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HARDWOOD RECORD 



AMERICAN FOREST TREES. 



American or Gray Elm. 



Vim us Americana. — Linn. 

 The habitat of this tree extends over the 

 greater part of the United States. It is 

 found in nearly every state east of the Bock; 

 Mountains. It ranges from Newfoundland 

 to Floi^-a and westward intermittently to Da- 

 kota, Nebraska, and south to Texas. It is 

 very common in the Northeast, where it is 

 one of the most familiar trees, and 

 in the New England states it has 

 been planted along the streets of 

 villages and towns and used in 

 landscape decoration almost from 

 the earliest settlement times. In 

 this respect its use is very success- 

 ful, owing to the fact that it grows 

 quickly, has a graceful form, and 

 is one of the first trees to blossom 

 in the spring. 



In the New England and Middle 

 Atlantic states it is known as elm, 

 American elm and white elm; as 

 water elm in Mississippi, Texas, Ar- 

 kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa; as 

 gray elm in Michigan, Ohio, Wis- 

 consin, Minnesota and Nebraska. In 

 Louisiana it is called orme inaigre. 

 It is known variously also as 

 swamp elm and rock elm, but of 

 course it is not the true" rock elm. In 

 some regions it is called the orham 

 tree, a name possibly derived from 

 the French orme, meaning elm. 



The American elm is a tall, grace- 

 ful, wide-spreading tree, seventy- 

 five to one hundred and twenty-five 

 feet high, usually of symmetrical 

 vase shape, with slender limbs and 

 pendulous twigs. Its trunk is oc- 

 casionally three feet in diameter 

 and often free of branches to the 

 height of sixty feet. The branches 

 are short, stout and spreading, 

 forming a narrow, round topped 

 head." Besides this appearance, 

 there are trees of this species which 

 present what is called the "oak- 

 tree form" — wider and broader 

 than the vase form and suggestive 

 of the ample crown of the oak. The 

 outline, however, is only suggestive, 

 for the limbs are curved and never 

 angular and tortuous, like those of 

 the oak. 



Its leaves are simple, alternate, 

 with smooth petioles, and oval or 

 obovate. They are from two to six 

 inches long, unequal at the base, with parallel 

 ribs. If a branch of the tree that faces the 

 sun is' broken off, it will be observed that 

 the leaves twist and turn in an effort to pre- 

 sent an unbroken surface of green. This 

 phenomenon is known as a "leaf mosaic" 

 is not confined entirely to the elm, as 

 any roadside thicket shows the same habit 

 in all its species. 



FORTY-FIRST PAPER. 



The flowers appear in March before the 

 leaves. In color they are greenish red and 

 are inconspicuous. They appear on long, 

 slender, drooping pedicels, sometimes one foot 

 in length, and are in three or four-flowered 

 short-stalked faseiles. The fruit comes in 

 May and is smooth, oval, with a thin, circular 

 wing, notched above to the nutlet. The bark 

 is a thick, ashy gray, divided by deep fis- 



TYPICAL FOREST GROWTH AMERICAN 

 ELM, VILAS COUNTY, WIS. 



sures into broad ridges separating on the 

 surface into thin appressed scales. The wood 

 is heavy, hard, strong and tough. It is 

 coarse-grained and light brown, with thick, 

 somewhat lighter colored sapwood. It is 

 durable in water and soil. The weight of a 

 cubic foot of the seasoned wood is forty 

 pounds. 



In reply to some queries concerning gray 



elm a foremost Michigan operator advises 

 that this wood is the softest wood remaining 

 in Michigan since the exhaustion of white 

 pine, save basswood. Deals four to six 

 inches thick are quite frequently manufac- 

 tured entirely free from knots and shake. The 

 general defects in gray elm are very similar 

 to those of yellow poplar. The wood has not 

 the strength of rock elm but a very high type 

 of lumber is obtained from it, and 

 it is used extensively by furniture 

 factories, refrigerator manufactur- 

 ers and builders of billiard tables, 

 bar fixtures, etc. 



The writer further advises that 

 the highest type of gray elm is 

 found in the northern portion of 

 the lower peninsula of Michigan. 

 He says that the trees grow large 

 and tall and the texture of the wood 

 is very Soft and smooth, while in 

 some gray elm sections the grain 

 is tougher and quite stringy and 

 the lumber does not bring as much 

 in the market by from two to four 

 dollars a thousand. In the region 

 noted, the trees grow from two to 

 five feet in diameter at the butt, 

 and from fifty to seventy-five feet 

 to the eroteh, with branches usu- 

 ally so large that each produces a 

 log. The grain of gray elm is quite 

 similar to that of black ash, but 

 not so pronounced, and it has much 

 more breaking strength. Gray elm 

 makes a very satisfactory interior 

 finish and can be toned to any de- 

 sired color that is not lighter than 

 the natural color of the wood, which 

 is about the same tone as white oak. 

 The correspondent further notes 

 that a tally of upwards of 500,000 

 feet of gray elm lumber recently 

 manufactured by his house, under 

 inspection showed twenty-nine per 

 cent of firsts and seconds, forty-one 

 per cent of Nos. 1 and 2 common, 

 and thirty per cent of No. 3 com- 

 mon. While in this case the Nos. 1 

 ami 2 common were piled together, 

 it showed under a division of these 

 two grades about sixty per cent of 

 No. 1 and forty per cent of No. 2. 



The half-tone engraving with 

 which this article is illustrated is 

 from a photograph made by the 

 editor of the Hakdwood Record in 

 the timber holdings of the Hackley- 

 Phelps-Bonnell Company in Vilas county, 

 Wisconsin. 



Gray elm in the past has not met the appre- 

 ciation its high qualities warrant. It can be 

 produced in good widths, has a large pro- 

 portion of high grade, and is well nigh as 

 soft in texture as poplar. For wood substi- 

 tutes elm at present prices should be very sat- 

 isfactory for many purposes. 



