May, 1912 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS XXVil 
CONFUSION OF NAMES OF COM- 
MERCIAL WOODS 
O branch of forestry requires the in- 
vestigation of men of science more 
than the history and structural characters 
of the commercial. timber trees. It is la- 
mentable to see so many talented men de- 
vote their entire lives to the study of small 
groups of relatively unimportant plants of 
the desert or the ocean, while we are still 
ignorant even of the botanical names of a 
good many trees yielding timber of com- 
merce. A number of the trees of West 
Africa, which produce a large percentage 
of the choicest timber used in England and 
in the United States for furniture and high- 
grade cabinet work, are now known in the 
trade by no other name except mahogany, 
when in reality they do not belong to the 
mahogany family at all. Coccobola from 
Central America has been imported into this 
country for over a hundred years, but to- 
wii 
The Greatest China Factory In the World 
Not in England, or France, or Germany, but at Newell, West Virginia, 
U. S. A., is located the pottery of The Homer Laughlin China Co., the 
largest in the world. To make the 45,000,000 pieces of Homer Laughlin 
China annually produced, requires the work of 1,800 people; 15 acres of floor 
space is necessary; and for decorating, $60,000 worth of gold alone is used 
annually. These figures indicate the popularity of Homer Laughlin China. 
In addition to its beauty and refine- 
ment of design and decoration, Homer 
Laughlin’ China gives splendid service. 
It is ‘‘as good asit looks.’’ In buying 
|| see that the trade-mark name “Homer 
Laughlin” appears on the under side of 
SUSUS TS SSS tS tS SS 
day no one seems to know what tree yields 
this wood. A number of examples of this 
kind could be cited in regard to important 
timbers which come from the tropics. 
This lack of knowledge is the chief reason 
why so many different woods which bear 
the slightest resemblance have been given 
the same common or trade name. For in- 
stance, there are now more than fifty differ- 
-ent woods sold under the comprehensive 
trade name mahogany ; there are more than 
twenty-five referred to under the name 
cedar; there are more than a dozen rose- 
woods; equally as many satin woods, iron 
woods, and box woods, not to mention a 
number of beef woods, ebony woods, sandal 
woods, teak woods, gum woods, walnuts, 
and a host of others, named according to 
the fancy of the shippers and importers. 
The duplication of names has become so 
complicated that dealers are now unable to 
know what kind of mahogany, cedar, wal- 
nut, or gum to supply when their customers 
order goods by these names. 
Timber constitutes a very important pro- 
duct of the foreign commerce of this 
country. To many the number of different 
kinds of woods imported will be a matter 
of great surprise, but numerous as they are 
now they are few compared with those 
which will be introduced into the American 
markets when the forest resources of Africa 
and South America become more generally 
available. Not a month passes but what 
some importer adds another mahogany, 
cedar, or rosewood to the long list of sub- 
stitutes. Public attention and the investiga- 
tion of scientific men are being gradually 
directed to this branch of work, and it is 
hoped that something can be accomplished 
which will prove helpful in protecting the 
purchasers from getting the spurious kinds 
when genuine woods are specified. 
HENS THAT TELEPHONED 
O catch an animal that had been kill- 
ing his hens, a Winsted, Connecticut, 
poultry raiser, who had a pen of hens tak- 
ing part in the international egg-laying 
contest at the State Agricultural College, 
had a telephone installed in his henhouse. 
The wire ran to his bedroom, where the 
receiver was fastened to a bedpost, close 
to his pillow. The receiver on the other 
end was also off the hook, thus permit- 
ting any sound in the hennery to travel 
to the owner’s sleeping-room. 
About daybreak the poultry raiser was 
awakened by the shrill cackling of his 
hens coming over the wire. Dressing 
himself hurriedly, he grabbed a gun and 
started for the henhouse, where he shot 
and killed the thief, a mink. 
each piece of sufficient size. 
Newell, West Virginia 
The Homer Laughlin China Co., 
The Chain of Communication 
ACH Bell Telephone is the center of 
the system. This system may be any 
size or any shape, with lines radiating from 
any subscriber’s telephone, like the spokes 
of a wheel, to the limits of the subscriber’s 
requirements, whether ten miles or a 
thousand. 
Somewhere on the edge of this subscriber’s 
radius is another who requires a radius of 
lines stretching still further away. On the 
edge of this second subscriber’s radius is 
still a third, whose requirements mean a 
further extension of the lines, and so on. 
This endless chain of systems may be 
illustrated bya series of overlapping circles. 
Each additional subscriber becomes a new 
center with an extended radius of com- 
munication, reaching other subscribers. 
However small the radius, the step-by-step 
extension from neighbor to neighbor must 
continue across the continent without a 
stopping place, until the requirements of 
every individual have been met. 
There can be no limit to the extension of 
telephone lines until the whole country is 
covered. There can be no limit to the 
system of which each Bell telephone is the 
center, up to the greatest distance that talk 
can be carried. 
Because these are the fundamental needs 
of a nation of telephone users, the Bell 
System must provide universal service. 
AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY 
AND ASSOCIATED COMPANIES 
One Policy 
One System 
Universal Service 
