Seasoning of Wood Part 4

=4. Black Ash= (_Fraxinus nigra_ var. _sambucifolia_) (Hoop Ash, Ground Ash). Medium-sized tree, very common, is more widely distributed than the _Fraxinus Americana_; the wood is not so hard, but is well suited for hoops and basketwork. Heartwood dark brown, sapwood light brown or white. Wood heavy, rather soft, tough and coa.r.s.e-grained. Used for barrel hoops, basketwork, cabinetwork and interior of houses. Maine to Minnesota and southward to Alabama.

=5. Blue Ash= (_Fraxinus quadrangulata_). Small to medium-sized tree.

Heartwood yellow, streaked with brown, sapwood a lighter color. Wood heavy, hard, and coa.r.s.e-grained. Not common. Indiana and Illinois; occurs from Michigan to Minnesota and southward to Alabama.

=6. Green Ash= (_Fraxinus viridis_). Small-sized tree. Occurs from New York to the Rocky Mountains, and southward to Florida and Arizona.

=7. Oregon Ash= (_Fraxinus Oregana_). Small to medium-sized tree. Occurs from western Was.h.i.+ngton to California.

=8. Carolina Ash= (_Fraxinus Caroliniana_). Medium-sized tree. Occurs in the Carolinas and the coast regions southward.

ASPEN (See Poplar)

Ba.s.sWOOD

=9. Ba.s.swood= (_Tilia Americana_) (Linden, Lime Tree, American Linden, Lin, Bee Tree). Medium- to large-sized tree. Wood light, soft, stiff, but not strong, of fine texture, straight and close-grained, and white to light brown color, but not durable in contact with the soil. The wood shrinks considerably in drying, works well and stands well in interior work. It is used for cooperage, in carpentry, in the manufacture of furniture and woodenware (both turned and carved), for toys, also for panelling of car and carriage bodies, for agricultural implements, automobiles, sides and backs of drawers, cigar boxes, excelsior, refrigerators, trunks, and paper pulp. It is also largely cut for veneer and used as "three-ply" for boxes and chair seats. It is used for sounding boards in pianos and organs. If well seasoned and painted it stands fairly well for outside work. Common in all northern broad-leaved forests. Found throughout the eastern United States, but reaches its greatest size in the Valley of the Ohio, becoming often 130 feet in height, but its usual height is about 70 feet.

=10. White Ba.s.swood= (_Tilia heterophylla_) (Whitewood). A small-sized tree. Wood in its quality and uses similar to the preceding, only it is lighter in color. Most abundant in the Alleghany region.

=11. White Ba.s.swood= (_Tilia p.u.b.escens_) (Downy Linden, Small-leaved Ba.s.swood). Small-sized tree. Wood in its quality and uses similar to _Tilia Americana_. This is a Southern species which makes it way as far north as Long Island. Is found at its best in South Carolina.

BEECH

=12. Beech= (_f.a.gus ferruginea_) (Red Beech, White Beech). Medium-sized tree, common, sometimes forming forests of pure growth. Wood heavy, hard, stiff, strong, of rather coa.r.s.e texture, white to light brown color, not durable in contact with the soil, and subject to the inroads of boring insects. Rather close-grained, conspicuous medullary rays, and when quarter-sawn and well smoothed is very beautiful. The wood shrinks and checks considerably in drying, works well and stands well, and takes a fine polish. Beech is comparatively free from objectionable taste, and finds a place in the manufacture of commodities which come in contact with foodstuffs, such as lard tubs, b.u.t.ter boxes and pails, and the beaters of ice cream freezers; for the latter the persistent hardness of the wood when subjected to attrition and abrasion, while wet gives it peculiar fitness. It is an excellent material for churns. Sugar hogsheads are made of beech, partly because it is a tasteless wood and partly because it has great strength. A large cla.s.s of woodenware, including veneer plates, dishes, boxes, paddles, scoops, spoons, and beaters, which belong to the kitchen and pantry, are made of this species of wood. Beech picnic plates are made by the million, a single machine turning out 75,000 a day. The wood has a long list of miscellaneous uses and enters in a great variety of commodities. In every region where it grows in commercial quant.i.ties it is made into boxes, baskets, and crating. Beech baskets are chiefly employed in s.h.i.+pping fruit, berries, and vegetables. In Maine thin veneer of beech is made specially for the Sicily orange and lemon trade. This is s.h.i.+pped in bulk and the boxes are made abroad. Beech is also an important handle wood, although not in the same cla.s.s with hickory. It is not selected because of toughness and resiliency, as hickory is, and generally goes into plane, handsaw, pail, chisel, and flatiron handles. Recent statistics show that in the production of slack cooperage staves, only two woods, red gum and pine, stood above beech in quant.i.ty, while for heading, pine alone exceeded it. It is also used in turnery, for shoe lasts, butcher blocks, ladder rounds, etc. Abroad it is very extensively used by the carpenter, millwright, and wagon maker, in turnery and wood carving. Most abundant in the Ohio and Mississippi basin, but found from Maine to Wisconsin and southward to Florida.

