American Forest Trees Part 25

The range of this oak reaches southern Oregon on the north, and runs southward three or four hundred miles along the Sierra Nevada mountains, to Mariposa county, and six hundred miles through the Coast range to Santa Barbara county. The tree is affected by climatic conditions, and where surroundings do not suit, it is small and shrubby, often less than ten feet high. It does best in the redwood belt where fogs from the Pacific ocean keep the air moist and the ground damp. It sometimes a.s.sociates with Douglas fir, and at other times with California live oak. If it grows in dense side shade it loses its lower branches and develops a long, clean trunk; but in open ground it keeps its limbs until late in life.

This is the most important source of tanbark on the Pacific coast, and up to the present it has been procurable in large quant.i.ties. The annual output is nearly 40,000 tons, and it commands a higher price than the bark of any other oak or of hemlock. The absence of other adequate tanning materials on the Pacific coast gives this tree much importance.

Its range covers several thousand square miles, and the stand is fairly good on much of it. But on the other hand, the destruction of timber to secure the bark has been excessive. What occurred with chestnut oak and hemlock in the East, is occurring with tanbark oak in the West. Trees are cut and peeled, and are left by thousands to rot in the woods, or to feed fires and make them more destructive. The bark peelers do their princ.i.p.al work in the California redwood region, because there the oak is at its best. Economic conditions make the salvage of the trunks impossible. The bark can be hauled to market, but the wood is unsalable at living prices, after the long haul. It has, therefore, been usually abandoned, and becomes a total loss. It cannot even be sold for fuel, because the country within reach of it is thinly settled, and wood is plentiful on every side.

Large oaks are felled, because the bark can not be stripped from the trunks in any other way, and small trees are not spared. The peelers often do not take the trouble to cut them down, but strip off the bark as high as a man can reach, and leave them standing. A future tree is thus destroyed for the sake of a strip of bark a few feet long. Such trees live a year or two, sometimes several years, before yielding to the inevitable. Usually, as a last expiring effort, they bear an abnormally large crop of acorns. That performance, in the language of the bark peelers, is "the last kick." A tanbark slashing, when the peelers are ready to abandon it, is a sorry spectacle. The barkless and sun-cracked trunks strew the ground, the tops and limbs are piled in windrows, the small peeled trees stand dying, and the last ricks of bark have been sledded down the tote roads, marking the close of operations in that district. A few months later, when fire runs through, the end of the tanbark oak on that tract is accomplished.

Within recent years commendable efforts have been made to use the wood as well as the bark. One of the first steps in that direction was to overcome the prejudice against the wood. It was long considered to be valueless. That belief was founded on the single fact that this oak is difficult to season. Few woods in this country check as badly as this, when it is left exposed to sun and wind after the bark has been removed.

It checks both radially and along the annual rings. The medullary rays are broad and extend much of the distance from the center to the outside. These are natural lines of cleavage when the log begins to season and the internal stresses develop. It must be admitted that the prospect of making anything out of timber of that character is discouraging; but it has been accomplished, and tanbark oak is now a material of considerable value.

The wood has about the strength and stiffness of white oak, while it is four pounds lighter per cubic foot. The structure is similar to that of California live oak, but the pores of tanbark oak are smaller. They run in rows from center to circ.u.mference. The medullary rays are broad enough to show well in quarter-sawing, but the wood's appearance when so worked is not wholly satisfactory. The exposed flat surfaces of the rays show a faint purplish or violet tinge which is considered objectionable. But when the wood is worked plain it is dependable and substantial. It makes good flooring, fairly good furniture, finish, vehicles, and agricultural implements. It is perishable when placed in damp situations, and this detracts somewhat from its value as railway ties; but the wood's porous nature indicates that it will readily yield to preservative treatment.

Since the value of the wood is coming to be understood it is to be expected that less of it will be destroyed than formerly, and that second growth will be given opportunity to hold the ground when old stands are cut. The tree is a prolific seeder, but not every year, and seedlings come up abundantly in sheltered places. Sprouts rise from stumps and grow to vigorous trees. It would seem, therefore, that the tanbark oak will hold at least part of the ground where nature planted it.

