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An Easy Identification of the Oaks 



A great deal has been written about the identilication of the 

 oaks. The Forest Service issued a bulletin on the subject but it 

 was way over the heads of the men who have the most need of the 

 information. What is wanted is a simple and easy way of telling 

 white oaks from red or black oaks. Within these groups it is not 

 very important, as a rule, to know the species. This is fortunate, 

 for not even the experts with all their refinements of laboratory 

 methods can make specific identification of the oak woods with any 

 degree of certainty. 



There are several characters distinguishing one group from the 

 other but there are so many exceptions that any single feature 

 may prove misleading. Take for instance tyloses, the froth-like tissue 

 that plugs up some of the pores. They are commonly associated with 

 white oaks but they may be absent in the sapwood, and may be 

 present in abundance in the red oaks. Associated with this is the 

 blowing test. You can blow through red oak wood but not through 

 white oak — sometimes. This may help a little with small pieces but 

 is largely dependent upon tyloses which may or may not be present 

 in woods of either group. At best it is an unsatisfactory test. 



There is one sure test with the compound microscope, using very 

 thin sections across the grain. Such sections can be cut with a 

 sharp pocket knife, 



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wniTE OAK. — PORES IN SUMMERWOOD 

 SMALL, INDISTINCT AND TOO MANY TO 

 COUNT UNDER MAGNIFIER. 



and if one has a 

 big microscope and 

 knows how to use it, 

 satisfactory results 

 can always be ob- 

 tained. The thing to 

 look for is the char- 

 acter of the pores 

 out in the summer- 

 wood. They have 

 thick walls and are 

 round in red oaks, 

 but are thin walled 

 and angular in the white oaks. At least one firm that the writer knows 

 of has gone so far as to equip its inspectors with compound micro- 

 scopes which they are taught how to use in aU cases of doubt. 



But such methods are too refined, slow and expensive to appeal 

 to most wood users and dealers, and it is to aid the ninety and nine 

 that the following simple and sure test has been developed. The 

 writer has tried it out repeatedly upon oak woods of every kind 

 available and from all parts of the country and has checked his 

 findings with careful laboratory methods and the test holds. Southern 

 oaks prove exceptions to many of the usual rules applied in northern 

 oaks, but by the present method are readily and positively classified 

 in a minute. 



This test makes use of the one constant feature used by experts 

 with the compound microscope, but the only equipment necessary is 

 a pocket knife and a small hand lens or pocket magnifier. Everybody 

 possesses a knife and the lens can be purchased at any optical goods 

 store for from fifty cents to a dollar. It will pay to get one costing 

 upwards of a dollar and made to fold so as to slip into the vest or 

 watch pocket. A good pocket lens is no bigger than the end of the 

 finger. The only requirement for the knife is that it be sharj). If 

 it is not sharp it will tear or crush the pores of the wood and obscure 

 the structure so that the essential features can't be made out. A 

 knife with a rounded edge is better than a razor as the blade of the 

 latter is too thm to withstand cutting hard oak without nicking. 



With the sharp kuifc cut off a portion of the rough surface of the 

 end of the wood in question.. The area thus smoothed off need not 

 exceed half an inch square and if the wood is green it will cut very 

 readily. It is best to choose a growth ring of considerable width 

 where possible because a narrow ring of oak is composed mostly of 

 large pores of the springwood and this test is not interested in them. 

 What is wanted is a good view of the small pores in the darker and 

 harder band of summerwood. 



These are the lines of pores to look at with thg hand lens. 



If you look at this band of summerwood with the naked eye you 

 will see that there are lighter colored patches or lines running 

 somewhat irregularly across it, sometimes appearing like tiny flames. 

 It is at these that you want to look closely with the magnifier. The 

 man who has had no experience with a small lens uses it as he 

 would a reading glass; he puts it near the object but looks at it 

 from a distance. The proper way is to put the eye right up to the 

 lens and then get the object in focus. This means getting the wood 

 about even with the tip of your nose. If you never tried this before 

 you will be surprised how much more you can see and how much 

 plainer you can see it than when the eye is at a reading distance. 



Now look at the pores in the summerwood, not the big ones in 

 the springwood, mind. Are these summerwood pores distinctf Can 

 you see into them readily? Can you count them readily? If so, you 

 are looking at a piece of wood of one of the red or black oaks. 

 If on the other hand these small pores are indistinct, if you cannot 

 see into them, or if there are so many of them that it is impossible 

 to count them, then (assuming that the cut is a smooth one) you are 

 looking at a white oak. If your cutting has been poor it wiU show 

 up under the lens and the thing to do is to repeat the process until 

 a smooth surface is made, whetting the knife meanwhile. In southern 



white oaks of rapid 



RED OR BLACK OAK.— FORES IN SUM 

 MERWOOD LARKER. DISTINCT AND READ 

 ILY COUNTED UNDER MAGNIFIER. 



growth it will prob- 

 ably be found that 

 the pores in Ihe sum- 

 merwood are distinct 

 enough to be seen 

 individually; in fact, 

 this may be the case 

 with rapidly grown 

 white oak in the 

 North. In this event 

 try to count the 

 pores. In a white 

 oak there appear to 

 in the red oaks there are usually 



be scores or even hundreds of them 

 less than a dozen in an irregular row. 



This whole process is even more simple than it sounds and after 

 a little practice anyone should be able at a single glance through the 

 lens to tell a piece of white oak from a piece of red or black oak. 

 The way to practice is to take specimens the identity of which is 

 certain. Prom these the essential features are obtained. Compare 

 others with them; a half -hour's practice should permit anyone to 

 solve any oak separation problem that may come up, unless perchance 

 the particular species or variety is wanted, which is another story 

 altogether. S. J. E. 



Virginia uses more wood for boxes and crates than any other state, 

 followed by New York, Illinois, Massachusetts and California, in the 

 order named. 



Apple wood, used almost exclusively for saw handles, also fur- 

 nishes the material for many so-called brier-wood pipes and par- 

 ticularly for the large wooden type used in printing signs and posters. 



Experiences with forest fires on the national forests this year show 

 that automobiles, where they can be used, furnish the quickest and 

 cheapest transportation for crews of fire fighters. Motor rates are 

 higher than those for teams for the actual time employed, but the 

 total cost per distance traveled and in wages paid to men in getting 

 to fires is much less. The time-saving is self-evident; trips which 

 ordinarily require two days' time by team have been made by auto- 

 mobile in a few hours. 



Although there were an unusual number of forest fires on the 

 national forests of Oregon and Washington this year, the loss of 

 merchantable timber has been relatively small. 



