HARDWOOD RECORD 



13 



ties it is therefore uefieient. The wood grows 

 slowly and even trees of twenty-four inches in 

 diameter are, approximately, 250 years old. 

 The sapwood which makes up the larger por- 

 tion of the tree is therefore a comparatively 



LOADING MAPLE LOGS WITH McGIFFERT 

 LOADER FOREST OF MITCHELL 

 BROS. COMrAXY. CADILLAC, MICH. 



mature wood, and possesses more elements of 

 permanency than the heart wooa of many 

 other hardwoods. 



The recorded dry weight of maple ranges 

 about fifty pounds to the cubic foot. It 

 has neither smell nor taste. The grain is 

 fine, smooth, even and dense. The surface 

 in radial section is brilliantly lustrous. The 

 color varies somewhat in different sections 

 of growth from ivory white sap wood to 

 streaks of brown in the heart wood — and 

 sometimes to yellowish white and reddish 

 brown. The rings are clearly visible with a 

 boundary of clear fine brown line of autumn 

 wood, and a slight contrast between the au- 

 tumn and spring woods. The contour is 

 undulating. 



The hard maple being the tree of the wid- 

 est range of growth in the United States, it 

 is therefore one of the best known in its 

 field form. The streets of nearly every vil- 

 lage east of the Mississippi and north o'f 

 Mason and Dixon's line are fringed with 



SKIDWAYS OF MAPLE LOGS, HACKLEX- 



PHELPS-BONNELL COMPANY, 



HACKLEY. WIS. 



hard maples. Its trunk is comparatively 

 short, its branches are wide-spreading, its 

 foliage is in profusion; it is the ideal shade 

 tree. Hard maple groves form the "sugar 

 bush" of the North and the "sugar or- 

 chards ' ' of Kentucky and Tennessee. For 



centuries' the tree has contributed much to 

 the comfort and profit of mankind; it has 

 been the back log of our forefathers and 

 1ms served as well to boil their soap kettles 

 and feed their kitchen fires. 



One unfamiliar with the hardwood forests 

 (if the north country can gain very little 

 iilea of the splendid proportions and the tall 

 and straight trunks of maple trees from his 

 knowledge of them in the village or field. 

 In the forests of the northern portion of the 

 .southern peninsula of Michigan the tree 

 attains its highest perfection, in quality of 

 timber and size and symmetry of growth ; 

 here they often attain a diameter of three 

 feet, with a roughened and partially-irwss- 

 covered bark, rising a sheer sixty feet to 

 the first limb. Interspersed with the maple 

 are gray elm, rock elm, black ash, basswood. 

 birch and scattering hemlocks and white 

 pines. The distinctive feature, however, of 

 the woods' landscape is the maple. It or- 

 dinarily constitutes more than one-third of 

 the entire forest growth. 



Hard maple as a material for lumber is 

 comparatively a new wood, and until within 



I'l.dWER, SEED PODS AND LEAF OF HARD 

 MAPLE. 



a few years it was associated entirely in the 

 minds of the public as a shade tree, as a 

 tree giving forth sap for sugar-making, or as 

 material for firewood. It has only been with- 

 in the last fifteen years that it has received 

 serious consideration from the lumber stand- 

 point. The total output of maple lumber 

 in the United States during 1904 probably 

 apiiroximated 500,000,000 feet, but this does 

 not constitute an estimate of the quantity. 

 Fully half of the log product is sawed into 

 inch lumber and is converted into tongued 

 and grooved flooring and is utilized exten- 

 sively for the flooring of public and oflice 

 buildings and residences. The next consid- 

 erable quantity of maple produced is sawed 

 into thick planks and is utilized by the ag- 

 ricultural implement makers, by machinery 

 makers for the frame work of their lighter 

 machinery, for the making of furniture — es- 

 pecially from the fancy specimens — and for 



the making of shoe lasts. Quite a percentage 

 of maple shows a peculiar twist and turn 

 of the grain of very beautiful figure ; some 

 has the bird's-eye effect, and again the grain 



SKIDWAY OF MAPLE LOGS. 

 EMMET LUMBER CO.. CECIL BAY, MICH. 



is involved in curls. This portion is usu- 

 ally sold to the veneer makers, who reduce it 

 to thin layers for the veneering of furniture 

 panels and for interior woo^ work. 



Maple has to be cured with the greatest 

 care to avoid staining and thus disfiguring its 

 fine ivory white color; it is therefore that 

 latterly a good deal of pure white maple as 

 it comes from the log is seasoned on end, 

 in sheds built for that purpose, so that no 

 sticker marks by any chance may show upon 

 the surface of the wood when it is seasoned. 

 Maple is very susceptible to the chemical ac- 

 tion of the sun and often yellows when thus 

 exposed. 



Hard maple has become the most important 

 product of the northern hardwood forests, 

 and in connection with its chief use that of 

 the production of flooring will be discussed at 



SLEIGH LOAD OF MAPLE LOGS. 

 EMMET LUMBER CO., CECIL BAY, MICH. 



length in a fut,ure issue of the Hardwood 

 Recoed. 



Illustrations accompanying this article are 

 explained in the titles attached to them and 

 are from photographs made by the writer 

 in various parts of the hardwood-producing 

 sections of Michigan. 



