Chapter XX: Part 20

SONORA IRONWOOD (_Olneya tesota_) is a desert tree, and the only
representative of the genus. It takes its name from the Mexican
state where it is most abundant and where it was discovered in 1852.
It grows in southern California and Arizona, and there it thrives in
gulches and depressions in the desert, frequently associated with
mesquite. It is so heavy that perfectly dry wood will sink in water.
The heartwood is deep chocolate-brown, mottled with red, the thin
sapwood is lemon-yellow. Its hardness renders it difficult to work,
and it can scarcely be split. The wood is made into canes and other
small articles of great beauty. It is not abundant, and the small
supply is remote from manufacturing centers; otherwise it would be
more valuable. It is excellent fuel, but it is burned chiefly by
stockmen and miners in their camps. The largest trees are thirty
feet high and eighteen inches in diameter. It is an evergreen, and
its pea-like flowers brighten many a remote desert place.

WILD TAMARIND (_Lysiloma latisiliqua_) is forty or fifty feet high,
two or three in diameter, grows in southern Florida, and has
double-compound leaves, four or five inches long. The fruit is a pod
one inch wide and five or less in length. The wood weighs forty
pounds to the cubic foot, is neither strong nor tough, very low in
elasticity, is rich dark brown tinged with red, the sapwood white.
It has been reported for boatbuilding, and claims have been made
that it is equal to mahogany for that purpose, but the claim is of
doubtful validity, in view of the rather poor showing it makes in
several physical properties, though it takes good polish.

YELLOW BIRCH

YELLOW BIRCH

(_Betula Lutea_)

There is little likelihood of mistaking the yellow birch for any other as it stands in the woods. Its points of individuality may be discovered on slight acquaintance, and there is little need of studying leaves, flowers, and fruit to find ways of distinguishing this birch from other members of the family. Its tattered, yellow and gray bark fixes it in the memory of all who have seen it a few times. Two other eastern birches have tattered, curling bark also, but they do not look like this. They are the paper birch and the river birch. The former is too white to be mistaken for yellow birch, and the river birch is too much the color of bronze or copper. Yellow birch is named from the color of its bark, the part which shows when the outer layers break and roll back, disclosing the fresh, smooth, satiny layers below. Sometimes the tree is called silver birch, gray birch, or swamp birch.

Its geographic range is bounded by a line drawn from Newfoundland to northern Minnesota, southward through the Lake States, and along the Atlantic coast to Delaware. It follows the Appalachian ranges of mountains to eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina. Generally the tree is small near the southern limit of its range. The best grows in Michigan and Wisconsin, but it is of considerable importance in Minnesota.

Few trees are better equipped than yellow birch to perpetuate their species. It is an abundant seeder, and the seeds are light, winged, and they are scattered by wind over long distances. Sometimes they are carried miles. Of course, most of them fall in unfavorable places, and either do not germinate or perish soon after; but they are not particularly choice in situations, and will grow on bare mineral soil, even in old fields, where they are flooded with sunshine, or they will grow in deep shade where a beam of sunlight seldom touches them. They often germinate without touching mineral soil, and take root quickly and grow vigorously.

It is not unusual in the northern part of the tree’s range, and on high mountains farther south, to see yellow birches standing on high, spreading roots, two, three, or four feet above the ground. That peculiar attitude is brought about by the manner in which the seed begins to grow. It falls on moss which occupies the top of a log or a stump. The moss in the deep shade retains much moisture, and the seed germinates, grows, sends roots down the sides of the log or the stump until they strike mineral soil, and become firmly fixed. In course of time the log or stump decays, and the spreading roots continue to sustain the trunk, high above the ground. This attitude of the yellow birch tree is very common in damp woods. Occasionally the seed finds lodgment in the moss on top of a large rock. The roots descend the sides until they reach the ground, and as the rock does not decay, the tree grows to maturity on the rock. The most favorable seed bed for this species is a mass of rotten wood where a log has decayed and fallen to pieces. Frequently such a plot is covered with yellow birch seedlings. They have the space all to themselves, because the seeds of few trees or plants will grow in rotten wood, unmixed with mineral soil.

The trunk of yellow birch averages a little smaller than that of sweet birch, but may equal it in some instances. Trees reach a height of 100 feet and a diameter of three or four, but a more common size, even in the regions of best development, is a height of sixty or seventy feet, and a diameter of two or less.

Yellow birch was a long time coming into use. One of the first things learned about it by early settlers in the region where it was abundant, was that it decays quickly in situations alternately wet and dry. That prejudiced the woodsmen against it, and they were not disposed to give it a fair trial, as long as there was plenty of other timber. All birches are subject to quick decay, if conditions are right to produce it. Yellow birch in the woods sometimes dies standing, and when that happens, the wood falls to pieces so quickly that the bark may remain standing with very little inside of it except powder of decayed wood. This tree is seldom mentioned in early accounts of lumber operations, and practically never with a good word. Operators generally left it standing when they cut the timber which grew with it.

