28 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



From the above table it is apparent that walnut is a very valuable 

 ■wood. This is particularly the ease of material shipped to the Pacific 

 states. The quantity is small, but the quality is high and, being used 

 for high-class purposes such as fixtures, the cost is great; in fact, 

 in Oregon a maximum price of $400 per thousand is recorded. In 

 North Carolina and Arkansas the cost is considerably lower than 

 elsewhere, due to the greater home supply and the use of poorer 

 stuff. A very considerable quantity of black walnut is exported. 



In Canada black walnut, though native, is almost commercially 

 extinct. It was once there, as in the United States, a very popular 

 furniture wood, but has fallen from favor. Only about 61,000 board 

 feet of the wood were used for furniture in 1910, one-third native 

 grown, costing $71 per thousand, and two-thirds imported from the 

 United States at $51.24 per thousand. 



The wood of black walnut is moderately heavy, hard, strong, stiff, 

 rather coarse-textured, mostly straight-grained, splits readily, takes a 

 high polish with a glossy, satiny surface. It works well, seasons 

 readily without serious checking, does not warp or twist, and holds 

 its shape. The coMr of the heart is a rich dark or chocolate-brown, 

 often somewhat variegated. The sapwood is thick in young trees 

 but rather thin in old specimens and is grayish-white in color. Newly 

 exposed heartwood has a characteristic odor reminding one of the 

 fresh leaves and nuts. 



The pores are comparatively large in the first-formed wood of the 

 season, distinct to the unaided eye, and gradually diminishing in size 

 and number toward the outer limit of the growth ring, making the 

 wood intermediate of ring-porous and diffuse-porous. The pores are 

 solitary or in radial groups of 2 — 5, often in diagonal rows. Exam- 

 ination of the cross-sections with a hand lens shows numerous fine 

 tangential lines of wood parenchyma. 



The past uses of black walnut were almost unlimited. With scarcity 

 and high cost the uses have become decidedly restricted. It makes 

 excellent furniture but is not striking enough in appearance to appeal 

 to the present American taste. It has long been a favorite gunstock 

 wood but is giving place to birch and red gum to a very consider- 

 able extent. Pieces cut from root burls and from stumps have very 

 rich figure and will always be in demand at high prices. 



Butternut or white walnut (Juglans cinera) is widely distributed 

 throughout the eastern half of the United States but is most abundant 

 on the western slopes of the Alleghany and Appalachian mountains, 

 and in Wiscon.sin. It is mostly a medium-sized tree, often of very 

 poor timber form, and has never been very plentiful. The trees are 

 quite readrly distinguished from black walnut by the lighter color 

 of the bark and by the elongated nuts with sticky velvety hulls. The 

 wood, too, is different, being light, soft, not strong, odorless, and 

 colored light chestnut-brown with dark tangential zones. Some of 

 the grades of butternut are remarkably similar in general appearance 

 to the less highly figured specimens of Circassian walnut. Usually, 

 however, the rich shading of the Oriental wood readily dis- 

 tinguishes it from the humble butternut. 



Butternut wood is very easy to work and when found in suflScient 

 quantity has numerous uses. The largest consumption of the wood 

 in 1910 was reported from Wisconsin, where, out of a total of 610,000 

 feet, 500,000 feet were made into boxes. The remainder went into 

 church and school furnishings, interior trim and woodenware. Of 

 the 183,000 feet used in Illinois nearly half was for incubators, the 

 remainder going into furniture, cabinet work, novelties and toys, and 

 store and office fixtures. Other uses are coffins, ship and boat-bnild- 

 ing, molding and slack cooperage. 



The total amount of butternut cut annually is too small to be 

 reported separately by the Bureau of the Census. 



The genus Bicoria is confined almost entirely to the eastern half 

 of the United States. While som.e botanists recognize as many as 

 15 species, economically considered there are only 8, which may be 

 separated into two groups — the true hickories and the pecan hickories. 

