Chapter XIV: Part 14

However, the exhaustion of no species of the elms in this country need be expected soon. The most apparent peril lies ahead of cork elm, because it never was abundant, and demand, which has been large for a long time, is still strong. The species is scattered over more than 200,000 square miles, and a long time must elapse before the last cork elm finds its way to the sawmill. The situation of white elm is more promising. It may be among the last trees of the American forests to take its final departure. Its wide range and its bounteous seed crops insure a supply, though not necessarily a large one, for a long time. The greatest peril to elms, as well as to many other forest trees, is that, when weakened by depletion, some disease will attack them and destroy the remnants. Experience in New England and elsewhere has shown that elm has no great resisting power when a strong attack is made upon it.

SLIPPERY ELM

SLIPPERY ELM

(_Ulmus Pubescens_)

This tree is known as slippery elm in every state where it grows, thirty or more; but in some localities it has other names also. It is doubtful if any person who is acquainted with the tree would fail to recognize it by the name slippery elm, though some who are acquainted with the lumber only might not know it by that name. Those who call it red elm have in mind the color of the heartwood which is of deeper red than the wood of any other elm, or they may refer to the tawny pubescence on the young shoots in winter. The botanical name describes that characteristic.

In the North, the slippery elm is sometimes known as moose elm. It furnishes forage in winter for the moose and other herbivorous animals when ground plants are covered with snow. The moose is able to eat branches as thick as a man’s thumb. The principal food element in the twigs is the mucilaginous inner bark. It is this which gives the tree its name slippery elm. The value of the bark as a food has been questioned. It is agreeable to the taste of both man and beast, but it is claimed that a human being will starve to death on it, though it will prolong life several days. The lower animals, however, seem able to derive more benefit from eating the bark. An incident of the War of 1812 appears to prove this. The army under General Harrison, operating in the vicinity of Lake Erie, kept the horses of the expedition alive by feeding them on slippery elm bark, stripped from the trees and chopped in small bits.

The inner bark has long been used for medicinal purposes. It is now ground fine and is kept for sale in drug stores, but formerly it was a household remedy which most families in the country provided and kept in store along with catnip, mandrake, sage, dogwood blossoms, and other rural remedies which were depended upon to rout diseases in the days when physicians were few. The slippery elm bark was peeled from the tree in long strips, the rough outer layers were shaved off, leaving the mucilaginous inner layer. That was from an eighth to a quarter of an inch thick. It was dried and put away for use. When needed it was pounded to a pulp, moistened with water, and applied as a poultice, if an external remedy was wanted. If a medicine was needed, a decoction was drunk as tea. There is no question that the remedy often produced good results when no doctor was within reach. A well-known medical writer said three-quarters of a century ago that the slippery elm tree was worth its weight in gold.

The range of slippery elm extends from the lower St. Lawrence river through Canada to North Dakota. It is found in Texas as far west as the San Antonio river, and its western limit is generally from 200 to 300 miles west of the Mississippi river. Its range extends south nearly to the Gulf of Mexico. It is not this tree’s habit to grow in thick stands, but it occurs singly or in small groups on the banks of streams or on rich hillsides.

The average size is scarcely half that of white elm. Few trees exceed a height of seventy feet and a diameter of two. It grows rapidly at first, but does not live to old age. The crown lacks the symmetry and beauty so conspicuous in white elm. The limbs follow no law of regularity, but leave the trunk at haphazard. The fruit is mature before the leaves are half grown. The seeds have more wing area than those of white elm; and, like those of white elm, the wing surrounds the flat seed on all its edges. The leaves are rough to the touch, and when crumpled in the hand, the crunching sensation is unpleasant.

Next to white elm, slippery elm appears to be more abundant than any other member of the group; but statistics do not give the basis for close estimates. The factories of Michigan use 3,700,000 feet of slippery elm a year, and 44,000,000 of white elm. The proportion of slippery to white is larger in the factories of Illinois.

The uses are the same as for other elms. The wood is rated more durable than the others, but it is not in much demand for outdoor work where resistance to decay is an important consideration. It is sometimes set for fence posts, but the results are scarcely satisfactory, particularly for round posts which are largely sapwood. Posts sawed from the heartwood of large trees would do better. The deeper red of the heartwood gives it an advantage over the other elms for furniture and finish where natural colors are shown; but this is not important because no elm’s natural color stands for much in the estimation of users of fine woods. The more common use of slippery elm is for boxes and cooperage. Next to red gum, it is employed in larger quantities for cooperage in Illinois than any other wood.

