PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 
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(a) 
to 
AFTER THE OAK, WHAT? 
A Word with Manufacturers. 
The present fashionable wood with 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 yet 
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 