 In the pecan group are Hicoria pecan or true pecan, H. aqiiatica, the 

 water hickory or bitter pecan, H. myristicirformis or nutmeg hickory, 

 and II. minima or bitternut. The first three species are restricted 

 in range to the Mississippi valley and Gulf regions, but the bitternut 

 is extensively distributed throughout the eastern United States. The 



pecan hickories grow faster than the true hickories but their wood is 

 generally inferior, being comparatively weak and brash, and seldom 

 appears on the market. Nutmeg and water hickories are character- 

 istically shaky. The best quality of second growth bitternut and 

 nutmeg, however, is better than the average of shagbark and pignut. 

 Strength and toughness vary greatly within the same species. 



The four true hickories of commercial importance are H. ovata 

 or shagbark, E. laciniosa or big shellbark, H. glabra or pignut, and 

 S. alba or mockernut. With the exception of the big shellbark, 

 which is confined to the Ohio valley, the trees of this group are 

 widely distributed throughout the eastern United States. Shagbark 

 and pignut furnish the bulk of the hickory of commerce. 



The following table affords a comparison of the different species 

 in reference to size of the trees and the density of their wood. 

 Pecan Hickories 



HO) 2a — a S-Q —ja 7", TbfiC^a 



ZJ a < rs ^ ^ r3 a -^.Gvi ^ S ^ CCtB I?oO. 



Pecan 2 6 80 170 .72 45 



Water 1.5 3 CO 80 .74 46 



Nutmeg 1.5 4 75 100 .80 50 



Bitternut 1.5 3 65 80 .76 47 



True Hickories 



Shagbark 2 5 80 140 .84 52 



Big Shellbark 2 5 75 130 .81 51 



Pignut 2.5 . 5 80 130 .82 51 



Mockernut 2 4 75 120 .82 51 



The true hickpries are rather slow growers but produce wood that 

 is heavy, hard, strong, stiff, very tough and resilient. No other com- 

 mercial wood kuown combines these properties to so great a degree. 

 The wood is not remarkable for beauty of color or of grain, shrinks 

 badly in drying, is not durable in contact with the soil, and the sap- 

 wood is very liable to attack by insects, especially by powder-post 

 beetles. It is hard to cut and heavy to haul and there is usually 

 great waste at the mill. Rough stock is always shipped green. 



The sapwood of hickory is white and thick, the heartwood dark 

 brown or red. Transformation of sapwood into heart affects neither 

 the strength nor toughness of the wood. The best wood is obtained 

 from trees in their prime, the youngest trees being the toughest. The 

 best criterion of the value of the wood is its weight. 



Of all the hickories the pignut is the strongest, toughest, most uni- 

 form for all regions, and has the largest proportion of sapwood, 

 though the shagbark is but slightly inferior to it. Big shellbark is of 

 only medium strength, but is inferior to no other species in tough- 

 ness. Mockernut is somewhat stronger than big shellbark but lacks 

 toughness. 



In hickory wood the pores in the spring wood are moderately large, 

 not abundant, and usually in a very irregular zone. When growth 

 is very slow the wood appears diffuse-porous. The pores in the sum- 

 merwood of the growth rings are isolated or fairly evenly distributed, 

 thick-walled, and comparatively large. The rays are abundant but 

 not conspicuous. One of the most characteristic features is the pres- 

 ence of numerous fine but distinct white tangential lines of wood 

 parenchyma, particularly in the summerwood. This character is suffi- 

 cient to separate the wood from ash in event of any confusion due 

 to the similarity of uses, particularly handles. 



No constant characters have been found whereby the woods of the 

 various species can be separated with any degree of certainty. The 

 woods of the true hickories can usually be told from those of the 

 pecan group by the fact that in the former the wood fibers arc thick- 

 walled, producing a very hard, heavy, tough and strong wood, while in 

 the pecan group they are comparatively thin-walled, thereby reducing 

 the weight, strength, density and hardness. Of the pecan group the 

 water hickory (Hicoria aquaiica) can usually be separated from the 

 others because its growth rings are not clearly defined and the large 

 pores are not in a well-defined zone, but scattered much the same as 

 if diffuse-porous. 



There are many uses of hickory for which no satisfactory substi- 

 tutes have been or probably ever will be found. About two thirds 

 of the total cut is consumed annualh- in the vehicle industry for 