The supply is rapidly decreasing. The cut for lumber is the chief drain, but a not inconsiderable one is the peeling of trees for bark. This goes on all over the species’ range and much of it is done by boys with knives and hatchets. It is often hard to find slippery elms within miles of a town, because all have succumbed to bark hunters.

CEDAR ELM (_Ulmus crassifolia_) appears to bear this name because it
is often found associated with red cedars on the dry limestone hills
of Texas. There is little in the form and appearance of the tree to
suggest the tall, tapering conical crown of cedar. There is still
less in the wood. In some parts of Texas the species is called red
elm, on account of the color of the wood, while in Arkansas, which
is near the northern boundary of its range, it is locally known as
basket elm, because basket makers find desirable qualities in its
wood. It is a species of rather limited range, but it is abundant in
certain regions. It is found as far east as Sunflower river,
Mississippi, north into Arkansas, west to Pecos river, Texas, and
south into Mexico. It is confined to three states, this side the Rio
Grande. Trees on dry hills are inclined to be shrubby, but in damp
valleys where soil is fertile, specimens attain a height of eighty
feet and a diameter of three, but the average is not nearly so
large. The leaves are small but numerous. The flowering habits of
this elm are somewhat erratic. The usual time for bloom to appear is
August, and a month or six weeks afterwards the small seeds are
ready for flight; but occasionally, as if not satisfied with its
first effort, the tree blooms again in October, and ripens a second
crop late in the fall. The seeds are poorly supplied with wings,
which are reduced to narrow margins surrounding the seed. It does
not appear, however, that the species is in any way handicapped in
securing reproduction. The small shoots are equipped with flat,
corky keels, similar to but much smaller than those of the wing elm.

This tree is important for the lumber it produces. It is the common
and most abundant elm of Texas, and it is found in a large part of
that state. The wood is the weakest of the elms, and is likewise
quite brittle; but in the region where it is most abundant it
compares favorably with any other. The best is cut from the largest
trees, which grow in valleys where moisture is abundant. The growth
found on the dry hills is of poor quality, and is worth little, even
for fuel. The highest development in Texas, and also the highest in
the species’ range, is in the valleys of Trinity and Guadalupe
rivers. In Texas this wood is employed in furniture factories as
inside frames, to be covered by other woods, but it is not employed
as outside parts of furniture, unless in very cheap kinds. It is
suitable for drain boards and floors of refrigerators where it is
wet much of the time. Under such circumstances it is more easily
kept clean than most other woods. It whitens with repeated
scrubbings. One of its most common uses in Texas is for wagon hubs.
Some wheelwrights pronounce it next to the best native wood for that
purpose, the first place being accorded Osage orange. The tree is
often planted for shade along the streets of Texas towns, and
develops thick crowns and satisfactory forms.

RED ELM (_Ulmus serotina_) is a lately discovered member of the elm
family. It so closely resembles the cork elm that it was supposed to
be of the same species, and the close scrutiny of a botanist was
required to discover that it was a separate species. Sargent
observed the flowers opening in September while those of cork elm
appear in early spring. The seeds ripen in November, while cork
elm’s are ripe early in the summer. The tree was named red elm, the
wood being reddish-brown. That name is widely applied to slippery
elm, but it is improbable that much confusion will result. The red
elm’s range is quite restricted and in that area the slippery elm is
not important. Red elm occurs on limestone hills and river banks
from central Kentucky to northern Georgia and Alabama. It attains a
height of fifty or sixty feet and a diameter of two or three. The
leaves are from two to four inches in length, and one or two wide,
with margins toothed like the other elms. The midrib is yellow, and
in the autumn the leaves change to an orange yellow before falling.
Branches which are two or three years old develop corky wings, two
or three in number.

