10 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



known poem, was probably made of Massachusetts white 

 oak. 



Salt barrels are made, and for a century have been 

 made principally of white oak staves with hickory hoops. 

 Two sizes are used, one of 280 and the other of 350 

 pounds. In Tennessee, and perhaps elsewhere as well, 

 white oak trees, about ten inches in diameter, are worked 

 into hoops for tobacco hogsheads. Only the sapwood 

 and a little of the adjacent heart will answer the require- 

 ments. Smaller trees are useless and larger ones are 

 too brittle. 



FURNITURE 



W^hite oak is an important furniture wood, and supplies nearly 50 per 

 cent of the total quantity of raw materia] used in this industry 

 annually. The picture shows oak rocking chair parts ready for assem- 

 bling. 



BRIDGES AND PILING 



In situations alternately wet and dry, white oak is one 

 of the best obtainable woods. The long service which 

 it gives has increased its use for piles, piers, wharfs, 

 quays, seawalls, bulkheads, wingwalls, booms, milldams, 

 forebays, aqueducts, penstocks, and headgates. The su- 

 perstructure of wharfs and bridges, which are the parts 

 always above water, are preferably of lighter wood than 

 oak, but the cribs and piles on which the superstructure 

 rests have more frequentlv been built oi oak than of any 

 other wood in regions where oak could be conveniently 

 had. 



Oak formed the keels, ribs, planking, and other heavy 

 lower timbers of early American ships, white pine the 

 masts, and other woods filled various places. Boston 

 yards jjreferretl white oak pins or treenails, but most 

 others used locust. The gallic acid in the oak stained 

 the wood if iron bolts were substituted for treenails, and 

 prejudice against iron for that purpose was nearly uni- 

 versal, though evidence was wanting to show that the 

 wood was hurt by the stain. At the present time iron 

 bolts have nearly displaced treenails of all kinds of wood 

 in ship building. English boat builders supplied their 

 yards with American white oak, while insisting that 

 European oak was better. The knees for large vessels 



were usuallv of live oak, but were sometimes hewed from 

 natural crooks, or roots of w'hite oak. That was before 

 the art of bending to the required shade was understood. 



The increased use of iron and steel in modern ship 

 building has not driven wood from that industry, though 

 many vessels are constructed with comparatively little 

 wood. The uses of white oak about the boat yard are 

 many. It enters into planking, keels, and hulls. Canal 

 boat bottoms are made of it, though the upper parts 

 may be of Douglass fir, southern pine, or some other 

 species which atlords long timbers. Modern passenger 

 vessels, though principally of steel, employ white oak 

 in large quantities for interior finish. 



Two hundred years ago in New England and New 

 York, builders used it for its strength — and used much 

 more than was necessary ; but the modern architect and 

 builder employ it for its beauty. They now put in beams 

 and braces of cheaper material to give the necessary 

 strength and stability to the structure ; and they work 

 the oak to produce artistic eft'ects. Color schemes for 

 finish are studied ; and with stains, fiunes. and fillers, 

 attractive combinations are made which were once totallv 

 unknown to the house builder. 



As a hardwood flooring material, white oak is second 

 only to sugar maple in quality. It is worked into par- 

 quet flooring as well as the ordinary tongued and grooved 

 pattern. Some of the finest floors are of quarter-sawed, 

 but oak of that kind is commonly reserved for panels, 

 wainscoting, beams, and columns. r)ak mantels are one of 

 the luxuries of modern houses. The stair is another piece 

 of indoor architecture where the wonilerful wealth and 

 variety of the \yhite oak's grain, figure, and color may 

 be shown to excellent advantage. The newel posts, rail- 

 ing, spindles, steps, and capitals give th? opportunity to 

 display the fine finish of oak from every angle. Base- 

 boards, grilles, blinds, picture molding, and curtain poles, 

 add to the display of a well-finished interior of oak. 



Houses were once roofed with oak shingles and clap- 

 boards, but that is seldom done now, although 20 million 

 oak shingles were manufactured in the United States 

 in lOOT. Few of them were white oak. 



Ouarter-sawing became popular about 188."). By tilt- 

 ing the log in the process of converting it into lumber, 

 the cut is made radially, that is, on a line from the hean 

 to the sap. That cuts the medullary rays in such a w'ay 

 that their broad surfaces are exposed to view. These 

 are the "mirrors" of oak — the bright patches which are 

 so much admired in well-selected wood. Quarter-sawing 

 opened a new era for oak. It was a wasteful methoa 

 of manufacturing lumber, but prices were good. 



The manufacture of fixtures calls for the highest 

 grades of white oak, because it is a class of work meant 

 largely for show, and no inferior material will pass. 

 Fixtures, as the term is here used, include counters, show 

 cases, saloon bars, built-in tables, desks, and partitions 

 in banks, w'all cabinets for stores, and other large cabi- 

 nets. In no class of work can the massne beauty of oak 

 be displayed to better advantage. 



About one-fourth of all the furniture now made in the 



