American Forest Trees Part 28

Leaves are compound, and from fifteen to thirty inches in length. Few trees of this country have larger leaves. There are from eleven to seventeen leaflets. They are hairy and sticky. Hands that handle them are covered with mucilage-like substance. The nuts, which grow in cl.u.s.ters of three or five, are of the same color as the leaves and covered with the same sticky fuzz. The nuts are two inches or more in length, and are borne abundantly when trees stand in open ground. Size rather than age appears to determine the period when trees commence to bear. Those of extra vigor produce when ten or twelve years old. The nuts are salable in the market. They fall with the leaves, immediately after the first sharp frost, and all come down together. A single day frequently suffices to strip the last leaf from a tree, though some of the nuts may hang a little longer. The kernels are very rich, when the nuts are dry, and are apt to cloy the appet.i.te; but they are improved by freezing where they lie on the ground among the leaves; but they must be used quickly after they thaw, or they will spoil. Nuts nearly full-grown but not yet hard are made into pickles, but the fuzz must first be washed off with hot water.

b.u.t.ternut bark has played a rather important role in the country's affairs. Doctors in the Revolutionary war made much of their medicine of the roots and bark of this tree. Drugs were unattainable, and physicians were forced to betake themselves to the woods for subst.i.tutes, and their pharmacopoeias were enriched by the b.u.t.ternut tree. Housewives dyed cloth a brown color with this bark long before aniline dyes found their way into this country. Whole companies of Confederate soldiers from the mountain regions in the Civil war wore clothes dyed in decoctions of b.u.t.ternut bark, and popularly known as "b.u.t.ternut jeans."

The annual output of b.u.t.ternut lumber is placed at a little more than 1,000,000 feet a year. It is widely used, but in small amounts. In Maryland it is made into ceiling and flooring; in North Carolina into cabinet work, fixtures for stores and offices, and into furniture; in Michigan its reported uses are boat finish, interior finish for houses, molding, and screen frames. In Illinois it is used for all the purposes listed above and also for church altars and car finish. These uses are doubtless typical, and hold good in all parts of the country where any use is made of b.u.t.ternut.

The wood has figure similar to that of black walnut, but the color is lighter. It is nearer brown than black. The pores are diffused through the annual ring, but are more numerous and of larger size in the inner than in the outer part. The springwood blends gradually with the wood of the latter part of the season, without sharp distinction, but the ring terminates in a black line which is the chief element of contrast in the wood's figure.

The future value of b.u.t.ternut will be less in the lumber than in the nuts. The tendency in that direction is now apparent. When land is cleared, the trees which would formerly have gone to the sawmill, are now left to bear nuts. The averaged price paid by factories in North Carolina for b.u.t.ternut is $40 a thousand feet. It is cheaper in the Lake States.

MEXICAN WALNUT (_Juglans rupestris_) will never amount to much as a timber tree, though it is by no means useless. It is known by several names, among them being western walnut, dwarf walnut, little walnut, and California walnut. The last name is applied in Arizona through a misunderstanding of the tree's ident.i.ty. It is there confused with the California walnut which is a different species.