Yellow birch is heavy, very strong, hard, light brown tinged with red, with thin, nearly white sapwood. The color of the heartwood varies considerably. The pores are very numerous, rather small, and are scattered through the wood with little tendency to run in bands or groups. The springwood blends gradually with the summerwood in a way to make the boundaries of the annual rings somewhat indistinct. Medullary rays are numerous, but very thin and obscure. Quarter-sawing adds little or nothing to the appearance of the wood. It has poor figure, except an occasional tree with wavy or curly grain, or with burls.

The wood may be readily stained. The pores hold the coloring matter applied, and by varying the application, the appearance of the surface can be varied. The colors of mahogany and of cherry are easily imparted, and yellow birch often imitates those woods.

Vehicle makers choose this wood for its strength and elasticity. In the North it is manufactured into frames for cutters and sleighs of all kinds. It is a competitor of sugar maple for that purpose. Hubs are made of it for horse-drawn vehicles, and its hardness gives long wear where the spokes are inserted. That is one of the first points of failure when a soft, inferior wood is used for hubs. The spokes work loose.

Manufacturers of automobiles have tried out yellow birch as material for frames; it has stood the test, and is much used in competition with other woods. The amount demanded for that purpose is not necessarily large, but it must be the best wood that can be had.

This material reaches the markets in all grades. Large amounts are used for packing boxes, crates, and shipping containers. Low grades answer for these purposes, leaving the better sorts for the more exacting industries. The logs are cut in rotary veneer for baskets, and for ply work. Some of the veneer in three-ply is worked into commodities of high class, such as seats and backs of theater chairs.

Birch flooring competes closely with maple for popular favor. It may lack something of maple’s whiteness, but it takes no second place in hardness, smoothness, and wearing qualities. It is made into parquet flooring as well as the ordinary tongued and grooved article. As such, the sap matches the light colored woods, and the heart the dark.

It goes into all kinds of interior house finish, from floor to ceiling, and the finest grades are often devoted to stair work. Door and window frames are made of it in large quantities, but it is not suited to outside work exposed to weather, because of its tendencies to decay. It is much employed as door material. Furniture demands the same class of wood. Medium priced articles may be of solid birch, but the best commodities are made of veneers laid upon other woods. Figured birch is a favorite material for that class of work.

The more common commodities manufactured of this wood can be listed only by groups, because of their great number. Novelties constitute a large class. One of the earliest demands was from the manufacturers of pill boxes, such as apothecaries use. That was before anyone had tried to sell yellow birch in the general market, and the demand came principally from New England and New York. Another early demand came from coopers who found that barrel hoops of yellow birch were highly satisfactory for certain kinds of vessels. Fish kits were among the first to appear in birch hoops. Small saplings were used, not over two inches in diameter. They are large enough to make two hoops by splitting. The bark was left on, and the identity of the wood was never in doubt, because when the sapling is of that size, the bark is a fine yellow. It has not yet commenced to crack open and roll up, as it does later. Millions of birch hoops are still produced yearly in the United States, but all of them are not of this species. The hoop business has existed much more than a century, and millions of young birches have been cut every year to meet the demand.

Birch broom handles have been a commodity since the first lathe went to work on that product. They are made of all the commercial birches, but yellow birch contributes a large part. Other handles are manufactured of it also, such as are fitted to hand saws, planes, drawing knives, chisels, and augers.

RIVER BIRCH

RIVER BIRCH

(_Betula Nigra_)

This tree is known as red birch, river birch, water birch, blue birch, black birch, and simply as birch. The name red birch refers to the color of the bark which is exposed to view in the process of exfoliation. The trunk is constantly getting rid of its outer bark, and in doing so, the exterior layers are rolled back, hang a while, and are gradually whipped off by the wind. The new bark which is exposed to view when the old is rolled back is reddish. Its color varies considerably, sometimes suggesting the tint of old brass, again it is brown, but people in widely separated regions have seen fit to call the tree red birch because of the color of its bark. The name black birch is not appropriate, though the old bark near the base of large trunks may suggest it. No reason can be assigned for calling it blue birch, unless the foliage in early summer may warrant such a term. River birch and water birch are more appropriate, as these names indicate the situations where the species grows. It clings to water courses almost as closely as sycamore. A favorite attitude of the tree is to lean over a river or pond, with the long, graceful limbs almost touching the water.

Nature seems to recognize the tree’s habit of hanging over muddy banks, and has prepared it for that manner of life. Seeds are ripe early in summer when the rivers are falling. They are scattered by myriads on the muddy shores and upon the water. Those which fall in the mud find at once a suitable place for germination, and those whose fortune it is to drop in the water float away with the current or they are driven by the wind until they lodge along the shores, and the receding water leaves them in a few days, and they spring up quickly. Before the autumn or early winter high water comes, they are well rooted in the mud and sand, ready to put up a fight for their lives.

The provision is a wise one. If the seeds matured in the fall, when water is low, they would be strewn along the low shores, and before they could take root and establish themselves, the high water and the ice of winter would destroy them. The seeds need mud to give them a start in life, and they need that start early in summer.

