6 BULLETIN 12, XT. S. DEPAETMEKT OP AGEICULTUEE. 



dried in kilns and delivered to revolving hot-air cylinders, in which 

 they are polished by soapstone mixed with them. 



Ironing-board and sleeve-board makers draw some of their mate- 

 rial from beech, but seldom all of it. The frames are often of this 

 Avood, but the board on which the smoothing is done is generally of 

 some softer wood, such as white pine, cottonwood, yellow poplar, 

 or basswood. A number of other articles classed as laundry appli- 

 ances are manufactured wholly or in part of beech. Clothes bars, 

 clotheshorses, clothes-drying frames, and curtain stretchers are 

 among them. Other woods are also employed, and the use of beech 

 for these commodities is in most instances due more to its cheapness 

 than to any quality fitting it especially for the purpose. Towel 

 racks and clothes hangers are a little further removed from the 

 laundry, but belong in the same general class of articles. 



FURNITURE. 



Beech has never been much employed as an outside visible wood, 

 because it has no pronounced grain or figure to make it attractive. 

 Its place is in frames and interior work, where it gives substantial 

 service. It is well fitted for slides along which drawers are moved 

 in and out. It wears smooth, the grain being so uniform that friction 

 seldom develops inequalities. When thoroughly seasoned it absorbs 

 moisture in a smaller degree than almost any other American wood, 

 and this property is important in a wood employed for slides or for 

 drawers which move along them. There is little shrinking or swell- 

 ing due to atmospheric changes, and consequently little annoyance 

 from drawers sticking fast. 



In recent years many styles of filing cabinets and cases have been 

 put upon the market. AYlien this class of office furniture appeared 

 a large demand for beech was created, for its fitness for much of the 

 Avork was at once recognized. In addition to drawer slides, backs, 

 and bottoms, it was made into partitions, lining, and particularly 

 frames and braces. The tracks on which the slides of extension 

 tables move are often of beech. It has come to be used to some 

 extent in almost all kinds and grades of furniture. Heavy beecb 

 veneer — sometimes three or five ply — is a common material for chair 

 bottoms ; the wood forms rounds and spindles of cheap and medium 

 grades, and sometimes is nearly or quite the sole material in the 

 cheap hall, camp, steamer, tent, and picnic chairs. It is made into 

 rockers for chairs of more ambitious design, and caster rollers of 

 beech are admirably adapted to service under beds, bureaus, chif- 

 foniers, and other heavy furniture. 



The stiffness of beech commends it to the maker of high-grade 

 furniture, but there it is employed largely in built-up panels, and 

 for sides, ends, and tops. Beech veneer is the invisible part, and 