TOUMEY OAK (_Quercus toumeyi_). No oak in this country has smaller leaves than this. They are usually less than three-fourths of an inch long and half an inch wide, and they hang on petioles one-sixteenth inch long. The leaves have no lobes or notches. They remain all winter and fall in the spring in time to make room for the new crop. The acorns are nearly as long as the leaves and ripen in June of the first year. Few persons ever see this oak, for its known range is restricted to Mule mountain, in Cochise county, southeastern Arizona. It attains a height of twenty-five or thirty feet, and a diameter of six or eight inches.

The trunk is not only small, but is of form so poor that it can never be of value for anything but fuel. It divides near the ground into crooked branches. The heart of the tree is light brown, the thick sapwood is lighter.

WOOLLY OAK (_Quercus tomentella_) has apparently been crowded off the American continent and has taken refuge on islands off the southern California coast. As far as known, not a single tree stands on the mainland, but several groves, with a few isolated specimens, are found on Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, and Catalina islands, where they are huddled together in the bottoms of sheltered canyons. The leaves are thick, leathery, and are toothed like holly. The trees are evergreen. The acorns do not mature until the second season.

They are generally more than an inch long. The scarcity of this oak relegates it to an unimportant place among commercial woods. This seems unfortunate, for the appearance of the wood indicates that it possesses excellent properties. No other oak looks like this wood.

It is decidedly yellow, and is dense and firm. The medullary rays are different from those of any other oak. When seen in cross section they are arranged in short, wavy lines, broadest in the middle and tapering toward both ends. The pores are arranged between the rays, and follow wavy lines also. Trees grow with fair rapidity, and the largest on the islands are seventy-five feet high and two in diameter.

BARREN OAK (_Quercus pumila_) is called dwarf black oak, or simply scrub oak. Its habit of growing on barren land is responsible for its common name which some people shorten to "bear" oak. It is one of the poorest oaks of the East, and it seldom grows more than twenty-five feet high and a few inches in diameter. Its range follows the Atlantic coast southward from Mount Desert Island, Maine, to North Carolina. It is probably more abundant on the pine barrens of New Jersey than elsewhere. The trunks are too small to be of use for anything but fuel.

PRICE OAK (_Quercus pricei_) is a California tree, supposed to be very local in its range, since it has not been found outside the drainage basin of a small stream in Monterey county. That locality on the coast of California appears to be the starting place or princ.i.p.al abiding place of several tree species, among which are Monterey cypress and Monterey pine. The Price oak attains a height of twenty-five or thirty feet, and a diameter of twelve inches or less; consequently it is too small to be of value to lumbermen, even if it were abundant. The leaves resemble those of California live oak, and are believed to remain two summers on the tree. The acorns mature the second season.

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SHINGLE OAK

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SHINGLE OAK

(_Quercus Imbricaria_)

The origin of this tree's name has been the subject of considerable controversy. According to one account the name was first used by the French colonists at Kaskaskia, Illinois, nearly 150 years ago. They found that the wood rived well and it was abundant in the vicinity of their settlement. They split it for shingles and covered their cabins.

It was the best wood obtainable for the purpose in that region, and they designated the tree shingle oak, a name translated into Latin by the botanist Michaux and still retained as the tree's botanical name. The story of the name appears to be well authenticated, but the fact cannot be denied that as much reason exists for another theory. A person who sees a shingle oak tree in full leaf, particularly if it stands in open ground where its foliage has had opportunity to develop along natural lines, will at once notice the peculiar and characteristic overlapping of the leaves. They suggest the courses of shingles nailed on a roof. No other oak has that arrangement. The similitude is so striking that it would be surprising if the name shingle oak were not applied.

It is not a one-name tree, but following the fashion, it carries several names. It is called laurel oak in some regions. The form and appearance of the leaf give the name. The oak looks like a mammoth laurel tree more than like its own species. The shingle oak is known as jack oak in some parts of Illinois. That is a name liable to be applied to any tree when its real name is not known. In North Carolina they call the tree water oak, which name, like jack oak, is often used to conceal ignorance of the true name. Another southern species (_Quercus nigra_) is properly named water oak.

Shingle oak requires good soil for growth but is not partial either to uplands or bottoms. It is found at its best in the lower Ohio river basin and in Missouri, but is comparatively rare in the East. From middle Pennsylvania its range extends southward along the Alleghanies to northern Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and west Arkansas. It is found in Michigan, Wisconsin, and westward to Kansas.