The Mexican walnut's range extends from central Texas, through New Mexico to Arizona, and southward into Mexico. It prefers the limestone banks of streams in Texas where it is usually shrubby, seldom attaining a height above thirty feet. It reaches its largest size in canyons among the mountains of New Mexico and Arizona where it reaches a height of sixty feet. Trunks are sometimes five feet in diameter. The wood weighs 40.85 pounds per cubic foot, is dark in color, but the tone is not as regular as that of black walnut; neither is it as strong and stiff. It polishes well, and is said to be durable in contact with the soil. It finds its way in small amounts to local mills, shops, and factories where it is made into various commodities. It is particularly liked for the lathe, and is suited better for turnery than for any other purpose. It is made into gavels, cups, spindles, parts of grills; and it is also worked into picture frames, handles, and small pieces of furniture. It does not appear that lumber sawed from this walnut ever gets into the general market, but the whole output, which is small, is consumed locally. Trees do not occur in pure stands and the whole supply consists of isolated trees or small groups, with few trunks large enough for sawlogs. The nuts are dwarfs. All are not the same size, but none are as large as a hickory nut. Many that grow on the diminutive trees along the water courses in western Texas are not as large, husks and all, as a nutmeg, and the nut itself is about half the size of a nutmeg, and not dissimilar in appearance. The kernels of such a nut are too small to have any commercial value, but they are rare morsels for the native Mexicans and Indians who pick them by pocketfuls. Trees in the stony canyon of Devil's river, in Texas, are in full bearing when so small that a man can stand on the ground and pick walnuts from their highest branches. The Mexican walnut is occasionally cultivated in the eastern part of the United States and in Europe. It is hardy as far north as Ma.s.sachusetts.

CALIFORNIA WALNUT (_Juglans californica_) is a small tree confined to California, and pretty close to the coast, though it grows in Eldorado county. It is most abundant within twenty or thirty miles of tidewater. In the southern part of the state it ascends to an elevation of 4,000 feet. It prefers the banks of streams and the bottoms of canyons where the soil is moist, but it will grow in dry situations. Trees occur singly or in small groups. Their average size is fifteen or twenty feet high, and eight or ten inches in diameter; but trees occasionally are sixty feet high and eighteen inches through. The leaves are small, measuring from six to nine inches in length, with from nine to seventeen leaflets. Nuts are about half the size of eastern black walnuts. The kernel is edible.

The wood is heavier than black walnut, and somewhat lighter in color. Otherwise the two woods are much alike, except in strength and stiffness. In these the California wood is inferior. It has not been reported for any use, but it is suitable for a number of purposes, provided logs of sufficient size could be had. The trunk, in addition to being small, is usually short. The tree is intolerant of shade, and is not often found in forests. It grows rapidly and will attain a diameter of fifteen inches in twenty years or less; but it apparently does not live long. Its princ.i.p.al usefulness in California is as a shade tree, and as a stock in nurseries on which to graft English walnut.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

s.h.a.gBARK HICKORY

[Ill.u.s.tration: s.h.a.gBARK HICKORY]

s.h.a.gBARK HICKORY

(_Hicoria Ovata_)

Twelve species of hickory grow in the United States, all east of the Rocky Mountains. None grow anywhere else in the world, as far as known.

They were widely dispersed over the northern hemisphere in prehistoric times. The records of geology, written by leaf prints in the rocks, tell of forests of hickory in Europe, and even in Greenland, probably a hundred thousand or more years ago, and certainly not in times that can be called recent. No records there later than the ice age have been found. This leads to the presumption that the sheet of ice which pushed down from the North and covered the larger portions of Europe and North America, overwhelmed the hickory forests, and all others, as far as the southern limit of the ice's advance.

In Europe the hickory was utterly destroyed, and it never returned after the close of the reign of ice; but America was more fortunate. The ice sheet pushed little farther in its southward course than the Ohio and Missouri rivers, and forests south of there held their ground, and they slowly worked their way back north as the ice withdrew. Hickory recovered part but not all of its lost ground in America, for it is now found no farther north than southern Canada, which is more than a thousand miles from its old range in Greenland.

The early settlers in New England and in the South at once came into contact with hickory. It was one of the first woods named in this country, and the name is of Indian origin, and is spelled in no fewer than seventeen ways in early literature relating to the settlements. It is probable that John Smith, a prominent man in early Virginia and New England, was the first man who ever wrote the name. He spelled it as the Indians p.r.o.nounced it, "powcohiscora," and it has been trimmed down to our word hickory. The Indian word was the name of a salad or soup made of pounded hickory nuts and water, and was only indirectly applied to the tree itself.

