HARDWOOD RECORD 



13 



Overflow Lands of Lower Mississippi 

 Valley. 



the 



Bureau 01 



is a stud;. \li- 



1 Or- 



ij La. Boi ip of 



i about fifteen miles widi side, 



which is subject to repr-; con- 



• ntly a large propo] jea is 



unavailabl 



the richness of the soil. 



Follow tng I 1 istance of from 

 eighth of a mile to two miles from low- 

 Aii'i line, levees have been erected to con- 

 trol the stream. Between the levees anil the 

 river then be no questi )f cultivation 



SPECIMEN 4.VKOOT WHITE ASH LOG. 



Fifty oae indies :it largo end, 33 inches at small end. Owned and exhibited by Southern Hardwood 

 Company in industrial parade at Nashville, Tenn., May 27. Tree grew within fifty miles 

 of Nashville. 



mature trees; it is deeply fissured, and light 

 grey in color, and beautifully reticulated in 

 transverse sections. 



WHITE ASH FOLIAGE. 



The white ash of the extreme South, known 

 generally as cane ash, grows very much 

 faster than its northern prototype. Its rings 

 of growth often indicate an annual increase 

 of a half inch or more. When this wood 

 is plain-sawed and well finished it is one of 

 the showiest hardwoods known to the trade. 

 Unfortunately the southern growth is quite 

 limited and is confined only to scattering 

 trees ; otherwise it would be extremely popular 

 in the markets where large panels of showy 

 wood could readily be utilized. 



Tennyson immortalizes ash with 



Why lingereth she to clothe her heart with 



love 

 Delaying as the tender ash delays 

 To clothe herself, when all the woods are 



green? 



In the records of Scandinavian mythology 

 it is told that a mighty ash tree, Ydgrasil, 

 sprang from the body of the giant Ymir, 

 who under it lies prostrate. It is thought 

 to support the entire universe, one of its 

 great roots penetrating into the dwelling of 

 the gods, another into the abode of the 

 giants, and the third extending into the 

 realms of darkness. Each root is watered by 

 a spring. The legends referred to also aver 

 that four harts ceaselessly traverse the 

 branches of the ash, biting off the buds. They 

 are the four winds. After their creation 

 1 if the universe these gods also conceived 

 the first man, Aske, made from an ash tree; 

 and the first woman, Embla, out of the alder. 

 One then can take his choice between the 



PRINT OF SINGLE WHITE ASH LEAF. 

 ONE-FOURTH ACTUAL SIZE. 



Biblical account of the creation of man 

 and that recited in the Eddas, which consti- 

 tute the 1 f Scandinavian mythology. 



HARDWOOD FOREST ON OVERFLO 



LAND IN MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 



because of the certainty of overflow, but the 

 land easily serves to raise cottonwoods, since 

 the trees do not object to the periodical high 

 water. Behind the levees mui land 



can be drained and cultivated. Other parts 

 are too wet for field crops, and there a dense 

 and valuable forest is found, composed of 

 oak, hickory, cypress, gum, and cotton- 

 wood. 



The opportunity which the Bureau of For- 

 estry finds is this. On the narrow strip in- 

 side the levees cottonwoods can be grown 

 with almost no care and harvested when the 

 trees are from thirty-five to forty years old. 

 This wood now has a recogi e. in 



the market for the manufacture of boxes, 

 for furniture backs, washboai One 



company alone uses 60,000,000 feet a year 

 for making washboards. 



hind the levees much of the laud will 

 undoubtedly be reclaimed for agriculture, but 

 until that shall be done the opportunity to 

 maintain a forest Qf valuable trees is too 

 good to be lost. In this forest wl 

 the most important species, both because it 

 grows more rapidly than oak and some other 

 wood- it is in 



demand and can be used in small sizes. 

 The ash has been pretty well cut out 

 of this £1 to trees as small as six 