It manifests a strong tendency to hybridize with other oaks, and it readily crosses with black jack oak, pin oak, and yellow oak. It is believed that a cross between yellow oak and shingle oak produced the species known as lea oak.

A mature tree may be one hundred feet high and three or four feet in diameter. It has a round or pyramidal attractive crown composed of many slender branches and twigs. The foliage is distinctively grouped at the ends of the twigs in star-like cl.u.s.ters. The leaves are four or six inches long, with wedge-shaped or rounded bases, and are deep green and shiny on the upper side, but lighter below. The acorns are short, stubby, and rounded, covered one-third of the way with thin shallow cups.

Shingle oak grows rapidly, and it is often sold by nurseries which deal in ornamental forest trees. It is hardy as far north as Ma.s.sachusetts.

Although it bears great abundance of leaves, they are so arranged that the crown seems open. One may see through the branches of a large shingle oak, and it suggests an airiness not common with oaks.

Differences of opinion exist concerning the value of shingle oak for commercial purposes. It belongs in the black oak group, and its wood goes to market as red oak, and apparently is never listed as anything else. It is never named in market reports; shops and factories never report it, and it has been p.r.o.nounced inferior to red oak in strength and seasoning properties. Tests have been made of some of its physical properties, and the results do not indicate that the wood belongs with inferior timbers. Its breaking strength is given at 39 per cent greater than white oak, and its stiffness at 28 per cent greater. However, these values, which are calculated from Sargent's tables, are based on tests of only a few specimens of the wood, and fuller investigation might make revision necessary.

The wood is heavy, hard, and is said to check badly in drying. The pores are large and are arranged in rows; medullary rays are broad and conspicuous. The wood is light brown, tinged with red, the sapwood much lighter. The broad medullary rays, running radially, give the wood its good splitting qualities.

The tree is fairly abundant in different parts of its range, and is cut and manufactured with other oaks and hardwoods. Slack coopers use it for barrels; box makers employ it for crates; chair mills saw dimension stock and ship it to factories to be finished; some goes to furniture factories; some is turned for spindles for grills, and for bal.u.s.ters for stairs; other fills various places as interior finish and molding. But it all goes to market and pa.s.ses through factories under names other than its own.

WATER OAK (_Quercus nigra_) has several names, some of them bestowed with little apparent reason. It is called possum oak and duck oak, but these names are neither descriptive nor definitive. Punk oak is another name. It may refer to a decayed condition of the wood, but this tree is no more affected by decay than others of the same region. In Texas it is sometimes known as spotted oak. It thrives in wet situations though not actually in swamps. It prefers margins of ponds, banks of rivers, and low swales where the ground water is just below the surface, but it is not confined to such situations. It does well, within its range, wherever willow oak flourishes, but willow oak has a wider range. The leaves take on various forms, and they change shape as they increase in size. Some have smooth margins, others are lobed. Some are wedge-shaped, others coffin-shaped. Their typical form, if it may be said of them that they have a typical form, is narrow at the stem end and wide at the other. To this is usually added rudimentary lobes, which are sometimes nearly as well developed as in any other oak. Their typical form is like the leaf of the black jack oak; but they are not half as large, and are thin and delicate, while the black jack's leaf is thick and leathery.

The range of water oak begins in Delaware and follows the Atlantic coastal plain south to central Florida, and through the Gulf States to Texas. It grows as far north as Kentucky and Missouri. It keeps clear of the Appalachian mountain region, and other hilly districts. It is plentiful in some parts of its range, and trunks three feet in diameter and long enough for two or three logs are not unusual, yet large numbers of water oaks may be seen in the South which are not fit for sawlogs because they stand in open ground and are limby down to ten feet of the ground. Many have been planted for shade trees in streets and in parks, and are justly admired. They grow rapidly and are extremely graceful.

Their leaves are deciduous, but adhere to the branches most of the year.

South of the belt of severe frost, the old leaves frequently hang until the buds for the new crop are opening. The acorns are bitter, and even the southern pine hog pa.s.ses them by until the pinch of famine edges up his appet.i.te.

