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A Polemic on Poplar 



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It may seem hardly iiecessiiry at this stage of the history of 

 poplar to undertake to say anj'thing new about this sterling wood, 

 Ijut right now a discussion of the economic and enduring qualities 

 «f various types of American forest growth is pertinent. 



Poplar has the peculiar distinction of being one of the chief 

 types of wood, the qualities of which appealed to the pioneers 

 of the sections where it abounded, as being of especial value for 

 a great variety of purposes. In 

 eastern Ohio, which was a dense 

 hardwood forest in the early 

 part of the last century, which 

 was settled by Hicksite Quakers, 

 who had emigrated from eastern 

 Pennsylvania, poplar became the 

 favorite material for the build- 

 ing of the houses, barns and in 

 fact constituted the favorite 

 wood from which was hewed out 

 everything from cradles and 

 chopping bowls to the coffins of 

 the dead. At this time many 

 thousands of feet of the finest 

 black walnut, hickory, white ash, 

 white and red oak and chestnut 

 were cut down and burned to 

 clear the lands for agricultural 

 purposes. Straight-grained black 

 walnut and chestnut logs were 

 split into fence rails, and many 

 farms in that section have these 

 rails on them today in a good 

 state of preservation. The great 

 poplar trees were largely cut and 

 scored for building purposes. 



In those days it was customary 

 to hold what were called ''barn 

 raisings," when all the neigh- 

 bors and friends flocked in to 

 assist in the raising of the barn 

 frame, which was of tenon, mor- 

 tise and pin construction, thor- 

 oughly braced. In default of 

 rope and tackle, these pioneers 

 used poles thirty or forty feet 

 long, and put the heavy timber 

 in place by main strength and 

 awkwardness. Three to five men 

 worked at each pole. It required 

 thirty to sixty days to hew the 

 timber for the frame of a big 

 barn. The settlers for miles 

 around welcomed the invitation 

 to come to the raising, and it 

 often took from sixty to one 

 hundred men to raise a barn. 

 The work was done in a day, 

 but it was the hardest kind of 

 labor. The men did not expect nor receive any pay for their 

 services, but the host's womenfolks provided the best dinner and 

 supper for the workers that the land afforded. 



Pictured in this article are three old Mahoning county poplar 

 barns, located near Sebring, Ohio. The Pussy Wise barn was 

 built in 1850 from timber cut and scored from the farm on which 

 it now stands. The Taylor barn is located in the same farming 

 community and was built in 1848, while the Middleton barn in 

 the same locality was built in 1842. 



The poplar timber from which these tarns were built was from 



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A TSVENTY-FIVE YEAR OLD SPRUCE TREE GROWING ON 



FALLEN BOLE GIANT POPLAR, EASTERN TENNESSEE, 



HEART-WOOD OF WHICH IS ENTIRELY SOUND. 



six to eight feet in diameter, with a height well towards one 

 hundred feet to the first limb. The frames were of yellow poplar 

 as well as the siding, wliich was made from whip-sawed inch boards, 

 planed by hand. None of the barns has ever been painted or 

 whitewashed, and the materials of which they are built are still 

 sound and have every indication of being able to withstand the 

 elements for another century. 



The first roof on the Pussy Wise 

 barn was rived out of chestnut 

 bolts and lasted over thirty years. 

 The second roof was of white 

 pine and lasted eighteen years. 

 The present roof is of California 

 redwood shingles put on last year. 

 To . emphasize the longevity 

 of yellow poplar, a picture is 

 shown in this article of a spruce 

 tree apparently twenty-five years 

 old, growing on top of the bole 

 of a fallen giant poplar, that has 

 evidently been down in the deep 

 cove of the eastern Tennessee 

 mountains for fully a half cen- 

 tury. Testing this fallen poplar 

 with an ax shows the thin sap to 

 have entirely disappeared, but 

 the heart-wood is sound, yellow 

 and as free from rot as when it 

 fell. This photograph was taken 

 by the writer in Sevier county, 

 Tennessee, last June. 



To show that virgin yellow pop- 

 lar timber still is not an unknown 

 quantity in the timber growth of 

 this country, there is pictured a 

 carload of poplar logs that was 

 received at the veneer plant of 

 C. L. Willey at Chicago last week, 

 which was purchased from Eobert- 

 son & Cassidy of Spencer, Ind., 

 who cut the trees near Parsons, 

 Decatur county, Tennessee, about 

 fifty miles east of Jackson. The 

 dimensions of these logs are 

 marked on the ends. It will be 

 noted that there are five twelve- 

 foot logs, ranging in diameter 

 from forty-eight to fifty inches, 

 and four ten-foot logs, ranging 

 from forty-seven to fifty inches. 

 The sap, less than an inch in 

 thickness, is plainly discernible 

 in the photograph. The total log 

 scale of this carload of poplar is 

 12,.507 feet. Every log is sound, 

 clear to the heart, and absolutely 

 surface clear. Mr. Willey will 

 manufacture them into rotary-cut one-eighth inch panel stock, but 

 in a sawmill they would produce a very handsome lot of panel and 

 No. 1 stock. 



Poplar occupies a peculiar distinction in wood growth. While 

 classified as a hardwood, in reality it is the happy medium between 

 the softwood coniferous and broad-leaved hardwood growth. In 

 reality it is a softwood, but its peculiar qualities render it par- 

 ticularly desirable for a very wide range of uses. It has been the 

 panel material utilized almost to the exclusion of all other woods 

 for carriage and ear building for manv vears. T^p to a few years 



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