104 
Ohio Biological Survey 
pearance equally attractive. These abnormalities in structure, when 
turned into veneers, furnish an almost endless variety of figures of 
pleasing shape and color. In this way what is more or less of a de¬ 
formity or disease in nature becomes a thing of beauty in economic 
art. Veneers vary in thickness according to the value of the wood 
from which they are cut and according to the uses to which they are 
put. From ten to fifty, or even a hundred veneers may be cut from 
a single inch thickness of solid wood. 
One form of veneering is known as “pressed work.” It consists 
of gluing together several rather thick veneers of a cheaper wood as 
lilack walnut, yellow poplar, or ash, and facing them with the more 
expensive mahogany, rosewood, English oak, vermillion, etc., in the 
form of thin veneers. These thick veneers are then steamed and 
shaped in proper moulds to furnish the backs and arms of chairs, 
and curved work of all kinds. Treated in this way, the wood has 
greater strength, and is less liable to crack or warp than would be 
the case if a single, solid piece were used. 
Agricultural Implements —The manufacture of farm implements 
and labor saving machinery for the farm has been stimulated by the 
recent great advance in agricultural education and the growing scar¬ 
city of farm labor. The woods that are in demand for the implements 
and machinery of the farm are oak, yellow pine, maple, hickory, and 
ash, but more than thirty other woods are used. The growing scar¬ 
city of tough, strong woods has led' to a greater use of steel and iron. 
For the same output of implements of certain kinds, as drills, harrows 
and cultivators, the amount of wood used in their construction is 
often 50 per cent less than it was a decade ago. 
Durability united with strength, elasticity and comparative 
lightness, is found in ash. No wood can properly replace it for 
tongues in the larger agricultural implements, and for handles for 
forks, spades, shovels and hoes. Hickory is heavy, strong and elastic, 
and for the handles of axes, sledges and hammers can not be equaled. 
AVhere hardness and the quality to w^ear smooth is desired, maple 
and beech are in demand. Elm, red gum, birch, cottonwood and 
cypress are quite largely used in special parts of farm machinery. 
Catalpa is being used for doubletrees and neck yokes. 
Fencing Material —Nearly all kinds of wood have been used in 
the construction of fences. As timber becomes scarcer and more ex- 
