26 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



nearest the heart of the tree, is light, the outer part darker. The 

 light in color is the spring wood, the darker is the summer wood. 

 The naked eye is usually able to detect minute holes in the 

 wood of white oak. They look as though made with the point 

 of a pin. They are in the cross section; that is, the end of the 

 stick. Though they are visible without a lens, it is better to 

 examine them with a glass. A good spectacle lens will answer in 

 the absence of a tetter one. Thus magnified, the holes, which are 

 called pores, show quite distinctly in white oak. It will be 

 noticed at once that practically all of them are located in the 

 spring wood, which is the inner half of the ring. That part is 

 seen to be a mass of pores. They are almost as numerous as 

 .ells in honeycomb. Thus the spring wood of white oak, when 

 moderately magnified, is found to consist of pores, with woody 

 substance intervening. To the naked eye it looks like a light 

 .■olored band forming the inner half of the ring. 



Outside of the porous part the summer wood begins. The 

 unaided eye sees it as .a dark band. The lens shows that pores 

 are lacking. It seems to be solid wood. It is true that it eon- 

 tains pores, but they are very small. It should be borne in mind, 

 however, that the bands of spring and summer wood which com- 

 pose the annual ring are distinguished primarily by their differ- 

 ence in color, not by the abundance or scarcity of visible pores. 

 In white oak, and in most of the other oaks, it happens that the 

 light colored spring wood contains most of the pores, but that 

 rule does not hold for all woods. The dark color is an inherent 

 quality, and it exists without much regard to the arrangement of 

 pores. In fact, it is characteristic of soft woods as well as hard- 

 woods, and the former have no pores. 



The question will naturally be asked, "Is the study of spring 

 and summer wood of any practical advantage to the busy wood 

 worker, or is it a frul which is interesting only because it is 

 curious t" 



It is of practical advantage. The proportion between the spring 

 and summer wood determines, to a large degree, the strength oi 

 timber. Summer wood is strong, spring wood weak. The former 

 is heavy, the latter light. The comparative quantity of the two 

 lands determines the color of the wood to a considerable degree, 

 but it does not do it absolutely. If there is a large proportionate 

 amount of dark summer wood, the general tone of the lumber 

 will be dark; while much light-colored spring wood gives a light 

 color to the lumber. 



"White oak contain.'^ wide bands of dense, strong, dark-colored 

 summer wood, hence the limber is heavy, strong and dark. Com- 

 pare it for strength, color and weight with white pine and 

 spruce, which contain comparatively little summer wood, or with 

 basswood, cottonwood and buckeye, and a good idea can be had 

 of the practical part performed by spring and summer wood in 

 wood-using industries. White oak's chief value is in its strength 

 and beauty. As already stated, the strength is in the summer 

 wood; but the element of beauty is valuable also, and white oak 

 has it. 



It is the contrast between the different colors appearing in a 

 piece of white oak which makes it valuable for furniture making, 

 cabinet work and interior house finish. The contrast is due largly 

 but not wholly to the arrangement of the two colors of wood in 

 the annual rings. The medullary rays produce the bright silvery 

 ur golden patches brought out by quarter-sawing. They have 

 nothing to do with the spring and summer wood, except that they 

 occur alike. They will not be further considered here. Aside 

 from the medullar}' rays, oak has a pleasing figure. It is made 

 up of light and dark bands, at times very prominent, and again 

 obscure. They are the principal beauty of oak which has not been 

 quarter-sawed. The figure is produced by the rings of growth, 

 and the rings are visible because of the contrast between the light 

 and dark colored woods which they contain. 



White oak has been taken as an example because the two kinds 

 of wood are strongly contrasted in its annual rings. There are, 

 however, other species in which the contrast is nearly or quite as 

 pronounced. Among these are ash, sassafras, hickory and chest- 



nut as well as most of the other oaks. The southern yelloTT pine? 

 also exhibit the contrast in a high degree. 



In these species and in others like them, the summer wood's 

 darker color is prominent when the wood is polished. The finisher 

 understands how to accentuate the contrast by the use of "fillers.' ' 

 These are stains which are rubbed into the wood. It frequently 

 happens that the spring wood is very porous while the summer 

 growth is dense. By rubbing stains into the porous wood it may 

 be made darker than the dense summer bands into which the 

 stains do not penetrate readily. By that means the finisher may 

 greatly alter the appearance of a wood. lie takes advantage of 

 the difference in the texture of the spring and summer wood to 

 do it. Nature created a contrast there, but the workman mar 

 add to, take from and otherwise change it. 



The person who takes up the study of the arrangement of the 

 spring and summer woods in different species will find a good many 

 surprises. He will do well to begin with oak for the contrast is 

 strong there. Before the examination has gone far it will be 

 discovered that the annual rings would be invisible but for the 

 contrast between spring and summer wood. The contrast is all 

 there is to distinguish one annual ring from another. Take some 

 tropical wood where there is no change from spring to summer, 

 or from summer to autumn, and the yearly rings are invisible. 



Some woods do nearly all their growing early in the season, 

 and the band of summer wood is very narrow. It may resemble 

 a line no wider than a mark by a sharp-pointed pencil. In others 

 the change from early to late growth is so gradual that no precise 

 point can be selected for the ending of spring wood and the 

 Ijeginning of the summer growth. Cottonwood, white iiine, dog- 

 wood and many others arc of this kind. The annual ring is none 

 the less clearly delimited by the sharp contrast — a fine, dark line 

 in many cases, where the summer wood of one year meets the 

 spring wood of the year following. Maple and spruce belong iu 

 this class. The wood in them which is actually dark in color 

 forms a band so narrow that it resembles a hair line. The con- 

 trast between a wood like that and white oak, sassafras, ash, 

 locust, catalpa and walnut is very marked. The dark summer 

 wood band of one may be twenty times as broad as of another. 



Some woods are naturally so dark in all parts, exce|)t the sap, 

 that it might seem that contrast between early and late seasoned 

 growths would be lost. Such is not the case. The divisions 

 separating the annual tings are very sharp, but they are often 

 mere lines, with little breadth. The line, however, what there is 

 of it, is dark summer wood. Among species which exhibit that 

 arrangement are apple and pear, the redwood and the "big tree" 

 of California, black cherry, manzanita and many more. 



The practical wood-^Yorker has learned by experience how to bring 

 nut the best points in the wood with which he is familiar. He knows 

 how to develop contrasts to enhance beauty. He does it largely 

 by selecting species whose spring and summer woods suit his 

 purpose. The field is not yet fully covered. New species are coming 

 into use. Formerly a couple dozen species constituted the wood- 

 worker's stock in trade. Now a hundred will not com|ilcte the list. 

 AVhen a workman begins to experiment with a new wood, or 

 when an apprentice takes up the work to learn it, it is a gr?at 

 help to know as much as possible about the material. The study 

 of the construction of the annual ring is a good place to begin. 

 Therein lie the wood's color, hardness, strength and weight, and 

 a great deal can be found out by observation before actual experi- 

 ments in the use of the wood begin. A pocket lens, costing from 

 twenty-five cents to a dollar, will go a long way toward supply- 

 ing the needed apparatus. It will give a preliminary insight into 

 the structure of wood which can be constantly turned to practical 

 account. 



The Interstate Commerce Commission will hear the case of the 

 Michigan Hardwood Manufacturers' Association against the Trans- 

 Continental Freight Bureau in Chicago on January 8. This hearing 

 is the culmination of protracted efforts on the part of the Michigan 

 hardwood trade to obtain an equitable adjustment of rates to the 

 Pacific coast. 