BIRCH

=13. Cherry Birch= (_Betula lenta_) (Black Birch, Sweet Birch, Mahogany Birch, Wintergreen Birch). Medium-sized tree, very common. Wood of beautiful reddish or yellowish brown, and much of it nicely figured, of compact structure, is straight in grain, heavy, hard, strong, takes a fine polish, and considerably used as imitation of mahogany. The wood shrinks considerably in drying, works well and stands well, but is not durable in contact with the soil. The medullary rays in birch are very fine and close and not easily seen. The sweet birch is very handsome, with satiny l.u.s.ter, equalling cherry, and is too costly a wood to be profitably used for ordinary purposes, but there are both high and low grades of birch, the latter consisting chiefly of sapwood and pieces too knotty for first cla.s.s commodities. This cheap material swells the supply of box lumber, and a little of it is found wherever birch pa.s.ses through sawmills. The frequent objections against sweet birch as box lumber and crating material are that it is hard to nail and is inclined to split. It is also used for veneer picnic plates and b.u.t.ter dishes, although it is not as popular for this cla.s.s of commodity as are yellow and paper birch, maple and beech. The best grades are largely used for furniture and cabinet work, and also for interior finish. Maine to Michigan and to Tennessee.

=14. White Birch= (_Betula populifolia_) (Gray Birch, Old Field Birch, Aspen-leaved Birch). Small to medium-sized tree, least common of all the birches. Short-lived, twenty to thirty feet high, grows very rapidly. Heartwood light brown, sapwood lighter color. Wood light, soft, close-grained, not strong, checks badly in drying, decays quickly, not durable in contact with the soil, takes a good polish.

Used for spools, shoepegs, wood pulp, and barrel hoops. Fuel, value not high, but burns with bright flame. Ranges from Nova Scotia and lower St. Lawrence River, southward, mostly in the coast region to Delaware, and westward through northern New England and New York to southern sh.o.r.e of Lake Ontario.

=15. Yellow Birch= (_Betula lutea_) (Gray Birch, Silver Birch). Medium- to large-sized tree, very common. Heartwood light reddish brown, sapwood nearly white, close-grained, compact structure, with a satiny l.u.s.ter. Wood heavy, very strong, hard, tough, susceptible of high polish, not durable when exposed. Is similar to _Betula lenta_, and finds a place in practically all kinds of woodenware. A large percentage of broom handles on the market are made of this species of wood, though nearly every other birch contributes something. It is used for veneer plates and dishes made for pies, b.u.t.ter, lard, and many other commodities. Tubs and pails are sometimes made of yellow birch provided weight is not objectionable. The wood is twice as heavy as some of the pines and cedars. Many small handles for such articles as flatirons, gimlets, augers, screw drivers, chisels, varnish and paint brushes, butcher and carving knives, etc. It is also widely used for s.h.i.+pping boxes, baskets, and crates, and it is one of the stiffest, strongest woods procurable, but on account of its excessive weight it is sometimes discriminated against. It is excellent for veneer boxes, and that is probably one of the most important places it fills. Citrus fruit from northern Africa and the islands and countries of the Mediterranean is often s.h.i.+pped to market in boxes made of yellow birch from veneer cut in New England. The better grades are also used for furniture and cabinet work, and the "burls" found on this species are highly valued for making fancy articles, gavels, etc.

