14 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



April 10, 1917 



lengthwise, from bark to heart. That is the cut which gives quartered 

 lumber, but it also displays the edges of tho rings in parallel lines. 

 This is not usually regarded as a pleasing figiire because too regular 

 and monotonous, and the lines are too straight. Such lines are not 

 beautiful to anybody but a student of geometry. This is apt to be 

 the figure in edge-grain flooring, if it has any figure. Some woods 

 display it much more sharply than others. It is strong in longleaf 

 pine and hardly noticeable in maple. 



There is still another figure due to growth rings. It appears in 

 rotary-cut veneers that are peeled off round and round the log by a pow- 

 erful" knife. This is really a modified form of the figure produced 

 when a slab is sawed from the side of a log; but, since the veneer 



very thick walls and small cavities. That is the side of the ring ap- 

 pearing dark to the naked eye. The glass shows why : the inside half 

 is composed of hollow-celled wood, the outside of solid wood, the 

 one is light in color, the other dark. 



The description of the longleaf pine 's growth ring holds good for 

 all softwoods— all trees with needle leaves ; but there is difference in 

 intensity. Some softwoods, as spruce, show no great contrast between 

 the outer and inner halves of the ring; consequently, the rings are 

 not very distinct, and they produce little or no figure. 



The light-colored inside of the ring is called "spring wood," or 

 ' ' early wood, ' ' because it is formed early in the season when growth 

 is rapid; while the dense, outer part is known as "summer wood," 

 or "late wood," because it is produced late in the season. It grows 

 more slowly than the spring wood. 



Individuality op Hardwood 



The growth ring of the hardwoods or broadleaf trees has an in- 

 dividuality which easily distinguishes it from the soft woods. The 

 difference may or may not appear to the unaided eye, but a magnify- 

 ing glass will show it. No difference appears in the arrangement of 

 thick waUed and thin walled cells on the outer and inner sides of 

 the ring; but the hardwoods have somethuig which is wanting in 

 soft woods. The hardwoods have pores, large numbers of tubes run- 

 ning lengthwise of the tree. These are much larger than tlie cavities 

 within the cells which are never seen with the naked eye, while pores 

 of some woods are easify seen — ash, chestnut, oak, hickory and others. 



« PARTS OF HARDWOOD ANNUAL RINGS 



Small section magnified to show tliick-wallcd dark and thin-walled light 

 cells. The large pores are scattered ariong the thin-walled cells. 



comes from the log's whole circumference, instead of from one side 

 only, as in the ease of the slab, the veneer often shows bolder figures. 



Kings DiprER Greatly 



While all trees that grow in the temperate zone, except eacti and 

 palms, have annual rings of growth, these differ greatly in stracture 

 and appearance, and upon these differences depends the variety in 

 figures which are produced by the rings. Every ring shows two colors, 

 one lighter, the other darker. "Without the contrast of these two colors, 

 the ring would be invisible. In holly, the whole ring is nearly of one 

 color; in longleaf pine, it is made up of two distinct colors. The 

 result is, in holly one ring can scarcely be distinguished from another, 

 while in the pine, every ring stands out sharp and distinct. It is a 

 matter of contrast — the abrupt meeting of dark wood and light wood. 



It is of interest to examine somewhat minutely into the reason why 

 one part of a ring is of dark color, the other light, because on this 

 depends a large part of the figure in wood. Take a small section 

 of a growth ring of longleaf pine. It may be one-sixth of an inch 

 wide. The naked eye can see that the .ipside half of the ring — the 

 side nearest the tree's heart — is light in color, while the outside half 

 is dark. The unaided eye is unable to discover the reason for it, but 

 the cause is revealed by a strong magnifying glass. It may then be 

 observed while»examining the wood that it is made up of hollow cells 

 like honeycomb, and the observer can look down into these cells where 

 the end of the stick has been cut smooth. It is at once seen that 

 the cells constituting the inner half of the ring have large cavities 

 and very thin walls. That is the light-colored part of the ring. Ob- 

 serve the outer side of the ring, and the cells there are found to have 



PARTS OF SOI'TWOOD ANNUAL RINGS 



A magnlSed section showing light sprlngwood and dark summerwood, and 



the contrast where one wood moots another 



These pores in liardwood have much to do with the figures pro- 

 duced by growth rings. They help supply contrasts. Take white 

 ash as an example. About one-third of the ring on the side nearest 

 to the tree 's heart, contains several rows of open jiores, closely side 

 by side, and large enough to be seen by the eye alone. No such pores 

 are to be seen in soft woods. Those in ash serve to separate one 

 yearly ring from another by the sharp contrast between the color of 

 the wood containing the bands of pores and that adjoining it which 

 contains few or none. 



All hardwoods do not have pores arranged in bands near the inner 

 edge of the ring, as in ash ; but they are variously arranged, in bands, 

 groups, lines and dispersed through all parts of the ring. Nor are 

 pores equal in size. Some, like those of red oak, are as large as ordi- 

 nary pinholes, while maple, birch, mahogany and many others are or- 



