The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

ecreation witch Saved An Industry A manufacturing s w i t c h from baby furniture to pool tables. That's been the success story of the McFarlane Woodenware plant in Belleville which less than five years ago was considering closing its local operations. The local firm is a subsidiary of McFarlane-Gendron of Toronto. years ago production was maple lumber which is purnever more than 300 to 400 a chased locally and then dry kilned at the local plant. They year," said Mr. McFarlane. "But * with today's tremen- are built with folding legs dous demandfnore than 12,000 each with their own levellers. tables are turned out annually The table bed itself has eight with a wholesale value of over levellers. The McFarlane Woodenware one million dollars." And all this has happened plant had it's local origin durwithin the past five or six ing World War II as Bristol years. The former poolhall Aircraft where moulded plystigma has gone and women wood sections for the MosToday the firm employs ap- are becoming interested in quito bomber were manufacproximately 80 persons -- the game. Pool tables are tured. mostly men -- and production even turned out in a choice The sections were manufachas been shifted completely to of gold, blue or green felt tured in Belleville and then the making of recreation cloth. forwarded to Toronto for asroom pool tables. Belleville - built tables are sembly. "We were thinking very exclusively of the recreation After the war McFarlane seriously of pulling out of Belleville," admitted plant manager Jack McFarlane, Story And Pictures but with the tremendous demand for pool tables we may now actually have to expand.'1 Until about six years ago the Belleville firm was making baby furniture almost exclusively (high chairs, carriages, cribs), and it then commenced making p p o 1 tables on a^ limited scale. "We've always made a few pool tables but until about six est in pool playing. | "Did the advent of the birth control pills have anything to do with the switch from baby furniture to pool tables," Mr. McFarlane was asked. "We had a call from New York on that one" laughed Mr. McFarlane. It rated us a line in Time Magazine. But for whatever the reason, McFarland Woodenware has found there is more money to be made in pool tables than in baby furniture and buggies. And the market trend has resulted in Bellevillg retaining an industry which otherwise would have been lost to Toronto. . . ,A By Roy Peacock room type. They are made in six different sizes ranging from 2 by 4 feet up to 4x/2 by 9 feet. But 80 per cent of the , production is the 4 by 8 foot size. "That's about the largest which can be gotten handily into a recreation room," said Mr. McFarland. The tables are sold in a package deal complete with cues and balls. The balls are brought in from England while the cues come from Italy. Tables are completely made here. Depending on the type of balls purchased, pool, snooker or billiards may be played. The tables are made from Woodenware bought the Belleville property and moved its operation here from' Quebec. "Actually there is no advantage for us in Belleville," stated Mr. McFarlane, "rather it is a bit of a disadvantage as most of our big customers are located in Toronto." Belleville pool tables are sold all across Canada, even in the Far North where the game is gaining popularity among the Eskimos. In addition to pool tables the Belleville firm makes the ball and cue racks to go with them and also turns out poker tables, and toy boxes. Mr. McFarlane says his firm does not compete in tire manufacture of professional tables such as used in pool rooms. Increased leisure resulting from shorter working hours and the popularity of recreation rooms in new homes, is given as one of the big reasons for the tremendous inter- < ONTARIO UBRART