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



and a still higher grade is found in upholstered and plain parlor 

 suits, including davenports, sofas, settees, squabs, and lounges. The 

 heavier of these articles are on casters, which are often of birch, as 

 its hardness and strength fit it for such service. 



Several important places in church furniture and fittings are ad- 

 mirably filled by sweet birch, although it is not so extensively em- 

 ployed as oak. It is made into pews, pulpits, communion tables, con- 

 tribution plates, pulj^it chairs, and Bible stands. 



It is a popular cabinet wood and enters into the construction of a 

 long list of articles, from kitchen tables and cupboards to elastic 

 bookcases and filing cabinet^:. It is not always the outside wood, but 

 usually is, especially the richly colored heartwood. It should be 

 borne in mind that there are two kinds of sweet birch, as the cabinet- 

 maker views it — heartwood and sapwood. The difference in color is 

 apparent at a glance, and the workman selects his material for the 

 sake of color. He selects it as carefully for another reason, if he 

 employs glue to fasten the parts together. Birch does not nail readily, 

 because of its tendency to split, and much of it is either dovetailed or 

 glued. If it is glued the best results are attained only when sapwood 

 is glued to sapwood and heartwood to heartwood. Birch appears in 

 many kinds of desks, not only as an imitation of cherry or mahogany 

 but on its own merit. Smoking stands and card tables of this wood 

 are also popular. Children's cribs, folding beds, china closets, exten- 

 sion tables, wall cases, hall trees, taborets, umbrella stands, chiffoniers, 

 and dressers of sweet birch are listed by many factories. 



MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 



Its beauty, strength, and rigidity have made sweet birch prominent 

 as a material in the manufacture of musical instruments. Its beauty, 

 however, is considered oftener than its other properties, for it is 

 usually the outside wood. In some cases, however, its other proper- 

 ties commend it, such as for piano hammers, framework of pianos 

 and piano players, and pipes for organs. Almost every kind of musi- 

 cal instrument in w^hich wood is used has drawn upon sweet birch for 

 material. Special mention might be made of guitars, mandolins, 

 banjos, and violins. Such instruments show the wood most frequently 

 in the necks, although the mandolin is often made of birch and some 

 lighter-colored wood in alternate strips. Drum makers bend a broad, 

 thin band of birch for the shell of this instrument, and in harps it is 

 often the frame, and chosen for its rigidity. In orchestrions or large 

 music boxes, and when employed for cases of pianos and piano 

 players, and for organ cases and musical cabinets, its appearance is 

 the chief consideration. Piano stools and benches are articles in 

 which the fine qualities of well-selected birch are seen to advantage. 