It is not known that mechanical tests of the wood have been made in
a regular way to determine its physical properties, but superficial
examination indicates that it is hard, tough, and strong, apparently
about the same as cork elm. Special lists of uses for this wood have
not been compiled for the reason that lumbermen and operators of
sawmills have never distinguished it from other elms of the region.
Since it has never been left standing in districts where other elms
are cut, it is evident that it has been regularly put to use for
vehicles, agricultural implements, boxes, crates, and slack
cooperage, because such articles have been manufactured in the
region. The red elm has been occasionally planted as a shade tree
along streets of towns in northern Georgia and Alabama.

PLANERTREE

PLANERTREE

(_Planera Aquatica_)

This tree is a first cousin of the elms, but it is no more an elm than a hackberry is an elm. It is a member of the family but is of a different genus, and it is the sole representative of its genus in the known world. There is only one kind of planertree, with no nearer relatives than the elms on one side and hackberry, sugarberry, and palo blanco on the other. Except those kinsfolk, it is alone on earth. The name is in honor of Johann Jacob Planer, a German botanist whose efforts did much for science nearly two hundred years ago. The name of the species _aquatica_, recognizes the tree’s habit of growing where water is abundant. It is a swamp species, or rather, it prefers situations subject to periodic overflow. It looks like an elm, and that has led people to call it water elm. That is the name by which it is usually known in Florida. In Alabama it is called the American planertree, which is an unnecessary restriction, since there is no planertree except this one. The Louisiana French gave it the name plene, and the abridgement of its name is yet heard in that state. In North Carolina it has acquired the name sycamore, but without good reason. It does not look in the least like sycamore.

It has the leaf of an elm, and it resembles that tree in bark, and somewhat in general form. The layman detects the first important difference when he examines the seeds. Those of the elms have wings, but the planertree’s are without those appendages, and they would be useless if it had them, unless they were as large as the parachute of the basswood seed. The planertree bears a sort of nut, a third of an inch long, and too heavy to be transported far on the ordinary membranous wings of tree seeds. Water is doubtless the principal agent in carrying the seeds from place to place. Probably few of them are transported far, because the water about the trees is generally stagnant; and, besides, the species does not seem to be extending its range or increasing in numbers.

The planertree has a history. If the terms which the Roman historian Tacitus applied to people, could be applied to trees, it might be said of this species, as he said of certain tribes: “The cowards fly the farthest and are the last survivors.” The planertree is now found only in certain southern swamps, from North Carolina to Florida, and west to Missouri and Texas. In former periods, as is shown by the records of geology, there were several species, and they had a wide range over portions of the northern hemisphere. They appear to have been a strong group of trees, able to hold their ground with the best inhabitants of the forest. They were in the Rocky Mountains, and far north in Alaska. They were in Europe also, or were represented there by some very similar species.

For some reason which is not definitely known, they lost out when competition with other trees became keen, and in the course of long periods of time they disappeared from their former ranges in the North and West. They took to the swamps, just as the tribes of which Tacitus spoke, took to the morasses when they could no longer face their enemies on open ground. It was a far cry from Alaska to the Chattahoochee swamps in Florida, yet that was where A. H. Curtis and Charles Mohr went to procure typical planertree specimens for the tests which Sargent made of American woods.

It has been suggested that tree species which have lost out in competition for ground, have been those which were at some decided disadvantage in the matter of getting their seeds properly scattered and planted. The case has not been proved, because there are as many facts and as much argument against that hypothesis as for it. The bigtrees of California are a noted example of a species which lost out and retreated to a corner, yet their seeds fly like birds. Plainly, something besides winged seeds is needed to keep the species in the fight. However, it is not difficult to see that the planertree, with wingless seeds and of so little use as food that no bird or rodent will carry them or bury them, has been much handicapped in the long contest which has crowded it from the arctic circle to the cotton belt.

It has the habits of the subdued and conquered tree. It has adapted itself to swamps where few species can grow, and where competition for light and room is reduced to a minimum. Yet, even there, it is content to take the leavings of more ambitious species. The crowns make little effort to rise up to the light, for which many other trees battle during their whole existence. The planertree’s low, broad top of contorted branches places it perpetually in the shade of any other trees which overtop it.

The wood of the planertree is lighter in weight, poorer in fuel value, weaker, and more brittle than the poorest of the elms. The annual ring lacks the rows of large open pores common in all the elms, but it has many small pores scattered through the whole year’s growth. It is not easy to note a difference between the springwood and that which grows later. The wood is soft, light brown in color, and the nearly white sapwood is thick. It is often, perhaps generally, a tree of fairly rapid growth, and since it does not reach large size, it is probably short-lived, but exact information along that line is lacking.

