October 



1916 



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Hardwoods of Knoxville Region 



A considerable area remains of the hardwood forests which cov- 

 ered the whole of eastern Tennessee when white men first came into 

 it. The total quantity is less than it was then, but the kinds and 

 the quality are the same. It is a region rich in hardwoods of the 

 best classes produced in this country. 



The leadino- wood is oak consisting of several kinds. The com- 

 mon white oak leads all the others in quantity and most others in 

 quality, if the whole region is considered. It is the stock from 

 which most of the quarter-sawed material is cut which finds its 

 chief use as furniture and interior house finish. The total cut 

 of oak lumber in Tennessee exceeds 375,000,000 feet a year, and is 

 exeoedad only by West Virginia of all the states. But this oak 

 is made up of several kinds and 

 it is not known just how much 

 of it is the common white oak. 



In eastern Tennessee two 

 other oaks are occasionally of 

 such excellent quality as to pass 

 in market along with white oak 

 and on equal terms. These are 

 post oak and chestnut oak; but 

 only the highest quality ever re- 

 ceives the honors due to white 

 oak in that region. Some chest- 

 nut oak goes abroad as export 

 stock; but most of it is taken 

 for cross ties, car timbers, oil 

 barrel stock, and as common 

 lumber. W. W. Ashe who has 

 investigated the timber re- 

 sources of Tennessee, places the 

 remaining stand of -chestnut oak 

 timber at 788,000,000 feet. This 

 oak is seldom quarter-sawed, be- 

 cause the silver grain lacks 

 brightness. It is particularly 

 liked for fumed furniture and 

 finish. The tree is valuable for 

 its bark which is used in tan- 

 ning. The supply of this bark 

 in the state is estimated at 690,- 

 000 tons. 



White oak holds no monopoly 

 of the oak supply in eastern 

 Tennessee. There are three 

 trees whose lumber is commer- 

 cially classified as red oak. One 

 is scarlet oak, so named because 

 of the deep color of its leaves 

 in autumn ; another is yellow or 

 black oak, named on account of 



the yellow color of its inner bark; a third, and by far the most 

 important of the three, is the common red oak which grows to per- 

 fection in the rich mountain coves of eastern Tennessee. The large, 

 clean trunks produce a high class of clear lumber of great value 

 as interior house finish, and likewise for furniture and car build- 

 ing. It is called red oak because of the reddish tint of the heart 

 wood. It is not the same species of red oak cut farther south and 

 west. 



Chestnxtt 



There is only one species of chestnut native to the United States 

 and that attains no greater perfection anywhere than on the slopes 

 of the Unaka and Smoky ranges of mountains, and on the Holston, 

 Frog and Yellow mountains, at altitudes varying from 1,800 to 

 3,500 feet above sea level. Chestnut fills a wide range of uses, as 

 posts, poles, lumber, and in the extract of acid for tanning leather. 

 The acid factories in Tennessee consume 50,000 cords of chestnut 



PL.\NK LOG SLIDES BY MEANS OF WHICH LOGS ARE MOVED 

 TO RAILROAD 



annually. That is equivalent to 30,000,000 board feet, or two-thirds 

 as much as the whole chestnut lumber output of the state. The 

 wood is ground into small bits, and the acid is extracted and ia 

 shipped in barrels or tanks to the tanneries. Practical methods have 

 been discovered for converting into paper the refuse ground wood 

 of the chestnut ooze factories. 



Much of the chestnut of eastern Tennessee is old and over mature, 

 and that class of wood is richest in tannin and is most valuable. 

 Almost without exception it is perforated with worm holes about 

 the size of knitting needles. The wood is riddled from sap to heart, 

 but the health of the tree does not appear to be hurt thereby. The 

 boring insects may work in a tree, generation after generation, for 



two or three hundred years, and 

 the tree may finally die from old 

 age or from other causes. 



From that class of timber is 

 cut the ' ' sound wormy ' ' chest- 

 nut lumber of commerce. Much 

 of the best chestnut on the mar- 

 ket is of that class. It is in 

 demand for interior house finish, 

 furniture, and for coffins and 

 caskets. It is particularly liked 

 for core stock in the manufac- 

 ture of, veneer panels. The fin- 

 isher has ways of filling and 

 concealing these minute perfora- 

 tions, whereby the lumber may 

 be used without prejudice as out- 

 side stock in furniture and house 

 finish. 



Yellow Poplae 

 The practical old land lookers 

 of pioneer times, who explored 

 the wOderness in advance of set- 

 tlements, judged the fertility of 

 kind by the timber that grew 

 ou it; and their judgment sel- 

 dom erred. Pine meant poor 

 land; white oak meant soil suit- 

 able for general farming pur- 

 poses; but when good yellow 

 poplar timber was found, the 

 soil was known to be of the 

 highest class of fertility. It 

 might be rocky, but between the 

 rocks there was unsurpassed fer- 

 tility. 



The explorers of eastern Ten- 

 nessee, from John Filson and 

 Thomas Walker down, called 

 constant attention to the splendid timber, and the character of the 

 poplar was an unending theme of praise. It has been an unending 

 them of praise ever since. The level land has been cleared of all 

 timber; but the rich coves and flats among the mountains still 

 supply yellow poplar that is not surpassed in the United States. 

 W. W. Ashe's estimate gives the remaining yellow poplar stand in 

 Tennessee at 2,500,000,000 feet, board measure. At the present rate 

 of cutting in the state that will last rather less than twenty-five 

 years; but poplar is not in danger of total depletion, because it 

 does not occur in dense stands like pine and cypress, but is scat- 

 tered far and wide, and the stand in good poplar regions does not 

 average more than 500 feet per acre over large tracts. Young 

 trees grow rapidly, and by the time the old veterans have gone to 

 market, young growth will begin to come in. West Virginia is 

 the only state which produces more yellow poplar lumber than 

 Tennessee; and Tennessee supplies one-sixth of the world's output 



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