American Forest Trees Part 32

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HACKBERRY

(_Celtis Occidentalis_)

Hackberry is a common name for this tree in nearly all parts of its range, but it has other names. It is sometimes confused with sugarberry (_Celtis mississippiensis_). They call it nettle tree in Rhode Island, Ma.s.sachusetts, Delaware, and Michigan, and in Tennessee it is known as American nettle-tree. In Vermont it is hoop ash; in Rhode Island one-berry; hack-tree in Minnesota, and juniper tree in New Jersey.

The name hackberry is not of American origin. It dates far back in the languages of western Europe and is believed to have the same origin as the word haw, which, in its turn meant hedge. If that etymology is correct, the word really means hedge berry, which is not an inappropriate name for the tree. The name is sometimes applied to a small bird cherry in Europe. The New Jersey name juniper-tree is in recognition of the resemblance of the berries to those of red cedar or red juniper. No reason has been a.s.signed for the name nettle-tree.

Its range covers about 2,000,000 square miles in the United States besides part of Canada. It grows from the Atlantic on the coast of New England to the tide water of the Pacific on Puget sound; in southern Florida and in Texas. It is not found in pure stands, but often as single trees far apart. This is the case in the northeastern part of the United States in particular where probably not more than one tree might be found in a whole county. Frequently the people in the neighborhood do not know what the tree is, and suppose it is the last representative on earth of some disappearing species.

It is far from being a disappearing tree. Not only is it widely dispersed over the United States, but related species are scattered through many countries of the old world, from Denmark to India. There are said to be between fifty and sixty species, only two of which are in the United States.

It has been claimed by scholars that the lotus referred to by ancient writers was the hackberry. It was reputed to cause forgetfulness when eaten, but the claim was fict.i.tious, for the fruit does not produce that effect. It is not now regarded as human food. Tennyson deals with the fiction very beautifully in the poem "Lotus Eaters," but he took liberties with botany when he represented fruit and flowers on the same branch; for, though the berries hang several months, they drop before the next season's flowers appear.

The hackberry belongs to the elm family, being of the same relation as the planertree. The leaves resemble those of the elm, but are more sharply pointed. The fruit is usually cla.s.sed as a berry. It ripens in September and October, but remains on the tree several months, becoming dry. It is about one-fourth inch long, dark purple, with a tough, thick skin, and with flesh dark orange. Most of the pale brown seeds are eaten by birds.

The tree varies greatly in size. In some remote corners of its immense range it is little more than a shrub, while at its best it may attain a height of 100 feet and a diameter of three or four. Its average size is about that of slippery elm. The bark varies as much in appearance as the tree in size. Sometimes it has the smooth surface and pale bluish-green appearance that suggest the bark of beech; again it is darker and rougher, like the elm. It frequently exhibits the harsh warty bark which is peculiar to the hackberry, and when present it is a pretty safe means of identification. The warts may be conical, oblong, or sharp-pointed, and probably an inch in height. When closely examined, most of them are found to consist of parallel strata of bark which may usually be pulled off without much difficulty. The warts are a decided disadvantage to the tree in some of the low swampy districts of Louisiana where Spanish moss is a pest. This moss (which is not a true moss), is propagated princ.i.p.ally by tufts and strands which are carried by wind until they find anchorage among the branches of trees where they increase and multiply at a rapid rate until they finally smother or break down the unfortunate tree which supplied a lodging place. The hackberry's warts catch and hold every flying strand of moss that touches them, and hundreds, perhaps thousands of pounds of it may acc.u.mulate on a single tree. The grayish-green color of the moss often exactly matches the hue of the tree's bark.

The reported annual cut of hackberry lumber in the United States is less than 5,000,000 feet. That can be only a fraction of the total output.

Few mills report it separately, but list it as ash. The wood looks more like ash than elm. It is heavy, but only moderately hard and strong. Its color is more yellowish than ash, but the annual rings of growth resemble that wood. The sapwood is thick, and growth is rapid where conditions are favorable.

