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Effect of Locality on Growth 



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Much difference of opiiiiou exists as to the eflect of the locality 

 upon the quality of the wood grown there. Some manufacturers 

 claim that southern grown hardwoods are not so strong as the 

 northern grown and object to the use of the wood in exactiug posi- 

 tions. Others claim that woods produced in the South are not so 

 hard ami do not wear so well as those grown in the North. A 

 manufacturer of shuttles not long ago was inquiring about the supply 

 of dogwood and persimmon iu Arkansas, but stated that he feared 

 it would not be hard enough for his use even if found in sufficient 

 quantities. 



About twenty-five years ago a representative committee of the 

 Carriage Builders' Association publicly declared that this inqiortant 

 industry could not depend upon the supplies of southern tiaiher as % 

 the oak grown in the South lacked the necessary qualities demanded 

 iu carriage construction. This statement reached the ear of Dr. 

 Fernow, chief of the Division of Forestry at that time, and he had 

 some experiments made to refute the charge, which he characterized 

 as "little better than a guess, and doubly unwarranted since it con- 

 demned an enormous amount of material, and one produced under a 

 great variety of conditions and by at least a dozen species of trees, 

 involving, therefore, a complexity of problems difficult enough for 

 the careful investigator, and crtirely beyond the few unsystematic 

 observations of the members of the committee on a flying trip through 

 one of the greatest timber regions of the world." 



A number of samples were a*, once collected (part of them sup- 

 plied by the Carriage Builders' committee) and the fallacy of the 

 broad statement mentioned was fully demonstrated by a short series 

 of tests, and a more extensive study into structure and weight of 

 these materials. From these tests it appeared that pieces of wliite 

 oak from Arkansas excelled well-selected pieces from Connecticut 

 both in stiffness and en<lwise compression, the two most important 

 forms of resistance. 



One of the moot questions r.mong hickory men even now is in 

 reference to the relative value of northern and southern hickory. 

 The impression seems to prevail that southern hickorj- is more porous 

 and brittle than the wood from the North. The Forest Service made 

 a lot of tests on selected woods from different parts of the country 

 and these indicated that southern hickory is as tough and strong as 

 northern hickory of the same age. But the southern hickory has a 

 greater tendency to be shaky and this results in much wa.-ste. The 

 difference is not due to geographic location but to the character of 

 the timber being cut. Nearly all of that from southern river bottoms 

 and from the CHimberland mountains is from large, old-growth trees 

 while that from the North is from younger trees grown un^lcr more 

 favorable conditions. It is due simply to the greater age of the 

 southern trees that hickory from that region is lighter and more 

 brash than from the North. 



That in wood of similar character the advantage is not always to 

 the northern grown hickory is shown by the figures of strength. Big 

 sheUbark from Ohio had a moiluhis of rupture of 9,880 jiounds per 

 square inch while Mississippi shcllbark had a moilulus of rupture of 

 11,110 pounds. Pignut hickory from the South was of the same 

 strength as that of the North. Shagbark hickory from Mississippi 

 was followed closely by the West Virginia product, and both of them 

 were better in strength and toughness than similar material from Ohio 

 and Pennsylvania. 



Experiments on oak show interesting results. Red oak from 

 Arkansas exceeded red oak from Indiana but was itself distanced 

 in some respe^?ts by a Louisiana product. White oak from Arkansas 

 and Louisiana were about a tie but were excelled by the Indiana 

 material. Yellow oak from Wisconsin appears to be weaker than 

 that from Arkansas. These figures of course must not be taken as 

 conclusively demonstrating the superiority of the wood of one region 

 over that of another for wood is subject to such individual varia- 

 tions that as much difference ma.' be found in two trees ou the same 

 tract as l>etween those grown a thousand miles apart. They do 

 indicate very strongly that there is no sound basis for discrimination 



again.st southern hanhvoods merely because they are grown in the 

 South. 



When one stops to think of it the hardest woods of all grow in 

 the South. Lignuni-vitae, (|uebrscho (ax breaker ), black ironwood, 

 and a formidable list of others are tro])ical or sub-tropical. In fact 

 one often thinks of the tropical countries as producing only hard- 

 woods since these are the ones commonly found on the market for 

 cabinet i)urposes. Yet such is not the case, for the lightest woods 

 in the world grow there also. The lightest wood in the United States 

 is the corkwood found in Florida and the lower Mississippi valley. 

 Balsa wood of the West Indii-s and South America is the lightest 

 wood in the world, being lighter than true cork. On the other hand, 

 live oak, famous for ship-huihliug, one of the most exacting uses to 

 which wood could be subjected, is a southern wood. All of which 

 merely goes to prove that generalizations regarding the effect of 

 geographic location of the quality of wood are very subject to error. 



A point of greater iniijortance is the effect of the immediate locality 

 on the quality of the timber grown there. While it might appear 

 that the best timber would he grown on the best soil, such is not 

 always the case. In some regions there are man.v small, stunted 

 hickories which users will not touch. They have narrow sap, are 

 likely to be bird-pecked a"ud show very slow growth. Yet five of these 

 trees from a steep dry slope in AA'cst Virginia had an average strength 

 fully equal to that of the pignut from the better situation, and were 

 superior in toughness. The trees had twice as many rings per inch 

 (grew twice as slowly) as others from the better situations. This, 

 however, is not very significant, a;; trees of the same species, ige and 

 size, growing side by side under the same conditions of soil and 

 situation, show great vaiiation in their technical value. It is hard 

 to account for this ilifference but it seems that trees growing in wet 

 or moist situations are rather interior to those grown on fre^lier soil. 

 It is claimed too that ash grown iu the lowlands is inferior to that 

 produced ou the upland. 



From experiments on conifers the old Division of Forestiy of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture came to the following con- 

 clusions: "In both the Cuban and the longleaf j>ine the locality 

 of growth ajjpears to have but little influence on weight and 

 strength, and there is no reason to believe that the longleaf pine 

 from one state is better than that from any other, since such varia- 

 tions as are claimed can be found on any 40-acre lot of timber in 

 any state. But with loblolly and still niore with shortleaf this seems 

 not to be the ca.se. Being widely distributed over many localities dif- 

 ferent in soil and climate, the growth of the shortleaf pine seems ma- 

 terially influenced by location. I'he wood from the southern coast 

 and gulf region and even Arkausas is generally heavier than the wood 

 from localities farther north. Very light and very fine-grained is 

 seldom met with in the south >vn limit of the range, while it is almost 

 the rule in Missouri, where forms resembling the Norway pine are by 

 no means rare. The loblolly, oc(U|.ying both wet and dry soils, varies 

 accordingly. 



"It is clear that all localities have their heavy and their light tim- 

 ber so they all share in strong and weak, hard and soft material, 

 and the difference in quality of material is evidently far more a 

 matter of individual variation llian of soil or climate." S. J. R. 



The boosters of iron and concrete in building construction as a 

 safety from destruction by fire have yet to ilemonstrate its absolute 

 superiority over heavy timber in this capacity. A strikiug illustra- 

 tion of the inability of iron and concrete buildings to withstand 

 severe tires is found in the result of the fire which destroyed the 

 large new Philadelphia & Reading railroad pier at Catherine street 

 wharf, Philadelphia, on October 14. The pier was of the most 

 modern concrete and iron construction type, and although not en- 

 tirely comi)leteii was in use and fairly well stocke<l with freight. 

 The fire was a fierce one and the large iron girders, unable to with- 

 stand the excessive heat, evidently caused the whole strueture to 

 collapse. The loss is estimated at from $200,000 to .t2.50.000. 



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