The range of river birch is less extensive than that of the other important eastern birches, yet it is by no means limited. Its eastern boundary is in Massachusetts, its western in Minnesota, and it adheres fairly well to a line drawn between the two states. Its range extends 200 miles west of the Mississippi and covers most of the southern states. It is found in an area of nearly 1,000,000 square miles, but is scarce in most of it. In certain restricted localities it is fairly abundant, but there are thousands of square miles in the limits of its range which have not a single tree. Its greatest development is in the south Atlantic states, and in the lower Mississippi basin.

Trees at their best are from eighty to ninety feet high and from two to four in diameter, but most trunks are less than two feet in diameter. The tree frequently forks fifteen or twenty feet from the ground, or occasionally sends up several stems from the ground. Forms of that kind are practically useless for lumber.

The wood is among the lightest of the birches and weighs 35.91 pounds per cubic foot. It is rather hard, medium strong, the heartwood light brown in color, with thick, pale sapwood. It rates below sweet and yellow birch in stiffness, is very porous, but the pores are quite small, and can scarcely be seen without a magnifying glass. They are diffused throughout the entire annual ring. There is no marked difference in the appearance of the springwood and that of the late season. The medullary rays are very small and have little effect on the appearance of the wood, no matter in what way the sawing is done.

The wood is apt to contain pith flecks and streaks. These are small, brown spots or lines scattered at random through the wood. They are a blemish which is not easily covered up if the wood is to be polished; but they are small and may not be objectionable. The flecks are caused by insects which, early in the season, bore through the bark into the cambium layer (the newly-formed wood), where eggs are deposited. The young insect cuts a tunnel up or down along the cambium layer, an inch or less in length and a sixteenth of an inch wide. This gallery subsequently fills with brown deposits which remain permanently in the wood. Sometimes these deposits are sufficiently hard to turn the edge of tools.

River birch is widely used but in small amounts. It may properly be described as a neighborhood wood--that is, wherever it grows in considerable quantity it is put to use, but nearly always in a local way. For example, in Louisiana, where it is as abundant as in any other state, it is a favorite material for ox yokes, and no report from that state has been made of its employment for any other purpose. The reason given for its extensive use for ox yokes there is that it is very strong for its weight, and that it resists decay. The yokes there are usually left out of doors when not in use, and the dampness and hot weather cause rapid decay of most woods. The birches are usually listed as quick-decaying woods, but the verdict from Louisiana seems to be that river birch is an exception.

Plain furniture is made of it, and the manufacturers of woodenware find it suitable for most of their commodities. It is sometimes listed as wooden shoe material, but no particular instance has been reported where it has been so used in this country. In Maryland some of the manufacturers of peach baskets make bands or hoops of it, and pronounce it as satisfactory for that purpose as elm.

The supply is not in much danger of exhaustion. The species is equipped to take care of itself, occupying as it does, ground not in demand for farming purposes. When a tree once gets a start it has a chance to escape the ax until large enough for use.

WHITE ALASKA BIRCH (_Betula alaskana_) is usually called simply white birch where it grows. It is not exclusively an Alaska species though that is the only place where it touches the territory of the United States. It is supposed by some to be closely related to the white birches of northern Asia, but the relationship, if it exists, has not been established. In Alaska it grows as far north as any timber extends. It was first discovered and reported in 1858 on the Saskatchewan river, east of the Rocky Mountains, and its range is now known to extend down the valley of the Mackenzie river toward the Arctic ocean to a point more than 100 miles north of the Arctic circle. It is common in many parts of Alaska both along the coast and in the interior. In some portions of that territory it is an important source of fuel. Trees are from twenty-five to sixty feet high, and from six to eighteen inches in diameter. The bark is thin and often nearly white, separating into thin scales. The tree bears typical birch cones, but larger than those of some of the other species. No tests of the wood’s physical properties have been made, but it looks like the wood of paper birch, and will probably attain to considerable importance in the future, since it grows over a large area, and in many parts is abundant. There remain many things for both botanists and wood-users to investigate concerning this tree which has a range of more than half a million square miles.

WESTERN BIRCH (_Betula occidentalis_) is believed to be the largest birch in the world, and yet it is not of much commercial importance in the United States, because of scarcity, occurring only in northwestern Washington and in the adjacent parts of British Columbia, as far as its range has been determined. It resembles paper birch, and has often been supposed to be that tree. The people in the restricted region where it grows speak of it simply as birch. The largest trees are 100 feet high and four feet in diameter, clear of limbs forty or fifty feet. A height of seventy feet and a diameter of two are common. The general color of the trunk is orange-brown, the new bark, exposed by exfoliation, is yellow. The tree prefers the border of streams and the shores of lakes. Though it is the largest of the birches, its seeds are among the smallest. They are provided with two wings and are good flyers. Manufacturers of flooring and interior finish in Washington reported the use of 315,000 feet of this birch in 1911. That was the only use found for it in the only state where it grows. Information is meager as to the probable quantity of this birch available. It has been reported in Idaho, but exact information on the subject is lacking.