It is doubtless used by industries in thirty states or more, but comparatively few factories report it. In Texas it is listed in the box and crate industry. In Louisiana it rises to more importance, for that is the region where the tree attains its best. Slack coopers make kegs, tubs, and barrels of it; vehicle manufacturers convert it into parts of buggy tops and the running gears of wagons; it serves for furniture and interior finish; and it takes the place of ash for hoe handles and parts of agricultural implements. The uses are nearly the same in Mississippi, but it is used there for rustic seats and other outdoor furniture. In Missouri it is found suitable for cart axles, saddle trees, st.i.tching horse jaws, and wagon beds. In Arkansas it goes with ash into flooring, and interior finish for houses. Illinois builders work it into fixtures for stores. In Michigan it serves the same purposes as in Texas, baskets, boxes, and crates. These examples doubtless are representative of its uses wherever the tree is found in commercial quant.i.ties. The wood is not durable in contact with the soil.

It is also liable to attack by boring insects if logs are allowed to retain their bark.

The hackberry has been planted to a small extent as a street tree in the southern towns, but it is not as popular as the elms and oaks. It will never occupy a more important position in the country's lumber industry than it holds at present. It is a tree which, for some reason, inspires little enthusiasm in anybody; but nature takes care of it fairly well, and the small sweet drupes which it bears are a guarantee that the species will not want for seed carriers as long as birds continue to have access to its branches in winter.

SUGARBERRY (_Celtis mississippiensis_) is frequently mistaken for hackberry even by persons who ought to be able to distinguish them.

Botanists formerly confused the two, and probably some insist still that sugarberry is only a variety of hackberry. The leaves generally have smooth margins, and that would differentiate the tree from the hackberry were it not that sometimes the sugarberry has serrate leaves. The drupes are bright orange red and are usually smaller than the purple fruit of hackberry. As for the wood of the two species, it is not easy to tell one from the other. The sugarberry's range is not one-third as extensive as hackberry's, but covers some hundreds of thousands of square miles in the southeastern quarter of the United States. Its northern limit is in Illinois and Indiana where it occupies rich bottom lands and the banks of streams. It reaches its largest size in the lower Ohio river basin, grows southward into Florida and west into Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri. It crosses the Rio Grande into Mexico, appearing to outstrip the hackberry in that direction. It outstrips it in another direction also, for it is found in the Bermuda islands. The French of Louisiana called it bois inconnu, or the unknown wood.

This tree shows a marked tendency to run into varieties, and cultivation would probably develop the tendency. The differences between the species and the varieties are plain enough to the systematic botanist, but are such that the lumberman or other ordinary observer would scarcely notice them. The variety which has been named _Celtis mississippiensis reticulata_, but without any English name except sugarberry, is a tree forty or fifty feet high, covered with blue-gray bark, very rough. It ranges from Dallas, Texas, to the Rio Grande and westward into New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, and into southern California and Lower California. In eastern Texas it is found on dry limestone hills, but westward only in mountain canyons in the vicinity of water. In the southern part of Texas this tree is usually known as palo blanco, but those who apply that name have no idea that it is a variety of sugarberry but suppose it is a tree peculiar to their region. In Cameron and Hidalgo counties, Texas, either because an extra good quality grows there, or because some opinion exists in its favor, it is liked for wagon material, and occasionally is turned for table legs and other parts of furniture. It is quite common in that part of Texas as an ornamental tree in yards and along streets of small towns. The whiteness of the bark is the most striking feature.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

WHITE ASH

[Ill.u.s.tration: WHITE ASH]

WHITE ASH

(_Fraxinus Americana_)

This tree is generally called white or gray ash, or simply ash. American ash is a translation of its botanical name and is not often used in business transactions in this country. In some parts of the South the term cane ash is occasionally employed, but there seems to be no agreement among those who use the name as to what it means. This is the common ash in the lumber trade. There are more than a dozen species in the United States, but white ash goes to market in larger amounts than all others together. This is known in a general way, but exact figures cannot be given, because statistics of the cut of different species of ash are not kept separate.