Water oak possesses value as a source of lumber, but it belongs with the large cla.s.s of oaks which lose their names and their ident.i.ty when they pa.s.s the threshold of the sawmill. They come out red oak. Only in rare instances is water oak called by its own name in the factory and lumber yard. Wagon makers employ it for bolsters, axles, spokes, tongues, sandboards, hounds, felloes and reaches. Entire dump carts, except the iron, are constructed of this wood. Furniture manufacturers use it as frame material, but seldom as the outside visible parts, though no reason for not doing so is offered. Objection is made to its seasoning qualities, but the same objection applies to most red oaks. A considerable amount of water oak is cut in the South into thick planks for bridge floors. It is strong and hard, and satisfactorily resists decay in that place; though, in common with the black oaks generally, it is liable to decay when exposed to dampness. The wood weighs a little less than white oak, and is not quite as strong or as stiff. It is porous, but the pores are small, except one or two rows in the springwood. The medullary rays are thin and not numerous, but they are conspicuous, and the wood may be successfully quarter-sawed. The lumber has the appearance of red oak, though the reddish color is not so p.r.o.nounced.

BARTRAM OAK (_Quercus heterophylla_). This interesting but commercially unimportant oak was named by Michaux from a single tree found in a field belonging to John Bartram near Philadelphia more than a century ago. A few trees have since been found in widely scattered districts as far south as North Carolina and as far west as Texas. Botanists believe it is a hybrid, one parent being the willow oak (_Quercus ph.e.l.los_) and the other yellow oak (_Quercus velutina_). It is probable that here may be witnessed the origin of a tree species. The leaves seem to be a compromise between the deeply cut foliage of yellow oak and the entire leaf of willow oak.

The new species is so scarce that few people have ever seen it.

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RED GUM

[Ill.u.s.tration: RED GUM]

RED GUM

(_Liquidambar Styraciflua_)

This tree does not belong to the same group as black gum and tupelo, which are in the dogwood family, while red gum is of the witch hazel family. If a tree is to be judged and named by its character, red gum is more ent.i.tled to the name "gum" than any other tree of this country, because it exudes a yellow resin from wounds in the bark. The botanical name recognizes that fact. Storax is procured from a closely related tree is Asia, and has been known in commerce for many centuries. The other popular names of red gum are sweet gum, liquid-amber gum, gum tree, alligator wood, bilsted, starleaved gum, and satin walnut.

The last name originated in England where it was desirable to avoid the name gum when applied to the wood of this tree. Though botanically it is about as distantly related to walnut as any tree can be, the figure of the wood often suggests walnut. The name sweet gum refers to the pleasant odor of the resin which is sometimes used in France, and probably elsewhere, to perfume gloves. Alligator wood is descriptive of warty excrescences on the bark of some trees, but they are not common to all. Starleaved gum relates to the leaf. It is a lopsided star--a six point star with one point missing.

This tree's range in the United States extends from Connecticut to Texas and as far northwest of the Alleghanies as Missouri and Illinois. It reaches its greatest size in the lower Mississippi valley in rich bottom land which is subject to repeated inundation. It is not, however, as purely a swamp tree as tupelo and cypress. It grows well on land which is never inundated, but it needs plenty of moisture. The largest specimens exceed a height of 120 feet and a diameter of four; but logs from eighteen inches to three feet are the usual sizes. The tree's range extends southward through Mexico into Central America.

The rise of red gum lumber into prominence forms an interesting chapter in the industry. It was formerly considered so difficult to season that few mills cared to deal with it, but that difficulty has been largely overcome. In the past, gum, having no market value, was left standing after logging; or, where the land was cleared for farming, was girdled and allowed to rot, and then felled and burned. Not only were the trees a total loss to the farmer, but, from their great size and the labor required to handle them, they were so serious an obstruction as often to preclude the clearing of valuable land. Now that there is a market for the timber, it is profitable to cut gum with other hardwoods, and land can be cleared more cheaply. This increase in the value of gum timber will be of great benefit to the South in many ways.

Throughout its entire life red gum is intolerant of shade. As a rule seedlings appear only in clearings or in open spots in the forest. It is seldom that an overtopped tree is found, for the gum dies quickly if suppressed, and is consequently nearly always a dominant or intermediate tree. In a hardwood bottom forest, the timber trees are all of nearly the same age over considerable areas, and there is little young growth to be found in the older stands. The reason for this is the intolerance of most of the swamp species.