38 BULLETIN 12, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGBICULTUEE. 



should make a hundred or more a day. A, considerable amount of 

 sugar maple is shipped to England, where it is manufactured into 

 lasts. Lasts made in this country are shipped to all parts of the 

 world where people make leather shoes, but the best market is in 

 the United States. The final purchasers are not only the large 

 manufacturers but every shoemaker and cobbler throughout the land. 

 The waste of wood in such a factory is large. From one-half to 

 two-thirds of the rough split block is cut away as dust and shavings. 



BIRD'S-EYE MAPLE. 



A large use of maple wood for furniture, musical instruments, and 

 interior house finish is due to a pleasing growth called " bird's-eye," 

 which adds much to the beauty of the wood wdien highly polished 

 and carefully matched. The most probable explanation of this figure 

 is that it is due to buds, which for some reason can not force their 

 w^ay through the bark, but remain just beneath it year after year 

 during long periods. The young wood is disturbed each succeeding 

 season by the presence of the bud and grows around it in fantastic 

 forms. When such a tree is converted into lumber, the saAv cuts 

 through the abnormal growths, exposing the crumpled edges of the 

 tilted annual rings. 



Curly and wavy maple are accidental forms which frequently oc- 

 cur and are highly prized by furniture makers and other manufac- 

 turers of high-class commodities. 



FURNITURE. 



Sugar majDle stands near the toj) of the list of furniture woods in 

 this country. Statistics have never been collected to show the com- 

 parative rank of different species in quantity used, but Avhite oak is 

 probably first. Sugar maple is third in Massachusetts, third in 

 Maryland, first in Wisconsin, and second in Michigan. Some woods 

 are given j^lace in furniture making only as inside, concealed mate- 

 rial, others only as the outside, visible portion, but sugar maple serves 

 in all parts. It is strong, rigid, and durable as frames and as slides 

 for drawers and the sections of extension tables. It may be used in 

 the form of very thin lumber, or as built-up sections of veneer, for 

 the bottoms of drawers and partitions between compartments in 

 desks and filing cabinets. Its white color is one of the qualities 

 which fit it for that place. A coarser class of service is found for it 

 in the manufacture of cot frames and the frames of couches, as well 

 as for almost all kinds of furniture. Its hardness makes it suitable 

 for casters for heaA^^ articles of furniture. It is difficult to split when 

 well seasoned, a quality in which many hardwoods are found defi- 

 cient. Three-ply maple veneer is much employed for chair seats and 

 backs. Maple stood third highest in the United States of all woods 