The first settlers along the Atlantic coast nearly always called this tree a walnut, and the name white walnut was common. They were unacquainted with any similar nut-bearing tree in Europe, except the walnut, and most people preferred applying a name with which they were already familiar. Hickories and walnuts belong to the same family, and have many points in common.

Although there are twelve hickories in the United States, and in many respects they are similar, all are not of equal value. Some are very scarce, and the wood of others is not up to standard. From a commercial standpoint, four surpa.s.s the others. These are s.h.a.gbark (_Hicoria ovata_), sh.e.l.lbark (_Hicoria laciniosa_), pignut (_Hicoria glabra_), and mockernut (_Hicoria alba_). The wood of some of the others is as good, but is scarce; and still others, particularly the pecans, are abundant enough, but the wood is inferior. It is impossible in business to separate the hickories. Lumbermen do not do it; manufacturers cannot do it. In some regions one is more abundant than the others, and consequently is used in larger quant.i.ties, but in some other region a different species may predominate in the forest and in the factory. It cannot be truthfully a.s.serted that one hickory is always as good as another, or even that a certain species in one region is as good as the same species in another region. All parts of the same tree do not produce wood of equal value.

Along certain general lines, hickories have many properties in common.

The wood is ring-porous, that is, the inner edge of the yearly growth ring has a row of large pores. Others are scattered toward the outer part of the ring, generally decreasing in number and size outward. There is no distinct division between spring and summerwood. The medullary rays are thin and obscure. The unaided eye seldom notices them. The sapwood is white in all species of hickory, and is usually very thick.

The heartwood is reddish. Common opinion has long held that sapwood is tougher and more elastic than heartwood, and therefore to be preferred for most purposes. Tests made a few years ago by the United States Forest Service ran counter to the long-established opinion of users, by showing that in most respects the redwood of the heart was as good as the white sapwood. However, where resiliency is the chief requisite, as in slender handles, many manufacturers still prefer sapwood.

Hickory is very strong, probably the strongest wood in common use in this country. The statement that one wood is stronger than all others is hardly justified because averages of strength should be taken, and not isolated instances. Satisfactory averages have not yet been worked out for a large number of our woods; but, as far as existing figures may be accepted, hickory is at the head of the list for strength, toughness, and resiliency. Choice samples of certain woods may exceed the average of hickory in some of these particulars. Sugar maple, hornbeam, and locust occasionally show greater strength than hickory, but they lack in toughness and resiliency--the very properties which give hickory its chief value for many purposes.

Considerable misunderstanding exists as to second growth hickory. Some suppose it consists of trees of commercial size developed from sprouts where old trees have been cut. That is not generally correct. When small hickory trees are cut, the stumps often sprout, but hoop poles are about the only commodity made from that kind of hickory. If sprouts are left to grow large, the trees produced are generally defective. Good hickory grows from the nut. The term "second growth" means little, unless it is explained in each instance just what conditions are included. In one sense, all young, vigorous trees are second growth, and that is often the idea in the mind of the speaker. Some would restrict it to trees which have come up in old fields or partial clearings, where they have plenty of light, and have grown rapidly. Their trunks are short, the wood is tough, and there is little red heartwood. The larger a pine, oak, or poplar, provided it is sound, the better the wood; but not so with hickory. Great age and large size add no desirable qualities to this wood.

s.h.a.gbark is largest of the true hickories. The pecans are not usually regarded as true hickories from the wood-user's viewpoint. Some s.h.a.gbarks are 120 feet high and four feet in diameter, but the average size is about seventy-five tall, two in diameter. There is confusion of names among all the hickories, and s.h.a.gbark is misnamed and over-named as often as any of the others. Many persons do not know s.h.a.gbark and sh.e.l.lbark apart, though the ranges of the two species lie only partly in the same territory. s.h.a.gbark is known as sh.e.l.lbark hickory, s.h.a.gbark hickory, sh.e.l.lbark, upland hickory, hickory, scaly bark hickory, white walnut, walnut, white hickory, and red heart hickory. Most of the names refer to the bark, which separates into thin strips, often a foot or more long, and six inches or more wide; and this remains more or less closely attached to the trunk by the middle, giving the s.h.a.ggy appearance to which the tree owes its common name.

