14 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



AMERICAN FOREST TREES. 



American Beech.* 



Fagus Americana. 



This tree is of the family fagacce. The 

 Check 1/ist of Forest Trees of the UDited 

 States botanizfes this species as fagus atro- 

 pmiicea. Marsh; while Stone in his Timbers 

 of Commerce refers to it as fagus sylvdtica, 

 Linn.; and Professor Snow in his Prin- 

 cipal Species of Wood prefers 

 to botanize it in accordance with 

 the Check List of the Division 

 of Forestry. Fagits Americana ap- 

 peals to the Hardwood Record as 

 being a name pertinent and ex- 

 pressive, and therefore it prefers 

 to follow Miss Lounsberry's botan- 

 izing in her beautiful Guide to the 

 Trees. 



In full growth this beautiful tree 

 is round topped, with wide spread- 

 ing and horizontal branches, and 

 shows a normal altitude of about 

 sixty feet. In this form of growth 

 branches appear on the body very 

 close to the ground, and their ends 

 often trail upon it. In its forest 

 form, where trees of any sort are 

 of commercial importance, it often 

 attains a height of 120 to 140 feet, 

 with smooth rounded bole as sym- 

 metrical as the pillar of a cathedral, 

 with a diameter of from two to four 

 feet. Its time to bloom is April or 

 May, and its seed nuts ripen in 

 September and October. 



The bark is a light bluish gray, 

 and remarkably smooth ; the leaves 

 are simple, alternate, with very short 

 petioles; ovate; oblong; with 

 pointed apex and rounded or nar- 

 rowed base. The ribs are straiglit. 

 unbranching, and terminating in re- 

 mote teeth; they are fringed on the 

 margin with soft white hairs which 

 soon fall. The flowers are stamin- 

 ate; clustered on grouping peduncles 

 The fruit is a pair of three-sided 

 nuts with a sweet and edible kernel 

 which grows in a four-celled prickly 

 burr, splitting when ripe midway to 

 the base. 



The range of growth of this tree 

 is from Nova Scotia to Lake Hunm, 

 north shores, northern Michigan, 

 northern Wisconsin, south to west- 

 ern Florida and west to southeastern 

 Missouri and to the Trinity river 

 district in Texas. 



It is known as beech in Maine, New Hamp- 

 shire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Ehode Is- 

 land, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, 

 Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, West Vir- 

 ginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Geor- 

 gia, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Missis- 

 sippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Kentucky, 

 Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, 

 Nebraska, Minnesota and Ontario; red Ijeech 



FIFTH PAPER. 



in Maine, A^ermont, Kentucky and Ohio; 

 white beech in Maine, Ohio and Michigan ; 

 ridge beech in Arkansas. 



The color of the heart wood is reddish ami 

 of variable shades, and the tap wood is ne.irly 

 white. The wood is rather close grained and 

 the medullary rays are conspicuous. In struc- 

 tural qualities the wood is hard, strong and 



d unite 



TYPICAL MICIIIUAN KOHKST (SROWTH OF BEECHV PHOTO 



Hy M. E. THOMAS. SALKS MANAGEK OV COIiH & 



MITCHKU,. INL'OUI'OKATEn. CADILLAC. MICH. 



tough, but not duriib'e ulicn exposed to the 

 weather. It takes a tine polish, but has to b«> 

 seasoned with extreme care- to avoid checking. 

 It is especially subject to a surface crackle 

 check. 



Representative uses of tlie wood are for 

 plane stocks, tool handles, interior work of 

 cabinet furniture like backs, drawer sides, 

 ends and bottoms, interior finish, wagon mak- 



ing and flooring. Abroad it is us 

 tensively in carpentry work. 



The weight of the seasoned wood is approx- 

 imately forty-two pounds per cubic foot. 

 While the wood is often divided commercially 

 into red and white beech, according to the 

 color of the heart and sap wood, such division 

 has no botanical basis. The wood has neither 

 taste nor smell ; burns beautifully 

 with a lively flame, withovit crack- 

 ling or ejecting sparks, and with, 

 little smoke. It is a favorite ma- 

 terial for grate fires. 



The wood is deficient in elasticity, 

 and is somewhat inclined t'l warp 

 and crack. The rings of growth 

 are clear and the boundary a line 

 of contrast; the contour convex be- 

 tween the thicker rays. 



The sources of supply of the 

 wiHxl are America, Europe and Asia 

 .Minor, in the colder temperate parts. 

 Hcech grows in a mixed forest and 

 in its northern ranges is commonly 

 tciuiiii interspersed with hard nmple, 

 birch, basswood, gray elm, black 

 aj'h and hemlock. In its southern 

 iinigc of growth, it is found inter- 

 nungled with poplar, basswood, oak, 

 homloi'k and bell-wood, and is 

 t(nind at an altitude well up to the 

 line of spruce growth. Perhaps the 

 finest examples of beech growth in 

 the United States occur in the 

 higlier altitudes of the lower Ap- 

 l)alachia.n Range in eastern Tennessee 

 and western North Carolina, where 

 trees are frequently encountereil 

 showing a ho\v of perfectly sym- 

 metrical form, of from three t<. 

 more than four feet in diameter, 

 and of a sheer height of seventy 

 feet before a limb is encountered. 

 The growth in this section is nearly 

 as hard as that of the north. Beech 

 growing on lower levels in the mid- 

 illc south is of a much softer texture 

 :i]i<l lighter color, the color of the 

 heart wood being pinkish rather 

 than reddish brown. 



It is only within the last ten years 

 that beech has been considered a 

 wood of any commercial impor- 

 tance; previous to this time its con- 

 sumption was entirely confiued to 

 the charcoal furnace and domestic 

 l)urposes. Latterly the intrinsic 

 merits of the wood have been dis- 

 covered and exploited, with a result that its 

 aggregate of production into lumber now 

 constitutes a considerable element of hard- 

 wood manufacture. The sap wood is compara- 

 tively thin and the heart is very nuich es- 



•Aiithnrltics (luoted in the luri'giilng article 

 are "The Timlier of Coinnu'rce." "liukle to the 

 Trees," "Principal Species iif Wood." and "Check 

 List of the Forest Trees of the United States." 



