HARDWOOD RECORD 



13 



fium grows ill many lucalities iiiti'rs[ii'fsed 

 with cypress, tiipelo ami red gum, although 

 ordinarily it is not as prolific a growth. This 

 feature of its distribution is found in Arkan- 

 sas and down the Mississippi river, aiiiidst to 



under this method of sawing it exhibits many 

 beauties of grain. This wood possesses an- 

 other quality that is not generally known; 

 it will take a stain in mahogany tones that 

 is equal to any other 'wood growing in the 

 United States. ^Vhen it is quarter-sawed, 

 properly stained and handsomely finished it 

 exhibits a "stripe" and beauty of grain 

 iliat is not exceeded by the finest mahogany. 



PRINT OF BLACK GUM LEAF, ACTUAL SIZE. 



its mouth and along the Gulf and lower At- 

 lantic coast to Florida. Generally speaking, 

 black gum is larger bodied than tupelo. 

 While tupelo is soft, appro.ximating in many 

 instances the texture of poplar, black gum is 

 hard and yellow'ish in color. The grain is 

 also very much more involved. In some local- 

 ities it is known as hickory poplar. It there- 

 fore will readily be seen that it is an ex- 

 tremely difficult wood to season, as under 

 ordinary methods it is almost impossible to 

 hold it straight in either air or kiln drying. 

 The best method of handling black gum for 

 commercial purposes is to quarter-saw it, and 



r.OWEKS, FRUIT AND FOLIAGE OF BLACK 

 GUM. 



When good methods of seasoning black gum 

 have been discovered and put into practice 

 the wood will rank very high for interior 

 finish, the production of high-class furniture 

 and for other uses where a particularly showy 

 color and figure are desirable. 



Up to this time comparatively little is 

 known about black gum. It has been the 

 neglected tree of the southern forest. As 

 time progresses and lumbermen learn to 

 practice forest economy and to rescue from 

 their timber everything that is of value black 

 ijuni will surely become a wood of no incon- 

 siderable importance. 



Anecdote and Incident, 



Finds an Iron Mine Almost Daily. 



E. H. Fall of Port Clinton, O.. who for 

 many years has been an exporter of black 

 walnut in the form of waney board timber 

 and squares has accumulated in his sawmill 

 experience a most wonderful collection of the 

 product of iron mines, which he has found in 

 his walnut timber. Mr. Fall says he only 

 saves an occasional specimen at that, and has 

 encountered as high as eighty-six specimens 

 of iron in a single day's sawing. 



Among the curiosities of this sort exhibited 

 in his ofiSce is a three-quarter inch king bolt, 

 sawed entirely through; a section of a 

 scythe; a part of a log chain; a staple to 

 which evidently was originally attached a 

 boy's muskrat trap, with a portion of the 

 chain; and a row of wrought iron spikes, at 

 least a dozen in number. It would seem 



lioiii this colleetiun of iron which Mr. Fall 

 has discovered in cutting up black w?luut 

 that it must have been the favorite employ- 

 ment of country boys for ithe last half cen- 

 tury or more to drive into the bodies of trees 

 or hang into their forksi iron in various 

 forms. 1 



Mr. Fall says that he would like to saw 

 black walnut timber with a band mill, but in 

 view of the difficulties encountered he is 

 obliged to stick to the circular saw. He uses 

 a thin Atkins inserted, tooth sixty-inch circu- 

 lar, and he states thajt after cutting a h4)f 

 or three-quarter inch bolt in two with this 

 kind of a saw he can ordinarily replace the 

 damaged teeth and get his sawmill in opera- 

 tion in about twenty minutes. He says he 

 doesn 't know what would happen if he should 

 attempt to perform the same ' ' stunts ' ' with 



a band iiiill, but lie imaejm-s that the band 

 saw would be distributed in sections over a 

 considerable area of his plant. 



Perambulating Sawmills, 



An item extracted Iroiii the Cortland, N. 

 v., Democrat of Duceinbcr 1 recites: "An- 

 drew Jennings, with his sawmill and engine, 

 jiassed through this place Friday, on his way 

 to ilertou Vur.k 's, where he had engaged to 

 saw a quantity of timber for Mr. Vunk. ' ' 



To the owner of the big .sawmill, with a 

 daily capacity of 100,000 to 250,000 feet of 

 lumber, such items look queer enough, but 

 throughout the unsettled sections of this coun- 

 try a considerable quantity of hardwoods is 

 cut on the coffee-pot sawmill even to this 

 day. The farmer engages the portable mill 

 man to saw the logs which he has harvested 

 from his wood lot into fencing, fence posts, 

 sills, girders, studding and rafters. Very 

 likely the better logs will be sold to some 

 lumber manufacturer at a distant point, who 

 will ship them to his mill by raU; but for 

 his domestic use in the aggregate a very 

 large quantity of lumber is produced on the 

 little mill. 



A Foul Murder. 



An Albany, JS". Y., daily gives the follow- 

 ing dramatic and thrilling dissertation under 

 the time-worn title. ' ■ Wnodnian. Spare That 

 Tree": 



A lino, vigorous oaU tree was cut down in this 

 city recently because it was in the way of a 

 contractor. A little care would have saved the 

 tree. 



It took nature a long time — centuries — to grow 

 the tree. With ax and saw it was destroyed in 

 an hour. 



To him who loves a noble tree the sight was 

 a touching one. There lay the kingly giant 

 strecc'jed out at full length- dead in his place. 

 The good monarch had fallen from his throne 

 and none were so poor as to do him reverence. 



While it stood upright and faced the world 

 what a history was told by its whispering leaves ! 

 The weary tribes of the wandering feet had been 

 sheltered by its shade. When the pale face came 

 he rested under its branches towering to the 

 skies. Happy children had found in it a friend. 

 The tree had long ago earned its right to be 

 in the place where it stood. 



When the fierce gust of winter days long, long 

 ago pitched upon it the tree stood firm. The 

 winds served but to help it in its struggle down- 

 ward and outward and upward. In the battle 

 with the storm it girt its belt of bark more 

 tightly around its form, toughened Its fibers for 

 the fray and drove its roots deeper down. The 

 tree had dons its best. It ha.i held for hundreds 

 of years the place nature gave it to defend. 



This tree was foully murdered — murdered by 

 a man who did not know and who did not care 



Fell commercialism struck the blow. It was 

 murdered for money. 



■ ., Some day not far away the man who chops 



down a tree m a city, save by public permission 



,:,ahd dire necess'ty, will be punished. 



■ ; And the sentence will be pronounced in the 



name of decency and of art and of gratitude, in 



".,the name of the thousands who have used the 



fcee and in the name of little children who have 



played beneath its shelter. 



■ So,ai-e the trees : 



Spare them most of all in the town which 

 needs them so much. Spare them in their youth- 

 ful vigor and in their grandeur and old age. In 

 the hope of beauty spare them. Spare them in 

 the spirit of gratitude. Spare them in the name 

 of God whose grxidness they speak. 