The range of this tree covers at least a million square miles, and all or part of every state east of the Mississippi river and west of it from Nebraska to Texas. It is reported cut for lumber in thirty states. The various ashes are lumbered in thirty-nine states. Ash does not occur in pure stands but is scattered in forests of other species, sometimes growing in small clumps. It is difficult to name an average size for the tree, because climate and soil control the growth over a large area where conditions vary. Trees 120 feet high and six feet in diameter are said to have stood in the primeval forests in the lower Ohio valley; but logs four feet through are seldom seen now. Trees seventy or eighty feet high and three in diameter are above the average in any region where this tree is now lumbered. Some of the old planted trees of New England are five or six feet through, and are finely proportioned, but growing as they do in the open, they have larger crowns than are found in forest trees.

All species of ash have compound leaves, and those of white ash are from eight to twelve inches long. The under sides of the leaflets are white, and some persons have this fact in mind when they call the species white ash, while others refer to the bark, and still others to the wood. It is a characteristic of the tree that most of the leaves grow near the ends of the limbs. For that reason the crown appears open when viewed from below, and the larger limbs and branches are naked. The leaves demand light, and they arrange themselves on the extremities of the limbs to get it. When the tree is crowded, it sheds its lower limbs and its crown rises rapidly until it reaches abundance of light. This produces long trunks in forests.

The boles are often not quite straight, but have several slight crooks, yet keep close to a general perpendicular line. That form is due to a peculiarity of growth. The leading shoot of a growing ash has more than one terminal bud. If a side bud pushes ahead, the stem leans a little in that direction; next, a bud on the other side may gain the ascendancy, producing a slight lean for a few years in that direction; or two side buds may develop simultaneously, causing a forked trunk. Mature trees often carry the history of these peculiarities of growth.

The seeds of white ash are equipped for moderate flight. The wing is large, but the seed attached to the end of it is heavy enough to give it a sharp tilt downward when it begins its flight through the air, and it generally shoots at a steep angle toward the ground. It is not apt to whirl through the air with a gliding motion like a maple seed.

Consequently, ash seeds are not great travelers. They are dispersed with economy, however, for all do not come down at once, but many hang on the tree for months, and a few go with every strong wind, thus getting themselves scattered in every direction. Their power of germination is low, and only about forty per cent of seeds are fertile. This is due to the fact that pistillate and staminate flowers do not grow on the same tree, and fertilization is imperfect.

The importance of ash in the industries of the country does not depend on the quant.i.ty but the quality of the wood. Although the various species are produced in thirty-nine states, as shown by mill statistics, the total yield is less than 250,000,000 feet a year. That is exceeded by several woods, among them hickory, elm, beech, ba.s.swood, chestnut, and even larch.

The wood of ash which has grown rapidly is generally considered superior to that of slow growth. The reason is found in the fact that trees of slow growth do most of their growing early in the season, and the wood is porous; but trees of rapid growth lay summerwood on abundantly, and it is dense. Few species show a sharper line between spring and summerwood than ash, for which reason the annual rings are clear-cut and distinct. What figure ash has is produced by the growth rings, and not by medullary rays. Quarter-sawing brings out no additional beauty.

Slight crooks in many logs produce a moderate cross grain in lumber, which gives to finished ash its characteristic figure or grain. When straight-grained wood is wanted, as when it is for tool handles and oars, logs without crooks are selected.

The wood of white ash is heavy, hard, strong, elastic, but rather brittle. It lacks the toughness of hickory. The medullary rays are numerous, but small and obscure. The color is brown, the sapwood much lighter, often nearly white. It is not durable in contact with the soil.

Notwithstanding its name, the wood rates low in ash, and its fuel value is under that of white oak. The states which produce the largest yearly cut of this species are, ranging downward in the order named: Arkansas, Ohio, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, and Tennessee.

