88 



FOREST COMMISSIONER S REPORT. 



required, such as the manufacture of spools, shoe pegs, shoe 

 shanks, dowels, toothpicks, and various wood novelties. 



A serious defect in the wood is that known as "red heart," 

 which materially reduces the quality, strength, and value of the 

 wood and renders it unfit for spool, shoe peg, or toothpick stock ; 

 its presence in large quantities means heavy loss. Red heart is 

 not a disease and is not present in very young trees. It is 

 simply the natural heart-wood formed with advancing age, and 

 is therefore certain to come in all trees. The age at which it 

 makes its appearance varies greatly. Locality is one of the 

 chief influences. In favorable localities seedlings under 5 or 

 6 inches in diameter and less than 40 or 50 years old seldom 

 show any red heart. In unfavorable localities and in sprouts 

 it may appear much earlier. With trees over 5 inches in diam- 

 eter it averages slightly over 6 per cent of the volume of the 

 tree. It does not seem to var}- with any set rule, however, and 

 aside from age it is often difficult to determine the exact causes 



Fig. 2. — Stack of 4-foot bolts of paper birch for spool stock, sliowing 

 variation in size of red heart and in size of iiolts, 4 to 18 inches in 

 diameter. Piscataquis County, Maine. 



