30 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



even if you use very short pieces. One need not look further to 

 find why the cooper prefers white oak to red for tight barrels. 

 The tyloses plug up very effectively what otherwise would be holes 

 through which liquids would escape. 



Tyloses also make wood harder to treat with preservatives. 

 Seasoning makes wood much more penetrable by slitting the cell 

 walls but tyloses even in seasoned wood retard the entrance of 

 liquids. In like manner seasoning progresses more slowly since 

 the natural outlets for the air and moisture are closed. 



What are tyloses and why are they mostly absent from the sap- 

 wood? To understand the answer to this question It is necessary 

 to be fairly familiar with wood structure. The pores one sees on 

 the end of a stick are the cross sections of vessels which run 

 tube-like from root to leaf. They carry the sap in an upward 

 direction. It is only in the sap-wood that they are active and as 

 the sap-wood undergoes change into heart they lose their sap con- 

 tents and contain only air. 



Surrounding or at least in contact with these vessels are cells 

 known as wood parenchyma. They appear lighter in color than 

 the fibers and make up the delicate parallel lines one sees so 

 plainly in the outer portions of the growth rings of hickory and 

 oak. It is their business to store up food over winter and give it 

 up again in the spring when growth begins. This plant food is 

 made in the leaves, comes down in the inner bark, passes into the 

 wood by way of the rays, and what is not needed for immediate 

 growth is stored in the rays or in the wood parenchyma as just 

 stated. 



When vessels lose their contents they are practically dead. 

 The surrounding parenchyma cells live a great deal longer and 



it is very common for them to grow into the empty vessels thereby 

 obtaining more room for food storage. Entrance is gained through 

 the pits which are unthickened places in the walls, and once in- 

 side, the bladder-like cells divide and grow until the whole vessel 

 is densely plugged or the food supply runs out making further 

 storage room unnecessary. 



It is evident that this cannot happen ordinarily when the ves- 

 sels are filled up with sap. The pressure of this sap keeps the 

 neighboring cells from breaking in. Consequently tlie sap-wood 

 and especially the outer portions of it which are most active, has 

 open pores while the heart-wood of the same piece may have every 

 vessel plugged up completely. 



It is not fully understood just why tyloses should be formed so 

 abundantly in one wood as in white oak, and less so or not at all 

 in another as red oak. It is possible that the thickness of the 

 vessel walls may have something to do with it in the case of the 

 oaks for in the red oak group the vessels are thicker-walled as a 

 rule than those of the white oak group. This is particularly the 

 case of the small vessels of the late wood, and forms the most 

 dependable of all distinctions in separating woods of the two 

 groups. 



Seen under a compound microscope the small pores of any white 

 oak are thin-walled and angular, while on the other hand those 

 of the red, black, and evergreen oaks are thick-walled and circu- 

 lar or nearly so. The presence of abundant tyloses in the white 

 oaks and their absence or scarcity for the most part from the 

 other oaks form a fairly reliable distinguishing feature but should 

 not be relied upon too strongly. 



S. J. R. 



Si a^t;;iia^m«iOTiroaaittm!mKi;iiTO!iimytm^ 



Tales of the Trade 



HATED TO LEAVE 



The day after the Fourth, Bob Hasslen, representative of the 

 W. P. Brown & Sons Lumber Company of Louisville, Ky., and 

 Dickson, Tenn., attended the ball game at St. Paul and owing to 

 lack of excitement and close plays, did not find it necessary to 

 rise from his seat. 



When the game was over and he made an attempt, he found that 

 the hot weather had fried out the pitch in the bleacher seat and 

 it became necessary to call for the services of a couple of policemen 

 to disengage him and this was only accomplished at the expense 

 of a necessary portion of his new trousers. 



Mr. Hasslen states that he wrapped his coat around him until he 

 could reach a "retail" trouser store, where a choice and excellent 

 job of retailing was done. 



He further states that his wife has cautioned him to be careful 

 in, scratching matches for the next few days to prevent accidental 

 combustion. 



UNOSTENTATIOUS CHARLES 



During the flood of a few weeks ago Chafles Eansom of the Gayosa 

 Lumber Company of Memphis was in Cairo looking after some of 

 the stock at that point. A few weeks later Wick Eansom of the same 

 company was in Cairo and on riding out to his company's yard 

 engaged in conversation with the street car conductor, who men- 

 tioned seeing Mr. Agler of XJpham & Agler and several other promi- 

 nent lumbermen, and stated that he had also seen and talked with 

 another man from Memphis. Upon being asked if his name was 

 Eansom, he replied : ' ' Oh, yes ; that is the man ; he is Upham & 

 Agler 's inspector, yon know. ' ' 



' ' Wick ' ' thought this was a pretty good joke and whenever the 

 Memphis water becomes unfit to quench his thirst he hunts up 

 ' ' Upham & Agler 's inspector, ' ' wlio does tlie honors. 

 HIT THE WRONG PLACE 



"When I was a boy," said John Love of Love, Boyd & Co., of 

 Nashville, Tenn., "I was a holy terror 'throwing rocks,' as they say 



down South. I remember one time starting out of our yard and see- 

 ing a commotion in our cherry tree; it looked like birds after the 

 cherries, though I had my suspicion otherwise, and I immediately 

 put into practice my favorite stunt, putting a good round rock in the 

 center of the tree. This was followed by a terrific commotion and 

 down came old ' Silas, ' an old darkey who worked at our house, and 

 tor a couple of weeks he carried his arm in a bandage. Of course, 

 I did not know that the stone would hit his arm instead of his head; 

 therefore I did not feel responsible for his injuries, but you know 

 accidents will happen. ' ' 



THE WRONG CONNECTION 



Ted Jones, Minneapolis representative of the G. W. Jones Lumber 

 Company, is said to have had a very novel experience recently in 

 one of the leading hotels which he calls his home. When sleeping 

 soundly at about seven o 'clock in the morning he was awakened by 

 a stream of cold water striking him squarely in the face, and accord- 

 ing to his report he cleared the footboard at the first jump. Seeing 

 something was wrong with the faucet of the stationary washstand, he 

 attempted to turn the water off, when the whole connection broke 

 loose, immersing him in both hot and cold water. He claims he made 

 a break for the telephone, requesting immediate assistance, and 

 within thirty seconds a man was at his door knocking for admittance. 



It seems that the hotel "handy man" happened to be on the floor 

 on which his room is located; otherwise "Ted" is certain that he 

 would have drowned out, and he states that for once in his life he 

 was in the care of a special Providence. 



It is a whole lot easier to argue about the difference between 

 oak and oak than it is to unerringly distinguish the different mem- 

 bers of the family after they have been cut up ready to serve to 

 the trade. 



It is during times like the past six months when the demand 

 exceeds the production of lumber that the average millman is 

 strongest in his belief that the lumber wholesaler and commission 

 man does not earn his share. 



