HARDWOOD RECORD 



1 1 



lustrous surface, but the rays and pores are 

 dull. The color of the heart wood is light 

 to dark brown, well defined from the sap 

 wood. The rings of growth are very distinct 

 on account of the prominent pore-ring and 

 a line of contrast between the dense autumn 

 and spongy spring wood. 



It is difficult to obtain large chestnut 

 logs that are sound. The wood is durable 

 in favorable situations, but soon decays in 



FOLIAGE AND FRUIT OF CHESTNUT. 



alternate wet and dry. Abroad, it is con- 

 siderably employed as a cooperage wood and 

 for clapboards, ladders and hoops. The 

 • young wood seems to be more elastic and 

 durable than the older growth, and it is al- 

 leged that posts have been known to last 

 eighty years in the ground. The younger 



growth is quite a favorite material for f< 

 posts in the United States. When rupture 

 of the wood obtains, it gives way with a 

 square break, without warning. The 

 splits rather easily, with a scaly fracture. 



The highest type of chestnut growth 

 perhaps be found along the lower A.ppa 

 laehian range, in eastern Tennessee and 

 western North Carolina, where many api i 

 mens are encountered from five to si 

 feet in diameter. The bole of the chestnul 

 tree herewith pictured is five feet in diam- 

 eter, and sixty feet to the first limb, and 

 was photographed by the editor of the 

 Hardwood Eecord on the property of the 

 Little River Lumber Company in Blount 

 county, Tennessee. 



Chestnuts, the fruit of the tree, are a very 

 highly prized edible. They are gathered 

 and sold in large quantities, especially in 

 the cities of this country, by Italians and 

 Greek venders, during the fall and early 

 winter. The chestnut roasting ovens and 

 stands of the "Dago" and "Guinea" are 

 encountered on every prominent street cor- 

 ner of many large cities of the United 

 States. Chestnuts command in the market 

 a price of about six dollars a bushel, on 

 which the venders reap a profit of from 

 twenty-five to forty per cent. 



Alice Lounsberry, in her "Guide to the 

 Trees," quotes Longfellow, and immortal- 

 izes chestnut as follows: 



"Under a spreading chestnut tree 



The village smithy stands ; 

 The smith, a mighty man is he, 



With large and sinewy hands ; 

 And the muscles of his brawny arms 



Arc strong as iron bands. 



"Fortunate indeed was the good smith 

 immortalized by Longfellow to be able to 

 cool himself from his labors at the forge 

 under the voluminous, kindly shade of the 

 chestnut tree. It has. perhaps, the heart of 

 a humanitarian. Country urchins surely for- 

 get the need of money when they find, after 

 a light frost, the ground covered with its 



inviting i ma ny a begrimed Ital- 

 ian 's them for I 

 expect 



and late in the autumn we see these men 



standing king 



with flirir time-worn knives a cross on the 



nuts, and then . ;,, ,i„. ir | itt |,, 



taller than 



thi nuts of the i ,|„,j r 



meat has a sweater flavor and a finer grain. 



PRINT OF CHESTNUT LEAF, ONE-FOURTH 

 ACTUAL SIZE. 



Owing to their small size, however, the la- 

 bor of preparing these native chestnuts for 

 cooking is considerable, and tins ;s perhaps 

 the reason that chestnut purfie and pudding 

 are not so frequent in this country as they 

 are in Europe. 



' ' The tree at all times is an imposing and 

 beautiful object. It seems as though every 

 one should know its tall, column-like shaft, 

 its dense, characteristic foliage, and its 

 quaint fruit." 



Anecdote, Incident and Observation. 



Southern Hospitality. 



Everybody has heard of southern hospi- 

 tality, but Cape Girardeau, Mo., sprung the 

 limit week before last. The town acted as 

 host to the convention of the Southeast. 

 Missouri Travelingmen's Association. The 

 word "welcome" appeared in big letters 

 everywhere. Fronts of business houses, 

 hotels, barrooms and every ridge pole in 

 the town where a place to sleep could not 

 have been secured for love nor money, bore 

 the selfsame legend. But the largest "wel- 

 come" sign in town was placed over the 

 door of the jail, which certainly reflected 

 the acme of hospitality from the good citi- 

 zens of Cape Girardeau. 



Hauling Lumber During the Strike. 



According to John Schoen, of the Colum- 

 bia Hardwood Lumber Company, delivery 

 of lumber during the Chicago teamsters' 



strike is not entirely a pleasant and satis- 

 factory transaction. 



A few days ago Mr. Schoen instructed 

 one of his drivers to deliver a wagon load 

 of lumber to a strike-bound house, and the 

 union teamster promptly refused, lb- was 

 quickly set down from his wagon, v. 

 upon all the other drivers in the 

 struck. Mr. Schoen then proceeded to gather 

 a corps of nonunion drivers. Among the 

 first applicants hired and sent out with a 

 load was a youth from the country, who 

 was directed to deliver a load of lumber to 

 a manufacturing institution on the west 

 side. He arrived at the factory at the noon 

 hour, advised that the lumber 



not be received until 1 o'clock. The young 

 man's country breeding led him to consider 

 the welfare of his tram, and the grass in a 

 handsome park in the neighborhood appealed 



to him as being ' very desirable place in 

 which to bait his horses. So he drove his 

 team — lumber ami all — into the middle of a 

 fine gras- I let his horses feed. Of 



course, i indicenien promptly took 



him in custody and landed him in the lock- 

 up. 



Mr. Si-!- " 'he tele- 



phone to come • seue of his new em- 



id, bailing him 

 out and subsequently paying his fine. Then 

 he found that the wagon loaded with lum- 

 ber was left in the park, stalled in the soft 

 sod, and he had to send an extra team to 

 extricate the I 



y[r - is one of the 



least costly but more humorous of the 

 phases of trike. In many 



attacked and 

 beat- sses have been cut, and even 