MOUNTAIN BIRCH (_Betula fontanalis_) is a minor species concerning
which there has been much contention among botanists. It has finally
been called mountain birch because it grows on mountains, as high as
10,000 feet among the Sierra Nevadas in California. It has many
local names for a tree so small as to be almost a shrub throughout
most of its range: Black birch, sweet birch, cherry birch, water
birch, and canyon birch. Its bark is of the color of old copper;
wood is light yellowish-brown, with thick white sapwood; trunks
seldom exceed ten inches in diameter and thirty feet high; range
extends from northern British Columbia to California, and along the
Rocky Mountains to Colorado and possibly further south. The uses of
the wood are few.

PAPER BIRCH

PAPER BIRCH

(_Betula Papyrifera_)

This tree is called paper birch because the bark parts in thin sheets like paper. It is known as canoe birch from the fact that Indians and early white explorers and travelers constructed canoes of the bark. The name silver birch is an allusion to the color of the bark; and big white birch is the name used when the purpose is to distinguish it from the white birch with which it is associated in the northeastern part of its range. It grows as far north as Arctic British America, east to Labrador, south to Michigan and Pennsylvania, and west nearly or quite to the base of the Rocky Mountains. This indicated area exceeds 1,000,000 square miles. The quantity of birch of this species in the forests is unknown, but it runs into billions of feet, probably exceeding any other single species of birch. The tree sometimes grows dispersed through forests of other woods, sometimes in nearly pure stands. Persons well acquainted with the species have expressed the opinion that paper birch exists in larger quantities now than at the time when the country was first explored by white men. That can be said of few other species; but probably holds true of lodgepole pine in the West, loblolly pine in the Southeast, and mesquite in the Southwest. Each of these species took advantage of man’s presence and influence to extend its range. Cattle spread the mesquite; the lodgepole pine came up in fire-burned tracts; loblolly pine spread into abandoned fields; and paper birch profited by fires which destroyed large tracts of timber.

The seeds are light, are furnished with wings which sail them long distances through the air, and they are quickly scattered over the burned areas where they spring up. In the contest, they are competitors of aspen. Birch often captures the ground, but does not always do it. Some of the largest stands in the Northeast occupy tracts bared by fire half a century or more ago. When paper birch does not find open tracts, it contents itself with sharing ground with other species. That was the usual manner of its growth in the original forests; but it has been quick to seize opportunities to take full possession.

It does not like shade and, if crowded, one of the first things it does is to rid its lower trunk of all branches. Only limbs remain which are at the top where they receive plenty of light. Therefore, forest-grown paper birches have long, clean trunks, though they are not always straight. The largest trees are seventy feet high and three in diameter, but those fifty feet in height and eighteen inches in diameter are above rather than under the average.

The bark of paper birch has played an important part in American history, story, and poetry. It was the canoe material, the roof, and the utensil in its region. The Indians had brought the art of canoe making to perfection before white men went among them. The bark peels from the trunks in large pieces, and may be separated into thin sheets, which are very tough, strong, and durable. The Indians sewed pieces of bark together, using the long, slender roots of tamarack for thread. The bark was stretched and tied over a frame, the shape of the canoe, and made of northern white cedar, or some other light wood. Holes in the bark, and the partings at the seams, were stopped with resin from balsam fir, wax from balm of Gilead, or resin from pine. The forest supplied all the material needed by the Indian, and a canoe thus made, and large enough to carry 800 or 1,000 pounds, weighed no more than fifty pounds. Frail as it seemed, it was good for long service on rivers and lakes, and could weather storms of no small severity.

White men adopted the bark canoes at once, and learned from Indians how to make them. The daring explorers and venturesome fur traders who threaded every river and navigated every important lake of British America, found the birch canoe equal to every requirement, even to attacking whales in the tidewater of the Arctic ocean. The bark from this birch was used for tents and the roofs of cabins; vessels in which to store or carry food were made of it, as well as beds on which to sleep, and wrapping material for bundles. These uses have now practically ceased; but as sport, recreation, and for the novelty, articles, from canoes to visiting cards, are still made of the bark.

The wood of paper birch is valuable for certain purposes. The trees are largely white sapwood, which is without figure. It is as plain a wood as grows in the forest, but it may be stained. That, however, is seldom done. The heartwood is dark or red, and is made into brush backs and parquet flooring, but the hearts are small, and no large quantity of that wood is used. The largest use of paper birch is for spools, the common kind for thread. Some of larger size are made for use in mills. The sapwood only is accepted by makers of spools. The heart is cut out, and most of it is thrown away or burned under the boilers. The qualities of paper birch which appeal to spool makers are, white color, small liability to warp, and the ease with which it may be cut without dulling the tools. The logs are worked into bars of the various spool sizes, and are carefully seasoned. One of the problems that must be constantly solved is the prevention of sap stain while the bars are seasoning. The wood discolors quickly and deeply.

