 of oak, and the aim of designers now is to imitate these old masters in house 

 furnishings. 



Various methods are employed to dye, stain, and finish the articles made 

 to-day, so as to give the appearance of great age and to pattern from the old Dutch 

 and English workmen. 



There is fashion in furniture just as there is in clothes, in dress and in archi- 

 tecture. To offer for sale an article made in the highest style of art, of the most 

 costly and handsome woods in existence, and made by the best methods known 

 to the manufacturer, if the same is not in the fashion of the day, would result in 

 serious loss to the firm who planned and built such unfashionable and hence 

 unprofitable articles. To-day quarter sawed oak has the run, with a moderate 

 quantity of mahogany for wealthy buyers. 



What makes the fashion? Just the same answer as may be made to the query. 

 Who makes the fashion in dress? It is not the individual buyer or the small 

 order; but the great manufacturers of the world control this matter, and make the 

 styles, which are patterned after by all small and great factories throughout the 

 country. 



Among the higher salaried men employed in furniture works are the artists 

 who design new patterns and plan the modes of finishing the products. But as we 

 proceed we will see that the available supply of raw materials guides the man- 

 ufacturers in their choice of wood. 



Not only is there fashion in furniture, but also in carriages, wagons, automo- 

 biles and all manner of vehicles. There are prevailing styles in architecture, as 

 well. The builder of 1904 would hardly copy after the French Mansard, nor vet 

 from the steep-sloped gothic roof of a few years past, although he may go back 

 several hundred years and reproduce the Italian villas, the old English cottage or 

 the Moorish architecture of the middle ages with perfect propriety. There is 

 fashion also in the period from whence styles may be reproduced. "Old things are 



