To make the best oil, the flax is not cut until its seeds have commenced to ripen. This is the practice in India where labor costs only a few pennies a day. Here the flax is pulled and manipulated entirely by hand and the seed is very plump and rich in oil, because the juices have been enriched by the natural process of ripening. The India seed, produces an oil which is highly prized by all those who must have linseed oil, second to none; especially varnish makers, who consume enormous quantities This method of harvesting flaxseed cannot be practiced in this country nor in South America or Russia where great quantities are produced, as it would raise the price far beyond reason.

In America, flax is cut by machinery, exactly as is wheat. Now, if the farmer waited until the seed had started to ripen, much of it would shell out from the shaking

San Francisco

tween Italian and the late French Renaissance. The French was saturated with the Gothic spirit and for a time it was difficult to displace the Gothic feeling. The new art was finally established in France through Cellini, Serlo, Primaticcio, Ilrosso and others who came from Italy and by French artists who finally went to Italy to acquire the newer style evolved from the classic remains of ancient Rome.

The term Renaissance in France includes, according to many writers, the style of Louis XIII.

of the harvesting machine and would be wasted. To prevent this, the seed is cut while in the "dough," as it is called, just previous to ripening. Although it becomes solid and ripens after cutting, it does not receive the juices which would have been obtained if left to ripen naturally. Indeed much of it is cut so green that it produces a very inferior oil.

Much is heard about cold-pressed oil, but with the powerful hydraulic presses (the most common means of extracting the oil) it matters little whether the flax has been heated slightly (is hot pressed) or not, as to the resulting quality. Heated seed, however, will make a more highly colored oil, due to disintegration of mucilaginous matter. It is doubtful whether this injures the binding qualities of the oil as claimed by some, as much of this matter settles upon standing.

In varnish manufacture particularly, refined oil is necessary. Linseed oil contains some coloring matter which still remains after the oil has settled. Ordinary oil will impart a yellowish tint to certain light tones especially to white pigments, particularly white lead and zinc white. This refining is usually done by agitating it together with sulphuric acid or alkali and filtering.

Linseed oil is best in its raw state for exterior painting and in fact, many painters use it for interior work. When raw, the oil is extremely elastic and will expand and contract with any kind of surface on which it is used; wood, brick, metal or stone. Raw oil is also very penetrating, save when the weather is very cold, when it will become viscid. The penetrating properties of raw oil enable it to reach down into the pores of all porous materials used in building, forming little root-like connections with the materials on which it is applied.

Boiled linseed oil is the name usually given to oil which has been heated to a temperature of at least 250 degrees Fahrenheit, with or without the addition of dryer. Boiled oil is not as elastic as raw oil and is little used for exterior work. For interior work, however, much is used as conditions are less severe. Then too, the boiling causes the oil to dry much quicker which is particularly desirable for interior work.

The possibilities of obtaining pure boiled linseed oil are very slight and much of it sold under this name is really raw oil, to which a cheap benzine dryer is added. This gives the oil the proper color and drying qualities of boiled oil. This adulteration, however, is detrimental to the durability of the oil.

MAHOGANY.

The credit of discovering the value of mahogany as a cabinet wood-so the story goes-belongs to a London physician of the Seventeenth Century. A brother of the doctor, engaged in trade with the East Indies, on one occasion brought over in his ship several mahogany logs for ballast. The doctor was at that time building a house and the suggestion was offered that the wood might be valuable as beams.

An attempt was made to use the timber for this purpose, but the carpenters found their tools were not heavy enough to work it and gave up the task. A little later, however, one of them needing material for a box, had a log removed to his shop, and, upon the advice of the doctor, tried heavier tools. After some delay the box was completed. It proved so handsome that a bureau was made up from the other log, which, when finished, was declared by experts to be far superior to any other cabinet woods then in use. Thus a vogue for mahogany

set in.

The finest mahogany came originally from San Domingo, Cuba, and Jamaica. The supply from these sources is now practically exhausted however, and the best wood in

the market today grows on the mountain slopes of Southern Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and the Philippines. The African field is the latest and large quantites are now being distributed through English markets.

Timber merchants recognize several grades of wood. These are distinguished by weight, character of grain, and color-all affected by the situation in which the trees are grown. Trees in high, rocky situations or mountain slopes, especially on limestone soil, produce the most valuable wood. Poorer qualities of mahogany come from trees grown in the forests which border the rivers near the coasts of Central America.

With the exception of our oaks, no wood possesses in so great a degree the advantage of combined soundness, large size, durability, beauty of color and richness of figure as mahogany. Its attractive grain is especially noticeable in what is known as crotch mahogany. The warmth in its tone and the beautiful tracery in its fibre are unsurpassed, and age enhances and magnifies these qualities to a greater extent in mahogany than in any other wood.

ALIZARIN AND INDIGO.

Alizarin, which is one of the important vegetable dyes, was formerly obtained from madder, the root of a plant growing abundantly in the south of France and some other Mediterranean countries. The demand for it increased until thousands of acres were given over to the cultivation of the Rubia tinc torum. But in 1868 two chemists, Graebe and Liebermann, after long study, succeeded in preparing alizarin synthetically from anthraquinoon, a coal-tar derivative. It drove from the market the natural alizarin. There was an outcry from those who had cultivated the crude material that their means of livlihood had been destroyed. But thenceforward the fertile fields which had been devoted to its growth were used to furnish foodstuffs to the country. A waste substance had been used and the old energy turned into better channels.

A similar history is that of indigo, one of the standard dyestuffs of our grandmothers a product of the indigo plant. Adolf von Baeyer, chemist of Munich, in 1870, overcame the difficulties of its synthetic formation and, from coal tar again, by complicated methods prepared this substance, one of the most stable of our dyes. Other chemists have simplified the process until now it is formed in the factory, a rival of that from the field, and thus large tracts of land are released for other forms of agriculture.-Prof. Edbert W. Rockwood.

LOCAL UNION NO. 831, SIGN PAINTERS, OF LOS ANGELES, CAL.

A BURST BUBBLE.

Insane speculation in real estate has knocked the bottom out of Oklahoma City and wrought havoc for the wage earners. A few sharks and money lenders have made their "clean up" and got away as has everybody else free to go; men with families who have put their little savings in cottage homes, bought "on time," are staying and starving. The city government is in the clutches of the Chamber of Commerce, an "open shop" institution, which is finishing what the boomers began. Hundreds of store rooms and houses are vacant and the exodus still continues. The membership of the building trades unions has decreased 75 per cent. and no prospect of better times until the water has been squeezed out of fictitious values and the "leading citizens" realize that in trying to save something out of the wreck by lowering wages and destroying union conditions they are grasping at straws. Conditions are deplorable but they are the inevitable sequence of the gambling debauch in which the business men of the city have indulged The regretable thing about it all is that the working people-as always-are paying the penalty in privation as well as footing the bills.

TIMES DULL.

The correspondence from local unions on the Pacific Coast, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and California tell of a dull season and many men out of employment. This is mentioned so that members may not be deceived by rosy reports in serted in the press by railroad companies anxious to collect fares and by employers' associations that desire to create an even greater competition for jobs. Winter is the dull season on the coast just as it is in other parts of the country, and a man usually is better off where he is acquainted than among strangers.

REGISTER AT ONCE.

The local unions affiliated with the Massachusetts North Shore Conference wish traveling members to understand that the law requiring them to register immediately on arrival will be strictly enforced. This ruling applies to all sections and traveling members will save themselves much trouble by living up to the law.