It is extensively used for turnery, b.u.t.tons, spools, bobbins, wheel hubs, etc. Maine to Minnesota and southward to Tennessee.

=16. Red Birch= (_Betula rubra_ var. _nigra_) (River Birch). Small to medium-sized tree, very common. Lighter and less valuable than the preceding. Heartwood light brown, sapwood pale. Wood light, fairly strong and close-grained. Red birch is best developed in the middle South, and usually grows near the banks of rivers. Its bark hangs in tatters, even worse than that of paper birch, but it is darker. In Tennessee the slack coopers have found that red birch makes excellent barrel heads and it is sometimes employed in preference to other woods. In eastern Maryland the manufacturers of peach baskets draw their supplies from this wood, and subst.i.tute it for white elm in making the hoops or bands which stiffen the top of the basket, and provide a fastening for the veneer which forms the sides. Red birch bends in a very satisfactory manner, which is an important point. This wood enters pretty generally into the manufacture of woodenware within its range, but statistics do not mention it by name. It is also used in the manufacture of veneer picnic plates, pie plates, b.u.t.ter dishes, washboards, small handles, kitchen and pantry utensils, and ironing boards. New England to Texas and Missouri.

=17. Canoe Birch= (_Betula paprifera_) (White Birch, Paper Birch). Small to medium-sized tree, sometimes forming forests, very common.

Heartwood light brown tinged with red, sapwood lighter color. Wood of good quality, but light, fairly hard and strong, tough, close-grained.

Sap flows freely in spring and by boiling can be made into syrup. Not as valuable as any of the preceding. Canoe birch is a northern tree, easily identified by its white trunk and its ragged bark. Large numbers of small wooden boxes are made by boring out blocks of this wood, shaping them in lathes, and fitting lids on them. Canoe birch is one of the best woods for this cla.s.s of commodities, because it can be worked very thin, does not split readily, and is of pleasing color.

Such boxes, or two-piece diminutive kegs, are used as containers for articles s.h.i.+pped and sold in small bulk, such as tacks, small nails, and brads. Such containers are generally cylindrical and of considerably greater depth than diameter. Many others of nearly similar form are made to contain ink bottles, bottles of perfumery, drugs, liquids, salves, lotions, and powders of many kinds. Many boxes of this pattern are used by manufacturers of pencils and crayons for packing and s.h.i.+pping their wares. Such boxes are made in numerous numbers by automatic machinery. A single machine of the most improved pattern will turn out 1,400 boxes an hour. After the boring and turning are done, they are smoothed by placing them into a tumbling barrel with soapstone. It is also used for one-piece shallow trays or boxes, without lids, and used as card receivers, pin receptacles, b.u.t.ter boxes, fruit platters, and contribution plates in churches. It is also the princ.i.p.al wood used for spools, bobbins, bowls, shoe lasts, pegs, and turnery, and is also much used in the furniture trade. All along the northern boundary of the United States and northward, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

BLACK WALNUT (See Walnut)

BLUE BEECH

=18. Blue Beech= (_Carpinus Caroliniana_) (Hornbeam, Water Beech, Ironwood). Small-sized tree. Heartwood light brown, sapwood nearly white. Wood very hard, heavy, strong, very stiff, of rather fine texture, not durable in contact with the soil, shrinks and checks considerably in drying, but works well and stands well, and takes a fine polish. Used chiefly in turnery, for tool handles, etc. Abroad much used by mill-and wheelwrights. A small tree, largest in the Southwest, but found in nearly all parts of the eastern United States.

BOIS D'ARC (See Osage Orange)

BUCKEYE

Wood light, soft, not strong, often quite tough, of fine, uniform texture and creamy white color. It shrinks considerably in drying, but works well and stands well. Used for woodenware, artificial limbs, paper pulp, and locally also for building construction.

=19. Ohio Buckeye= (_aesculus glabra_) (Horse Chestnut, Fetid Buckeye).

Small-sized tree, scattered, never forming forests. Heartwood white, sapwood pale brown. Wood light, soft, not strong, often quite tough and close-grained. Alleghanies, Pennsylvania to Oklahoma.

=20. Sweet Buckeye= (_aesculus octandra_ var. _flava_) (Horse Chestnut).