The tallest trees seldom exceed a height of forty feet and a diameter of two. It is evident that a tree of that size and form does not tempt the lumberman to much exertion to procure it. An examination of reports of sawmill operations and of the utilization of woods by shops and factories in the southern states has failed to find a single instance where the planertree has been reported in use for any purpose whatever. Doubtless, trees are sometimes cut and the lumber gets into the market, but not under its own name. The species is interesting for reasons other than that it ever has had or ever can have a place in the country’s lumber industry.

WING ELM (_Ulmus alata_), which is the smallest of the elms, is
plentifully supplied with names, but in most parts of its range it
is known as wing or winged elm. It is also called wahoo or wahoo
elm, and the West Virginians have named it witch elm; the North
Carolinans refer to it often as simply elm; from Florida to Texas
some call it cork elm; in Alabama it is water elm; in Arkansas
mountain elm; while in other regions it is corky elm, small-leaf
elm, and red elm. Some of these names are self-explanatory. Wing elm
does not relate to a winged seed, but to winged twigs. That
characteristic of the tree is very prominent. The wings consist of
flattened keels along opposite sides of the branches. A twig no more
than a quarter of an inch in diameter may be decorated with wings
half an inch or more wide, making the twig four or five times as
wide as it is thick. As the twig enlarges, the wings do not broaden
in proportion. The lowest branches and those nearest the trunk are
most generously furnished with wings. They appear to be entirely
ornamental, for it is not known that they serve any useful purpose.
The growth is different from those which give cork elm its name. The
latter occur on the large branches, often in the form of isolated
protuberances, but the wings are fairly continuous for a foot or
more, except that they terminate abruptly at the nodes, but
recommence immediately after. Branches less than a year old seldom
have wings. The name wahoo appears to have lost its etymology if it
ever had any. Dictionaries tell what it means, but they shy at its
origin. It is a southern word which is applied to this elm, and also
to other trees, and occasionally it means a fish instead of a tree.
Some would trace it to the cry of an owl, others to a name in
Gulliver’s Travels, with a slight change in spelling.

Wing elm at its best is about fifty feet high and two in diameter;
but much of the stand is small. The best occurs west of the
Mississippi river. The range extends from Texas to Virginia, south
to Florida, and north to Illinois. In Texas it is a fairly important
wood in furniture factories, the annual supply being about a million
feet. It is used by turners for table legs. In an investigation of
the uses of the wood, the same difficulty is encountered that makes
difficult a study of the uses of all the elms--conflict and
uncertainty of names. There are few regions in the hardwood areas of
this country which produce one elm and no more; and after all
practical means of identification are resorted to, there is often
doubt and uncertainty concerning the exact species of elm lumber
found in use. Fortunately, it generally makes little difference,
because anyone of them is good enough for ordinary use. Wing elm is
extensively planted for shade along the streets of towns in the
lower Mississippi valley, but more frequently on the west side of
the valley. When the trees grow in the open they develop broad
crowns, and the branches, even of comparatively small trees, are
long enough to reach well over the sidewalks, and cast satisfactory
shade. The dark-colored winged twigs add much to the ornamental
value of the street trees.

FREMONTIA (_Fremontodendron californicum_) is not botanically in the
elm family, but it is popularly known as slippery elm in the region
where it occurs, and for that reason it is here given place among
the elms. It is known also as leatherwood. It is a California
species, ranging among the lower mountains and higher foothills in
dry, gravelly soils, from the Mexican boundary five hundred miles
northward in the state. The mucilaginous inner bark tastes like that
of the true slippery elm. The shape of the leaf much more resembles
sycamore than elm; and it is an evergreen. It bears a bright yellow,
roselike flower, and the seeds are small, reddish-brown. The wood is
fine grained, clear reddish-brown, with thick, whitish sapwood. It
is very soft. The tree attains its largest size among the foothills
of the Sierra Nevada mountains, but even there it is too small to
have much economic value, seldom exceeding thirty feet in height and
a foot in diameter. Its most important use is as a forage plant for
cattle and sheep. In that particular it resembles slippery elm in
northern woods. The tree is occasionally planted in the eastern
states and in Europe for ornament. In its native range it grows
slowly.

