FORESTRY OX THE COUNTRY ESTATE 



455 



■Tff -^y -.■■/ /! y«-atg^WI>t 



The White Oak. 



tioiial rings. Uolh the red and the pin 

 oaks show immense thick rings, not less 

 than a quarter inch from spring wood 

 to spring wood, showing that they are 

 both rapid growers and uniform up to 

 at least forty years of age, when they 

 become more sedate. The red oak is a 

 trifle more reddish in tinge, and in the 

 quarter grain the pin oak surface looks 

 almost like an ash, so deep and pro- 

 nounced are the dark fibre ends. Planed 

 along the grain, the spacing between 

 fibre patterns is huge, 1^/2 to 2 inches 

 being common. Except for hardness it 

 would he difficult to tell the two woods 

 apart in' the lumber. With the black 

 oak (0. Tinctoria) sometimes called 



"yellow," and the scarlet oak, the story 

 oi the log ends is very dift'erent. Multi- 

 tudes of narrow rings, scarce a six- 

 teenth inch apart, tell of years of slow 

 growth ; the quartering shows a close 

 grain and a pretty flower; and, planing 

 along the grain, we get a figure much 

 reseml)ling chestnut. In color a deep 

 red predominates in the scarlet oak and 

 a pink tinge is seen in both quartering 

 and end sections of the black oak. 



Growing in forest stands the pin oak 

 is not very impressive, being a col- 

 umnar tree with quantities of small, 

 tough hanging branchlets, but set out 

 in a field or along a forest wall these 

 same branches spread out until the tree 