The uses of white ash are so numerous that they can be presented only in cla.s.ses. It goes into almost every wood-using industry, but in different sections of country certain uses lead. Thus in Illinois the makers of b.u.t.ter tubs take more of it than any other industry; in Michigan automobiles lead, and in Arkansas the handle factories are largest buyers; in Louisiana boat oars consume most; in Alabama and Missouri car construction is in the lead; in Texas boxes and crates; in North Carolina wagons; in Kentucky handles; in Maryland musical instruments; and in Ma.s.sachusetts furniture. The utilization of ash in these states, scattered over the eastern half of the United States, indicates fairly well the wood's most important lines of usefulness. A considerable quant.i.ty is made into flooring and interior finish. It is cla.s.sed among sanitary woods, that is, it does not stain or taint food products by contact.

The total quant.i.ty of merchantable white ash in the country is not known, but there is still enough to meet demand, and the extent of the tree's range makes supplies convenient in nearly all manufacturing states. The species grows rather rapidly, and trees a hundred or a hundred and fifty years old yield logs of good size.

TEXAS ASH (_Fraxinus texensis_) has been regarded by some as a variety of white ash, while others, including Sudworth and Sargent, consider it a distinct species. It is often called mountain ash where it occurs among the mountains of western Texas. Its range lies wholly in that state, and extends from the vicinity of Dallas to the valley of Devil's river. The compound leaves are smaller than those of white ash, and are usually composed of five leaflets. The winged seeds ripen in May, and are an inch or less in length. The largest trees are fifty feet high and two or three in diameter; but generally the trees are much smaller. The wood is strong, heavy, and hard. The annual rings are marked by one or more rows of open ducts, and the medullary rays are inconspicuous. The heartwood is light brown, the sapwood lighter. This ash is employed within its range for various purposes, but it is not of sufficient abundance to const.i.tute an important commodity. In market it is not distinguished from white ash.

GREGG ASH (_Fraxinus greggii_) has some peculiarities which make it worthy of mention as one of the minor species. Its range is in the dry mountains of western Texas where a number of ashes seem to have put in an appearance as members of the thinly-peopled vegetable kingdom of that region. The compound leaves of Gregg ash are seldom three inches long, and the leaflets are often half an inch long and less than a quarter of an inch wide. The petioles are winged like the twigs of wing elm. The undersides of the leaves have small black dots. The winged seeds are as proportionately small as the leaves. The flowers have not been described by botanists, for the species is not well known. The largest trees are scarcely twenty-five feet high and eight inches in diameter. More frequently they are shrubs from four to twelve feet tall. The wood is heavy, hard, brown in color and of slow growth.

DWARF ASH (_Fraxinus anomala_) might be mistaken for some other species were its telltale winged seeds missing. It has lost the leaflets from its compound leaf, and a single one remains. Occasionally, however, a stem bearing three leaflets is found. The seeds are equipped with wide, oblong wings. It is a desert species, and the desolate surroundings of its habitat explain why nature has dispensed with as much foliage as possible. It is found in southwestern Colorado, in southern Utah, and on the western slopes of the Charleston mountains in southern Nevada. Trees are small and the wood is not of much use for other than fuel, but a few small ranch timbers are made of it where other kinds are scarce. Trunks are usually not more than six or seven inches in diameter. The wood is heavy, hard, and light brown in color.

FRINGE ASH (_Fraxinus cuspidata_) has some difficulty in proving that it is ent.i.tled to be called a tree in the United States, though southward in Mexico its right to that t.i.tle is unquestioned. It is very small where its range extends over the dry ridges and rocky slopes of southwestern Texas and southern New Mexico and Arizona.

Its compound leaves are five or seven inches long, and the leaflets which number from three to seven have long, slender tips. The trowel-shaped fruit is about one inch long. The wood resembles white ash, but trunks of considerable size are not found. The name refers to the flowers, and they give this small tree its value for ornamental purposes. The flowers appear in April and are extremely fragrant.

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BLACK ASH

[Ill.u.s.tration: BLACK ASH]

BLACK ASH