HACKBERRY

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, Massachusetts, 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 assigned 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 fictitious, 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 classed 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 principally 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 accumulate 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, stitching 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 quantities. 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.

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 quantity 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, basswood, 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 classes. It goes into almost every wood-using industry, but in different sections of country certain uses lead. Thus in Illinois the makers of butter 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 Massachusetts 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 quantity is made into flooring and interior finish. It is classed among sanitary woods, that is, it does not stain or taint food products by contact.

The total quantity 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 constitute 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 entitled to be called a tree in the United States, though
southward in Mexico its right to that title 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.

BLACK ASH

BLACK ASH

(_Fraxinus Nigra_)

When George Washington was a surveyor locating land on the upper waters of the Potomac river, and westward on the Kanawha and Ohio rivers, he always spoke of this ash as “hoop tree” when he marked it with two or with three “hacks,” depending upon whether it designated a “corner” or a “line,” or a “pointer” in the system of surveying then in use. Trees were used then as landmarks, and were duly recorded in the surveyor’s field notes, and were described in the deeds when the title to the land passed from one party to another. It was not unusual, if subsequent litigation came up, to cut blocks from marked trees to prove that such a corner was at such a place. The “hacks” or ax marks, were sometimes healed over and invisible at the bark, but were found deep in the wood. The rings of growth covering the ax marks afforded an admissible record of the years that had passed since the survey was made. The selection of the black ash as a landmark was one of the few instances in which Washington showed poor judgment; because it is a tree of short life, and might be expected to die before a great many years.

The name hoop ash is applied to this tree yet. It has always been good material for barrel hoops, because it splits into thin pieces, and is sufficiently tough. It is known as basket ash for the same reason. The New England Indians were making fish baskets of it when the first white people landed on those shores, and settlers speedily learned the art from the children of the wilderness. Those untutored savages knew little of wood technology, but they were able to take advantage of a peculiarity in the structure of black ash wood, which the white man’s microscope has revealed to him. The Indians doubtless discovered it accidentally. The springwood in the annual ring of black ash is made up of large pores, crowded so closely together that there is really very little actual wood substance there. In other words, the springwood is chiefly air spaces. The result is, that billets of black ash are easily separated into thin strips, the cleavage following the weak lines of springwood. A little beating and bending causes the annual rings to fall apart. In some way the Indians found that out, and utilized their knowledge in manufacturing baskets in which to carry fish, acorns, hickory nuts, and other forest and water commodities.

The white people extended the scope of application to include chairs and other furniture in which splits are manipulated. It is worthy of note that Indians made a similar discovery with northern white cedar or arborvitæ, which separates into thin pieces by beating and bending. Barrel makers took advantage of the splitting properties of black ash to make hoops of it, hence the name hoop ash, or hoop tree as Washington called it. The name basket ash has a similar origin.

The names swamp ash and water ash refer to situations in which the tree grows best. It is one of the thirstiest inhabitants of the forest. Its aggressive roots ramify through the soil and drink up the moisture so voraciously that if water is not abundant, neighboring trees and plants may find their roots robbed, and the functions of healthy growth will be interfered with. This has led to a general belief that black ash poisons trees that it touches. It simply robs their roots. Carolina and Lombardy poplars will sometimes do the same thing.

The name black ash by which this tree is now known in most regions where it grows refers to the color of the large, prominent, shiny, blue-black buds in late winter and early spring; to the very dark green leaves in summer--which at a distance resemble the foliage of post oak--and, to some extent, to the dark brown color of the heartwood, though the wood is not always a safe means of identification if judged from superficial appearance only. The form of the tree assists in identifying it; for it is the slimmest of the ashes, in proportion to its height. Trunks three feet through are heard of, but few persons have ever seen one much over twenty inches, and many are about done growing when they are one foot in diameter. Yet the trunks of such are very tall, perhaps seventy or eighty feet. Their appearance has been likened to tall, slender columns of dark gray granite. They often stand so straight that a plummet line will not reveal a deviation from the perpendicular.

The tree has been called elder-leaved ash. The form of the foliage has something to do with that name, but the odor more. Crush the leaves, and they smell like elder. The compound leaves are from twelve to sixteen inches long; the leaflets range from seven to eleven in number, and the side leaflets have no stalks. The leaves appear late in spring, and they fall early in autumn. They drop with the butternut leaves, and like them, all at once. The seed is winged, and the wing forms a margin entirely round the seed.