Tooth picks, shoe pegs, and shoe shanks are other important commodities manufactured from paper birch. It has not yet been satisfactorily converted into lumber, because it is more valuable for spools, tooth picks, pegs, and the like. This wood is frequently listed as a pulpwood, and it is quite generally believed that its use for that purpose is important. This is apparently an error, as the wood is not even mentioned in statistics of pulpwood output in this country.

Paper birch weighs 37.11 pounds per cubic foot, is strong, hard, tough; medullary rays are numerous but very small and obscure; wood is diffuse-porous, and earlywood blends gradually with latewood in the annual rings which are not very distinct.

This is one of the woods which does not threaten to become soon exhausted. A supply for half a century, at present rate of use, is in sight, if no more should grow; but in fifty years new forests, now young, will be large enough to use.

KENAI BIRCH (_Betula kenaica_) is an Alaska species concerning which
comparatively little is known, except that its botanical identity
and something of its range have been established. Its small size,
and the remote regions where it grows, do not necessarily indicate
that it can never be important. Scarcity of other woods may give it
a place which it does not now occupy. No reports on the properties
of the wood have been made. The bark is deep brown in color. Trees
are from twenty to thirty feet high and from twelve to eighteen
inches in diameter. The trunks are very short. Cones are an inch or
less in length and the double winged seeds are very small. The name
applied to this species relates to the region where the best
developed trees have been found. As far as known, the species is
confined to the coast region of Alaska and to adjacent islands from
the head of Lynn canal westward. It has been reported on Koyukuk
river above the Arctic circle.

WHITE BIRCH (_Betula populifolia_) is known also as gray birch,
old-field birch, poverty birch, poplar-leaved birch, and small white
birch. It is chiefly confined to the northeastern part of the United
States, but grows as far east as Nova Scotia, and west to the
southern shore of Lake Ontario. It occurs on the Atlantic coast
south to Delaware, and along mountain ranges to West Virginia. The
names describe either the habits or the appearance of the tree. The
bark is white, and is the most prominent feature of a thicket of
these graceful but practically worthless little birches. It is
called an old-field species because it quickly scatters its small,
winged seeds over abandoned farmland and takes possession when it
does not have to compete with stronger species. Poverty birch is an
allusion, either to the poor ground it occupies or the unpromising
nature of the tree itself. The resemblance of its leaves to those of
cottonwood leads some people to prefer the name poplar-leaved birch.
The tree at its best is seldom more than forty feet high and
eighteen inches in diameter. A height of twenty or thirty feet is
the usual size. The stem is generally clothed with branches nearly
to the ground. The wood is light, soft, not strong or durable, heart
light brown, thick sap nearly white. The form and size of the trunk
exclude it from sawmills, but it has some special uses: Spools, shoe
pegs, and hoops. Its small size does not disqualify it for service
along those lines. The tree springs up quickly, grows with fair
rapidity, and dies young. It is cut for cordwood in New England and
makes good fuel. It takes possession of areas bared by fire, and
protects the ground, furnishing shelter for more valuable species
which come later.

BLUE BIRCH (_Betula cærulea_) is a small tree of which more
information is to be desired. It is rarely more than thirty feet
high with a diameter of eight or ten inches. Its leaves are
long-pointed, its cones about an inch in length, the bark is thin,
white tinged with rose, and is lustrous. Bark is not easily
separated into layers, in that respect differing from the paper
birch. The inner bark is of light orange color. It is probably put
to no use, unless for fuel or as hoops. It is smallest of New
England birches, and its range has not been fully determined, but it
is known to grow in Maine and Vermont, and probably will be found in
other parts of New England and in the adjacent regions of Canada. It
has been compared with a European species of birch, the _Betula
pendula_.

RED ALDER

RED ALDER

(_Alnus Oregona_)

Many species of alder are found in various parts of the world, and on both sides of the equator, but chiefly in the northern hemisphere. Some of these are trees, others are shrubs. Six species belonging in the tree class grow in the United States, besides others which remain shrubs. Some trees are burdened with names, changing them with locality, but not so with alder. An adjective may accompany the name, as red, white, seaside, or mountain, to describe it, but it is always alder, no matter where it grows. The different species cover much of the United States, and few large areas are found which have not one or more species. It grows from sea level up to 7,000 feet or more, but some species thrive at one elevation, and others above or below.

The alders are old inhabitants of the earth. They had a place in the Eocene and Miocene forests of the old world and new. It is not apparent that they have either gained or lost in extent of range during the hundreds of thousands of years which measure their tenancy on the earth. They have not been aggressive in pushing their way, nor have they shown a disposition to retire before the aggression of other trees. Some alders bear seeds equipped with wings for wind distribution, others produce wingless seeds which depend on water to bear them to suitable situations and plant them. Of course, the water-borne seeds are planted on muddy shores or on the banks of running streams, and the trees of those species are confined to such situations. The alders belong to the birch family.