Small-sized tree, scattered, never forming forests. Wood in its quality and uses similar to the preceding. Alleghanies, Pennsylvania to Texas.

BUCKTHORNE

=21. Buckthorne= (_Rhanmus Caroliniana_) (Indian Cherry). Small-sized tree. Heartwood light brown, sapwood almost white. Wood light, hard, close-grained. Does not enter the markets to any great extent. Found along the borders of streams in rich bottom lands. Its northern limits is Long Island, where it is only a shrub; it becomes a tree only in southern Arkansas and adjoining regions.

b.u.t.tERNUT

=22. b.u.t.ternut= (_Juglans cinerea_) (White Walnut, White Mahogany, Walnut). Medium-sized tree, scattered, never forming forests. Wood very similar to black walnut, but light, quite soft, and not strong.

Heartwood light gray-brown, darkening with exposure; sapwood nearly white, coa.r.s.e-grained, compact structure, easily worked, and susceptible to high polish. Has similar grain to black walnut and when stained is a very good imitation. Is much used for inside work, and very durable. Used chiefly for finis.h.i.+ng lumber, cabinet work, boat finish and fixtures, and for furniture. b.u.t.ternut furniture is often sold as circa.s.sian walnut. Largest and most common in the Ohio basin.

Maine to Minnesota and southward to Georgia and Alabama.

CATALPA

The catalpa is a tree which was planted about 25 years ago as a commercial speculation in Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska. Its native habitat was along the rivers Ohio and lower Wabash, and a century ago it gained a reputation for rapid growth and durability, but did not grow in large quant.i.ties. As a railway tie, experiments have left no doubt as to its resistance to decay; it stands abrasion as well as the white oak (_Quercus alba_), and is superior to it in longevity.

Catalpa is a tree singularly free from destructive diseases. Wood cut from the living tree is one of the most durable timbers known. In spite of its light porous structure it resists the weathering influences and the attacks of wood-destroying fungi to a remarkable degree. No fungus has yet been found which will grow in the dead timber, and for fence posts this wood has no equal, lasting longer than almost any other species of timber. The wood is rather soft and coa.r.s.e in texture, the tree is of slow growth, and the brown colored heartwood, even of very young trees, forms nearly three-quarters of their volume. There is only about one-quarter inch of sapwood in a 9-inch tree.

=23. Catalpa= (_Catalpa speciosa_ var. _bignonioides_) (Indian Bean).

Medium-sized tree. Heartwood light brown, sapwood nearly white. Wood light, soft, not strong, brittle, very durable in contact with the soil, of coa.r.s.e texture. Used chiefly for railway ties, telegraph poles, and fence posts, but well suited for a great variety of uses.

Lower basin of the Ohio River, locally common. Extensively planted, and therefore promising to become of some importance.

CHERRY

=24. Cherry= (_Prunus serotina_) (Wild Cherry, Black Cherry, Rum Cherry). Wood heavy, hard, strong, of fine texture. Sapwood yellowish white, heartwood reddish to brown. The wood shrinks considerably in drying, works well and stands well, has a fine satin-like l.u.s.ter, and takes a fine polish which somewhat resembles mahogany, and is much esteemed for its beauty. Cherry is chiefly used as a decorative interior finis.h.i.+ng lumber, for buildings, cars and boats, also for furniture and in turnery, for musical instruments, walking sticks, last blocks, and woodenware. It is becoming too costly for many purposes for which it is naturally well suited. The lumber-furnis.h.i.+ng cherry of the United States, the wild black cherry, is a small to medium-sized tree, scattered through many of the broad-leaved trees of the western slope of the Alleghanies, but found from Michigan to Florida, and west to Texas. Other species of this genus, as well as the hawthornes (_Prunus cratoegus_) and wild apple (_Pyrus_), are not commonly offered in the markets. Their wood is of the same character as cherry, often finer, but in smaller dimensions.

=25. Red Cherry= (_Prunus Pennsylvanica_) (Wild Red Cherry, Bird Cherry). Small-sized tree. Heartwood light brown, sapwood pale yellow.

Wood light, soft, and close-grained. Uses similiar to the preceding, common throughout the Northern States, reaching its greatest size on the mountains of Tennessee.