The wood of black ash is rather soft, moderately heavy, tough, but only moderately strong, not durable in contact with the soil, dark brown in color with sapwood whiter. The species ranges farther north than any other ash, and grows in cold swamps and on the low banks of streams and lakes from Newfoundland to Winnipeg, and southward to Virginia, southern Illinois, southern Missouri, and Arkansas.

Black ash fills many important places in the country’s wood-using industries, but the total quantity is not large. In 1910 Michigan manufacturers reported the annual quantity in that state at 9,110,432 feet, and in Illinois the total was 9,936,000 feet. The uses for the wood in Michigan may be regarded as typical of the whole country. The reported uses were, auto seats, baskets, boat finish, butter tubs, candy pails, carriage seats, crating, church pews, fish nets, office fixtures, flooring, furniture, ice chests, interior finish, jelly buckets, kitchen cabinets, lard tubs, piano frames, putty kegs, racked hoops, spice kegs, tin plate boxes, veneer, washboards, and woven splint boxes.

Black ash burls are characteristic excrescences on the trunk. They begin as small lumps or knobs under the bark, and never cease growing while the tree lives. They may reach the dimensions of wash tubs, but most do not exceed the size of a gallon measure. The grain of the wood is exceedingly distorted and involved. The burls are sliced or sawed in veneers which are much prized by cabinet makers. Early New Englanders made bowls of them, which seldom checked or split during generations of service. The burls are believed to be due to adventitious buds; that is, buds which originate deep in the wood, but are never able to force their way through the bark. The internal structure of the ash burl indicates that the buried bud grows, branches, and sends shoots in various directions, but all of them are hopelessly enmeshed in the wood substance, and never are able to free themselves and burst through the bark. A constantly enlarging excrescence is the result.

BLUE ASH (_Fraxinus quadrangulata_) is named from a blue dye procured from the inner bark. The botanical name relates to the square shape of the young twigs, particularly the twigs of young trees, and was given by A. F. Michaux who found the species growing in the South. It reaches its best development on the lower Wabash river in Indiana and Illinois and on the Big Smoky mountains in Tennessee. Its northern limit reaches southern Michigan, its western is in Missouri. It is not abundant, if found at all, east of the Appalachian mountains. Trees may reach a height of 100 feet and a diameter of three, but about seventy is the average height, with a diameter of two feet or less. The leaves resemble those of black ash in form, but the foliage when seen in mass is yellow-green instead of dark green like that of black ash. The seeds look like those of black ash. The tree bears perfect flowers, and in that respect differs from most other species of ash.

The wood is heavier than that of any other member of the ash group, except Texas ash. It weighs about the same as white oak, which is six pounds per cubic foot more than white ash weighs. In general appearance the wood resembles white ash, but it is usually considered stronger and more springy. The trunks of young trees are largely or entirely sapwood. Sometimes no heartwood is formed until an age of seventy or eighty years is reached. Many manufacturers of ash tool handles prefer this species to any other ash, because of its thick, white sapwood. It is often made into handles for hoes, rakes, shovels, pitchforks, spades, and snaths for scythes. Makers of vehicles draw liberally upon this wood within its range, as do furniture makers and the manufacturers of flooring. It is regarded as harder than white ash, and consequently better flooring material.

LEATHERLEAF ASH (_Fraxinus velutina_) changes its velvety leaves to
a leathery condition, hence the conflict in the meanings of its two
names. _Velutina_ means velvet-like. The compound leaves are seldom
six inches long, often not three, and they are made up of from three
to nine leaflets. The small seeds are equipped with wings. The tree
is small and would be without any commercial importance except that
it grows in an arid region where any wood is welcome. It is made
into ax, hammer, and pick handles, and wagon makers are often glad
to get it. It is found among the mountains and canyons of western
Texas, in New Mexico, Arizona, southern Nevada, and southeastern
California, near the shores of Owen’s lake. The largest trees are
scarcely forty feet high and eight inches in diameter. The wood is
not hard or strong, and is of slow growth. The largest trunks are
apt to be hollow. Sapwood is comparatively thick.