Red alder is the largest of the alder group in this country. Mature trees are from forty to ninety feet high, and from one to three feet in diameter. The northern limit of its range crosses southern Alaska; its southern border is in southern California. It is a Pacific coast tree, with a north and south range of 2,000 miles. Trunks are straight, and branches are generally slender. The largest specimens grow in the vicinity of Puget Sound. The bark is thin, leaves are from three to ten inches long, cones from one-half to one inch in length, seeds have very narrow, thin wings, and are about the size of radish seeds. The cones remain green in color until the seeds are fully ripe, but they finally turn brown, and seeds are liberated during the fall and winter.

Red alder is given that name because the newly cut wood is liable to change quickly to a reddish-brown. This applies to the whitish sapwood only; but since the trunk is largely sapwood, it is an important matter. It is not apparent whether the change in color is due to attack by fungi, or to some chemical change in the sap. It is not believed that the change in color weakens the wood, at least it does not appear to do so immediately. The heart is reddish, and when dressed and polished, it presents a fine appearance.

Red alder when thoroughly air dry weighs about thirty pounds per cubic foot, which is slightly above the weight of basswood. It is strong for its weight, rating only eight per cent below white oak, while in stiffness or elasticity it is about twelve per cent above white oak. It is not difficult to season, is soft, stands well when made up, and is one of the most important hardwoods of the northwest Pacific coast. More than 2,000,000 feet a year go to wood-using factories in Washington and Oregon.

The Indians of the Northwest, when they had only stone hatchets or the crudest kinds of metal tools, found red alder a wood which worked so easily that they specialized with it. They made canoes of the largest trunks, and all manner of troughs, trays, trenches, platters, and dugouts, some of no more than a pint in capacity, others holding three or four bushels. The Field Museum in Chicago has a collection of these Indian utensils made of alder. The workmanship shows considerable skill mixed with barbaric art. There are carvings of eagles and bears which are not entirely grotesque. The utensils were designed primarily to contain food at ceremonial feasts, or it was stored for times of scarcity. Among them are cooking vessels of alder in which meat was boiled by filling the troughs with water and dropping in hot stones.

Furniture manufacturers are the largest users of red alder. Carefully selected heartwood, finished in the proper color, looks much like cherry, though it lacks something of the characteristic cherry luster. The sapwood in its natural color resembles the sapwood of yellow birch. The annual rings are defined by narrow bands of dense summerwood. The pores are small and diffused through the entire ring, as with birch. Medullary rays are very thin and do not show much figure; neither do the rings of growth, in tangential sawing, display much contrast. It is, therefore, a figureless wood, entering into practically all grades of furniture, in the region where alder is plentiful, but it shows to particularly good advantage in panels.

Reports on wood-utilization on the Pacific coast list this wood for archery bows but particulars as to amount used, and why it is used at all, are not given. The physical properties of the wood do not seem to fit it for that use. It is wanting in both strength and elasticity which are the prime, almost the only, factors considered in selecting bow wood. No account has been found of any employment of alder for bows by Indians of the region where it grows.

Broom handle turners in Washington use 350,000 feet of alder a year. The smooth finish which may be imparted to the wood constitutes its chief value for broom handles. It is well liked for porch columns. When the center is bored out, the wood seldom checks. In that respect it resembles yellow poplar. It takes paint well and holds it a long time. Comparatively large amounts are converted into interior finish. It is made into spindles, newel posts, railing, panels, molding, ornaments, and pedestals. Occasionally it is finished in the wood’s natural color.

Many minor places are found for red alder. Frames of pack saddles are made of it; it forms parts of pulleys; is available for small turnery; and it is sometimes worked into bodies and compartments for business wagons, such as butchers and bakers use. The bark is rich in tannin and is said to be employed in local tanneries, but no statistics are available showing the annual supply.

WHITE ALDER (_Alnus rhombifolia_) is known simply as alder in the region where it grows. Where this tree and red alder occupy the same range they are commonly supposed to be the same. The range of white alder extends from northern Idaho to southern California. It is the common alder of central California where it attains its best development, and the only alder at low altitudes in southern California. Trees vary in height from thirty to eighty feet, and in diameter from one to three. A common size is fifty feet high and fifteen inches in diameter. Like most alders, it sticks close to water courses, and is usually found in the bottoms of gulches where water flows most of the year. The flowers begin to appear in midsummer as dark, olive-brown catkins less than an inch in length. By midwinter they are fully developed, and the tree is loaded with catkins from four to six inches long and thick as lead pencils. In the gulches among the elevated foothills it is not unusual for trees to be bending beneath snow and flowers at the same time. That is about the period when the seeds of the preceding year complete their dispersal. The cones hang closed nearly a whole twelve months, and when they give up their seeds, they often do it slowly. The seeds are the size of pin heads, and seem to have had wings once, but lost them. The remnants remain, but are of no use. If running water does not carry seeds to new grounds they lie beneath the parent tree. The wood of white alder is five pounds lighter per cubic foot than red alder. Its structure is less satisfactory. Medullary rays are irregular, some being thin as those of sweet birch, while others are as broad as rays of chestnut oak. Those of large size seem to be scattered at haphazard, and are so irregular and uncertain that no dependence can be placed in them for figure. Trees are largely sapwood, which is nearly white when freshly cut, but it quickly turns brown; heartwood is pale, yellowish-brown. This is said to be one of most quickly-decaying woods of the western forests when logs are left lying in damp woods. The white alder ought to be suitable for nearly every purpose for which red alder is used.

