478 STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



posts and sills. The wood takes a nice finisb, and has not received the 

 notice it deserves. 



Hackberry is perhaps as little known as any tree in the State. It grows 

 along streams; the wood is of a yellowish color and useful for a variety of 

 purposes. It is nearly related to the elms. 



HEMLOCK, HICKORIES AND MAPLES. 



Hemlock is the handsomest evergreen that grows, when small and grown 

 with plenty of room for ornament. For railroad ties, scantling, larger 

 timber, tan bark, roof boards, etc., it is very useful. There are more sliv- 

 ers sticking from rough boards of hemlock than from any other timber we 

 grow. This is one reason why mechanics have heretofore objected to 

 using this kind of timber; but a little rise in the price of pine brings 

 hemlock into prominence, and now mechanics put on their leather gloves 

 and get along very well with hemlock timber. 



Hickories: Of these we have the common white-fruited hickory which 

 furnishes most of the nuts in the market; the larger-fruited hichory, in 

 which the nuts have thin shells, and are of a yellow color; the bitternut, 

 pig nut and small fruited hickory. The timber of all these is much alike, 

 and in rapidly grown sticks is especially valuable for ax helves, handles 

 of hammers, spokes, fills and other parts of carriages, in fact in all places 

 requiring strength and elasticity. " Hickory wood makes a hot fire," was 

 one of the wise sayings in the old school reader. Young hickories are 

 coming forward in nearly all portions of the State. 



Maples are well known and popular, especially the sugar maple, which 

 is very abundant still in many northern counties. Black maple is also a 

 sugar maple and is often considered a mere variety of the true sugar tree. 

 It is distinguished from the former not by its blacker bark at all, but by 

 its flowers, fruits and leaves. Birdseye, curly and blistered maples are 

 mostly true sugar maples of peculiar growth. 



I can hardly ennumerate all the uses for this wood — sugar, syrup, shade 

 trees, fire wood, cabinet ware, flooring, shoe pegs, broom handles, shoe 

 lasts, lumber for many general purposes, wagon axles, parts of wheelbar- 

 rows, charcoal, cant hooks, wooden tools in variety, bowls, forks, etc. It 

 bears turning nicely. Red maple and silver leaved maples are both indis- 

 criminately called "soft maple." The latter grows much the faster; the 

 wood is whiter and the tree less likely to produce good saw logs for the 

 mill. The timber is softer than that first named, but is very useful for 

 many purposes. 



THE OAK AND THE PINE. 



Of oaks we have white, burr, swamp white, chestnut, yellow, red, scarlet, 

 black, pin, scrub, barren, shingle, but in commerce or among woodsmen 

 they are thrown together and known as white oak, red oak and black oak. 

 Of their beauty as trees and their usefulness for timber we can scarcely 

 speak too highly. They furnish tan bark, posts, piles, railroad ties, 

 timber for bridges, frames for freight cars, ships, plow beams and handles, 

 barrel staves, flooring, ceiling, wagon spokes, hubs, fine furniture, etc. 

 On account of the promineut, thick and wide medullary rays, the wood is 

 especially pretty when quarter-sawed or when cut into veneers. There is 



