﻿42 BULLETIN 12, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



within. In piano construction it goes into the action parts, the 

 bridges and pin planks. Player pianos nearly always use some 

 maple. It is often found in banjos, guitars, mandolins, and in music 

 boxes and talking machines. Its use in music cabinets, racks, and in 

 piano stools and benches perhaps should be listed as furniture. The 

 hoops of drums, and the shells also, are frequently maple. Young 

 growth, called second growth by some manufacturers, is preferred 

 for drum hoops, because it bends more readily than old wood. Some 

 of the best selectecf bird's-eye and curly maple is seen in expensive 

 harps. ' Illinois is one of the largest centers of the manufacture of 

 organs and pianos, and in that State, according to reports compiled 

 in 1909, more sugar maple is used than of any other of the 29 woods 

 demanded by those industries. Chestnut stands second in that State. 

 In the manufacture of musical instruments of all kinds, sugar maple 

 stands second for quantity in Massachusetts, third in Michigan, and 

 fourth in Wisconsin and Maryland. 



AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 



The list of apparatus, appliances, and machinery included in the 

 general term agricultural implements is so long and varied that their 

 enumeration is scarcely practicable; yet through the entire list sugar 

 maple holds an important place. In Illinois, which probably pro- 

 duces much more farm machinery than any other part of the country 

 of an equal area, 20 woods are given in reports on this industry. Of 

 the five most important, sugar maple stands first. 



Feet. Cost. 



Sugar maple 24,564,000 $931,970 



Longleaf pine - 24,159,000 688,924 



Shortleaf pine 15, 600, 000 405, 870 



White oak 10,366,000 481,956 



Cottonwood 5, 469, 000 193, 504 



The 15 other woods entering into the manufacture of those com- 

 modities in Illinois total 23,491,000 feet. 



In few cases in the making of agricultural apparatus is maple or 

 any other wood employed solely for appearance. Strength and hard- 

 ness are the prime requisites, and sugar maple enters all parts of 

 machines where strain or wear must be resisted. Statistics of the 

 woods employed by makers of farm machinery and apparatus in 

 the State of Michigan show that sugar maple enters largely into bean 

 pickers, baggers, com shellers, corn huskers, corn planters, cultivators, 

 ensilage cutters, feed cutters, grain separators, fanning mills, hay 

 balers manure spreaders, potato planters, self-feeders, shredders, 

 thrashing machines, wind stackers, horsepowers, and riddles, as well 

 as into many utensils classed as tools rather than machines, such as 

 hand rakes, grain shovels, pitchforks, measures, feed troughs, and 

 snow shovels. 