MOUNTAIN ALDER (_Alnus tenuifolia_) is too small to contribute much
to the lumber supply of the country, though it may yield fuel in
some localities where there is little else. Its range extends from
Yukon territory to Lower California, a distance of 4,000 miles, and
it nearly touches both the torrid and frigid zones. It is found from
the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific in the United States. Few trunks
exceed twenty-five feet in height or six inches in diameter; but the
form is generally brush, in tangled thickets along the courses of
mountain streams, and on boggy slopes, up to 7,000 feet in altitude.
The wood is light brown, and there are no reports showing its use
for any purpose except firewood.

SITKA ALDER (_Alnus sitchensis_) is one of the smallest of the
arborescent species, and in most instances it is a shrub a few feet
high. At its best it is thirty feet high and eight inches in
diameter. It grows from Alaska to Oregon, and eastward to Alberta
and Montana. It is found in mountain regions 4,000 feet above the
sea. The wood is valuable for fuel only. This species was discovered
about eighty years ago, but was practically lost sight of until
recently. Many persons saw it but supposed it to be one of the other
alders.

LANCELEAF ALDER (_Alnus acuminata_) is a southwestern species,
ranging through southern New Mexico and southern Arizona and south
4,000 miles to Peru. In the United States it ascends to altitudes of
4,000 or 6,000 feet where it fringes the banks of streams, and
flourishes in the bottoms of canyons. The largest trees are thirty
feet high and eight inches in diameter. Flowers open in February
before the appearance of the leaves. The seeds have small wings
which are of little or no use.

SEASIDE ALDER (_Alnus maritima_) grows in Maryland, Delaware, and
Oklahoma, and the largest trunks are thirty feet high and five
inches in diameter. It is found on the banks of ponds and streams.
The flowers appear in July, and the seeds of last year’s crop ripen
at the same time. The wood is light, soft, and brown, heart and sap
being scarcely distinguishable. The wood is not used.

The European Alder (_Alnus glutinosa_) has been naturalized in a few
places in the United States, and several varieties are distinguished
in cultivation. A native shrubby species (_Alnus rugosa_) is common
in many parts of the eastern states. It is not usually listed as a
tree, being too small, but it is sometimes twenty-five feet high and
three or four inches in diameter. In Europe the charcoal made from
alder is considered excellent material for the manufacture of gun
powder, and considerable areas of alder in England are held in
reserve against an emergency. It is probable that the American
alders would answer as well as the European species.

HORNBEAM

HORNBEAM

(_Ostrya Virginiana_)

This tree belongs to the birch family and is closely related to the alders and to blue beech. Four species of hornbeam are known in the world, and two of them are in the United States. One is well known to most persons who are familiar with eastern hardwood forests, but the other is seldom seen because of the limited extent of its range.

The well-known hornbeam is found in the valley of the St. Lawrence river, throughout Nova Scotia and Ottawa, along the northern shore of Lake Huron to northern Minnesota, south through the northern states and along the Alleghany mountains to the Chattahoochee region of western Florida; through eastern Iowa, southeastern Missouri and Arkansas, eastern Kansas, Oklahoma and the Trinity river region of Texas. It is known as ironwood, hop-hornbeam, leverwood, and hardhack.

The Indians were small users of wood except for fuel, but they had places where they put wood to special uses. They chose hornbeam, when they could get it, for one of these places. It was a favorite material for the handles of their stone warclubs. The stone heads were chipped to various forms, but were usually egg-shaped with a groove round the middle for fixing the handle. This was made fast with thongs of rawhide, and was generally nearly or quite two feet long, and slender as a golf stick. Great strength and a high degree of elasticity were required to stand the strain when a warrior swung his club in battle. Hornbeam meets these requirements exactly, and doubtless the Indian found this out by experience. It is about thirty per cent stronger than white oak, and forty-six per cent more elastic. The demand for warclub handles made no great inroads on the hornbeam supply, but it affords proof that the Indians sometimes used good judgment.

The different names of this tree describe some characteristic of the wood or foliage. The fruit resembles hops, hence one of the names. Hardness gives it the other names by which it is known. It is the custom nearly everywhere to call any wood ironwood if it is extra hard. No fewer than eleven species of the United States are known as ironwood in some parts of their ranges.

The leaves of hornbeam are simple and alternate; they taper to a sharp point at the end, while the base is rounded. They are doubly and sharply serrate. In color they are dark green above, and lighter below, tufted in places, resembling birch leaves in some respects, although they are quite different in texture, the leaves of birch being glossy, while those of ironwood are rough. They are joined to the twig with a short petiole, hardly a fourth of an inch in length.