The leaf-buds are large and ovate, with yellowish-green and brown scales. The leaves are compound and alternate; they have rough stalks containing five or seven leaflets; they are sessile, tapering to a point and having a rounded base. The lower pair of leaflets is markedly different from the rest in shape; sharply serrate and thin; dark green and glabrous above; lighter below. The flowers do not appear until the leaves have fully matured. They grow in catkins; the staminate ones are light green, slender, and grow in groups of three on long peduncles; the pistillate ones grow in spikes of from two to five flowers. The fruit grows within a dense, green husk, shiny and smooth on the outside, opening in four parts. The nut is nearly white, four-angled, and flattened at the sides. The kernel is sweet and of a strong flavor.

This tree's range is not much short of 1,000,000 square miles, but it is not equally abundant in all parts. It grows from southern Maine to western Florida; is found in Minnesota and Nebraska, and southward beyond the Mississippi. It is most common and of largest size on the western slopes of the southern Appalachian mountains and in the basin of the lower Ohio river. Its favorite habitat is on low hills, or near streams and swamps, in rich and moderately well drained soil.

The hickories have long tap roots, and they do best in soils which the tap roots can penetrate, going down like a radish. The root system makes most hickories difficult trees to transplant. Early in life they do a large part of their growing under ground, and when that growth is interrupted, as it must be in transplanting, the young tree seldom recovers. Those who would grow hickories for timber, nuts, or as ornaments, should plant the seed where the tree is expected to remain.

Most of the planting of hickory in the forest is done by squirrels which bury nuts, with the apparent expectation of digging them up later.

Occasionally one is missed, and a young tree starts.

The uses of this wood are typical of all the other hickories. Handles and light vehicles consume most of it. The markets are in all parts of this country, and in manufacturing centers in many foreign lands.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

BITTERNUT HICKORY

[Ill.u.s.tration: BITTERNUT HICKORY]

BITTERNUT HICKORY

(_Hicoria Minima_)

The tannin in the thin sh.e.l.led nuts which grow abundantly on this tree gives the name bitternut. The name is truly descriptive. Gall itself scarcely exceeds the intense bitterness of the kernel, when crushed between the teeth. The sense of taste does not immediately detect the bitterness in its full intensity. A little time seems to be necessary to dissolve the astringent princ.i.p.al and distribute it to the nerves of taste. When this has been accomplished, the bitterness remains a long time, seeming to persist after the last vestige of the cause has been removed. In that respect it may be likened to the resin of the incense cedar of California which is among tastes what musk is among odors, nearly everlasting. The bitterness of this hickory nut has much to do with the perpetuation of the species. No wild or tame animal will eat the fruit unless forced by famine. Consequently, the nuts are left to grow, provided they can get themselves planted. That is not always easy, for small quadrupeds which bury edible nuts for food, and then occasionally forget them, show no interest whatever in the unpalatable bitternut. It is left where it falls, unless running water, or some other method of locomotion, transports it to another locality. This happens with sufficient frequency to plant the nuts as widely as those of any other hickory. It is believed that this is the most abundant of the hickories.

The tree bears names other than bitternut. It is called swamp hickory, though that name is more applicable to a different species, the water hickory. Pig hickory or pignut are names used in several states, but without good reason. Hogs may sometimes eat the nuts, but never when anything better can be found. Besides, pignut is the accepted name of another species (_Hicoria glabra_). In Louisiana they call it the bitter pecan tree. Bitter hickory is a common name in many localities. In New Hampshire it is known as pig walnut, in Vermont as bitter walnut, and in Texas as white hickory. The names are so many, and so often apply as well to other hickories as to this, that the name alone is seldom a safe guide to identification. It has two or three characters which will help to pick it out from among others. Its leaves and bark bear considerable resemblance to ash. The leaves are the smallest among the hickories, and the bark is never s.h.a.ggy. The small branches always carry yellow buds, no matter what the season of the year. The compound leaves are from six to ten inches long, and consist of from five to nine leaflets, always an odd number.

