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Rural School Leaflet 



Fragrant sumac is a low shrub. The fruit is in small clusters of red 

 hairy berries which fall off early in winter. The small clusters on the 

 present twigs are next year's flowers, which open very early in spring 

 before the leaves. The wood is sweet-scented. 



Poison ivy, or poison oak (a true sumac and by far the most common 



poisonous plant in the United States), is a 



low shrub or climbing vine, with light 



brown twigs. The fruit is like that of the 



poison sumac, and the leaf scars, in 



proportion to the twig, are also 



similar. 



The walnut. — This tree, the nuts 

 of which are familiar to all, was 

 formerly abundant. Its great 

 popularity as a wood for fine 

 furniture and cabinet-making has 

 so reduced the supply that it is now 

 a comparatively rare tree. It is 

 found from central New York 

 southward to Florida, but it reaches 

 its best size on the western slope of the 

 Allegheny Mountains. It was 

 in the region of the Ohio 

 River that most of the fine walnut 

 was cut a number of years 

 ago, and it is still occasion- 

 ally found there on rich, 

 mellow soil in protected 

 situations. So valuable 

 has it become that in some 

 places lumbermen are going 

 back after the stumps of 

 the trees that were cut years before, digging them up and making veneers 

 from them. 



In earlier days walnut was much used for fence rails. As the wood is 

 very durable, old rails may be sound, and in some sections even these old 

 rails have been used in the manufacture of small products. 



A peculiarity of the walnut tree which is a serious matter when making 

 plantations is the fact that even the one-year-old tree has a very long tap- 

 root. It is difficult to transplant trees that are several years old, and 

 whenever possible the necessity of transplanting should be avoided by 

 planting the nuts where the trees are to remain permanently. 



Leaf and fruit of walnut 