The flowers grow in long catkins, staminate ones sometimes more than two inches long, covered with fringed scales. The pistillate catkins are usually shorter. Hornbeam blooms in April and May and its fruit ripens in August and September. The seed is a small nut equipped with balloon-like wings, intended for wind distribution. The seeds are often carried, rolled, and tumbled considerable distances. They keep on going until their wings are torn off or wear out, or until they become inextricably entangled among twigs or other obstacles. Comparatively few of the seeds ever find lodgment in situations suitable for germination. Consequently, hornbeam is scarce.

It is not easy to state the average size of the hornbeam, though it is usually small and never very large. Sometimes it reaches a height of fifty or sixty feet and a diameter of two or more, but such sizes are unusual. Trees a foot in diameter and forty feet high are more common. The foliage is thin, and the tree is satisfied to grow in shade, provided the shadows are not too dense. The leaves must have a little sunshine, and the flecks that fall through the open spaces in the forest canopy high above, suffice. The hornbeam makes no effort to overtop its fellow trees; but when it grows in the open, as on a rocky bank or ridge, where it catches the full light, the crown puts on more leaves, and multiplies its branches, and it is no longer the lean tree which some of the Indians called it. Forest grown specimens produce clear trunks, but those in the open are limby almost to the ground.

Hornbeam has neither smell nor taste. It burns well, the embers glowing brightly in still air. The weight of a cubic foot of seasoned wood is fifty-one pounds. It is strong, hard, heavy, tough, and exceedingly durable when exposed to variable weather, or when in contact with the soil. It takes a beautiful polish. Trees more than a foot in diameter are often found to be hollow.

The wood is strong, hard, tough, durable in contact with the soil; heartwood light brown, tinged with red, or often nearly white; thick, pale sapwood which generally does not change to heart for forty or fifty years. The annual rings are not uniform in appearance. Some are easily distinguishable, while others are vague. This variation is due to the irregular development of the dark summerwood in the outer portion of the rings. It is at times distinct and again is hardly discernible.

The wood is diffuse-porous, and the pores are too small to be easily seen by the naked eye. The medullary rays are small and obscure. In quarter-sawed wood they show as a silvery gloss, but the appearance is too monotonous to be attractive. Neither is there striking figure when the wood is sawed tangentially, because of the small contrast in the different parts of the yearly ring. Hornbeam may, therefore, be listed among woods which have little or no figure. No one ever thinks of using it for the sake of its beauty. Because of the small size and limited quantity hornbeam will never come into commercial prominence. Its uses are almost entirely local and domestic. The lumberman or the farmer selects a hornbeam sapling as being the best material obtainable for making a wagon or sleigh tongue, a skid, or a lever. The farmer often laboriously works a section of the flint-like wood into minor agricultural implements.

The statistics of sawmill cut in the United States do not mention hornbeam even among such minor species as holly, Osage orange, alder, and apple. However, it is known that an occasional log goes to sawmills in the Lake States, and doubtless in other regions, and in some instances the wood is kept separate from others and is sold to fill special orders. Manufacturers of farm tools consider it the best wood for rake teeth. That use has come down from the time when farmers made their own rakes and pitchforks. They learned the wood’s value by experience, and manufacturers cater to the trade.

It is sometimes called lever wood, and that name dates from long ago when the man who needed a lever went into the woods and cut one to suit his needs. The modern lever is usually somewhat different and partakes more of the nature of a handle. They are seen in sawmills where they manipulate the carriage machinery; on certain agricultural implements where their function is to throw clutches in and out of gear; sometimes they are used as the handle by which the rudder of a small boat is controlled; and occasionally the lever has a place as an adjunct of a wagon or log-car brake. In all of these uses strength and stiffness are required, and durability is duly considered.

Wagon makers and repairers find several uses for hornbeam. It would be more frequently employed if it were more plentiful. Nearly any blacksmith who runs a repair shop for vehicles will testify to that. It fulfills every requisite for axles; is made into felloes for heavy wagons; and is considered the best obtainable wood for the tongues of heavy logging wheels and stone wagons.

Among various occasional uses of this wood it is listed by the manufacturers of reels for garden hose; rungs for long ladders; stakes for sleds, and also for cross pieces and parts of runners of sleds; wedges for the makers of machinery; and hammer and hatchet handles. It is a pretty active competitor of dogwood for some of these uses, and it has been suggested for shuttles, but no report of its use in that capacity seems to have been made.

One of its most common uses is as fence posts. Few lines of fence are built exclusively of hornbeam posts, because not enough can be had in one place; but posts are cut singly or a few together from Maine to Arkansas, and the aggregate number is large. The wood is said to outlast the heartwood of white oak when in contact with the ground, and it is so strong that posts of small size stand the pull of wires or the weight of planks or pickets.

Hornbeam is of slow growth and there is little reason to believe that it will ever be seriously considered by timber growers; but it will doubtless win its way to favor as an ornamental tree. It has been planted in city parks in New England and elsewhere, and its form, foliage, and habits are much liked. The pale green pods or cones--they are not exactly the one or the other--remain a long time on the branches and are delicately ornamental until after the autumn frosts change their green into brown. Then comes the flying time of the balloon seeds, and that is an interesting period in parks and yards where the tree’s habits may be closely studied.