Bitternut hickory's range covers pretty generally the eastern part of the United States. It is one of the largest and commonest hickories of New England, and is likewise the common hickory of Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa. It grows from Maine through southern Canada to Minnesota, follows down the western side of the Mississippi valley to Texas, and extends into western Florida.

Hickory is often lumbered in ways not common with other hardwoods. It is not generally found in ordinary lumber yards, and is not cut into lumber as most other woods are. It is in a cla.s.s by itself. The person who would consult statistics of lumber cut in the United States to ascertain the quant.i.ty of hickory going to market, would utterly fail to obtain the desired information. The statistics of lumber cut in the United States for the year 1910 listed the total for hickory at 272,252,000 feet, distributed among 33 states, and cut by 6,349 mills. Reports by users of this wood in a number of states show that probably twice as much goes to factories to be manufactured into finished commodities, as all the sawmills cut. This means that much hickory goes to factories without having pa.s.sed through sawmills to be first converted into lumber. It goes as bolts and billets, and as logs of various lengths.

Some sawmills in the hickory region cut dimension stock and sell it to factories to be further worked up; but that is a comparatively small part of the hickory that finds its way to factories of various kinds.

Many sawmills refuse to cut hickory, claiming that it does not pay them to specialize on a scarce wood. Scattered trees occur among other timber, but these are left when the other logging is done. Special operators go after the hickory, and distribute it among various industries which are in the market for it. That method often results in much waste, because the man who is specializing in one commodity, such as wagon poles, ax handles, sucker-rods, wheel stock, or the like, is apt to cut out only what meets his requirements, and abandon the rest.

Some of the hickory camps where such stock is roughed out are spectacles of carelessness and waste, with heaps of rejected hickory which, though not meeting requirements for the special articles in view, are valuable for many other things. Few woods contribute to the trash heap more in proportion to the total cut than hickory; but the waste nearly all occurs before the factories which finally work up the products are reached. These factories are often hundreds of miles from the forests where the hickory grows.

Hickory was not a useful farm timber in early times, as oak and chestnut were. It decayed quickly when exposed to weather, and was not suitable for fence rails, posts, house logs, or general lumber. It was sometimes used for barn floors, but when seasoned it was so hard to nail that it was not well liked. The pioneers were not able to use this wood to advantage, because it is a manufacturer's material, not a farmer's or a villager's standby. It can be said to the credit of the pioneers, however, that they knew its value for certain purposes, and employed as much of it as they needed.

Fuel was the most important place for hickory on the farm. All things considered, it is probably the best firewood of the American forest. The yawning fireplaces called for cords of wood every month of winter in the northern states. Enough to make a modern buggy would go up the chimney in a rich red blaze in an hour, and no one thought that it was waste; and it was not waste then, because farms had to be cleared, and firewood was the best use possible for the hickory at that time. Every cord burned in the chimney was that much less to be rolled into logheaps and consumed in the clearing for the new cornfield.

Hickory has always been considered the best material for smoking meat.

More than 30,000 cords a year are now used that way. It was so used in early times, when every farmer smoked and packed his own meat. Hickory smoke was supposed to give bacon a flavor equalled by no other wood; and in addition to that it was believed to keep the skippers out.

The nuts were made into oil which was thought to be efficacious as a liniment employed as a remedy against rheumatism to which pioneers were susceptible because their moccasins were porous and their feet were often wet. The oil was used also for illuminating purposes. It fed the flame of a crude lamp.