UTILIZATION OF SYCAMORE. 15 
price than was reported for red gum for the same uses, but consider- 
ably less than for birch and maple. 
PLANING-MILL PRODUCTS, SASH, DOORS, BLINDS, AND GENERAL MILLWORK. 
The striking figure shown by sycamore when quarter-sawed makes 
a demand for it for planing-mill products, sash, doors, blinds, and 
general millwork. Its principal use in this industry is for the inte- 
rior finish of houses and stores, including flooring. It is also used in 
considerable amounts for cabinetwork. One of the most showy uses 
of quarter-sawed sycamore is for mantels where panels, columns, 
brackets, shelves, and tops are combined. Stair rails, newel posts, 
spindles, capitals, and grillwork call for some of the best grades of 
this wood. There is also a demand for it for sash and blinds. 
Sycamore is desirable for doors, casing, and base. It is much in 
favor at the present time for door panels in the form of plain yeneer. 
Sycamore panels of built-up yeneer are preferable to those of solid 
wood because of the tendency of the solid wood to warp and twist. 
Some figure can be obtained hi the plain wood, but in order to get 
the striking figure effects peculiar to the wood it must be quartered. 
The sycamore door panel is said to go well with a pine frame, a birch 
frame, or a frame yeneer ed with sycamore. 
Sycamore is used in largest amounts for these purposes in Illinois, 
Ohio, and Tennessee. Prices reported for sycamore lumber used for 
this class of products averaged approximately the same as those for 
furniture and fixtures — about $23 per 1,000 feet f. o. b. the factory. 
BUTCHERS' BLOCKS. 
One of the important uses of sycamore for. many years has been 
for the butcher's block, which usually consists of a bolt of the de- 
sired size sawed from the trunk of a tree. It is sometimes mounted 
on stout legs. Sycamore is selected for this article because it does 
not split or check readily in seasoning. Some checking, however, 
takes place and the block, therefore, becomes insanitary. Built-up 
maple blocks composed of thoroughly seasoned pieces held together 
by glue and bolts have largely displaced the sycamore block. One of 
the common methods used in making the sycamore block is to bore 
out a large hole in the center and drive in a large round plug. This 
has the effect of closing up checks and shakes in the wood. Large 
logs with ring shakes are utilized by this method. It is doubtful, 
however, whether such defective material makes a very satisfactory 
meat block. 
Practically all of the 1,600,000 board feet of sycamore reported for 
butchers' blocks is credited to Illinois. The present annual use is 
doubtless much less on account of the substitution of the maple 
block. About 2,000,000 feet of maple was reported as consumed 
annually on the United States for the same purpose. The cost of 
