HARDWOOD RECORD 



THE STORY OF 



YELLOW POPLAR 



Illustrations from Photographs by Editor Hardwood Record 



In November last the editor of Hardwood Record received an invitation from 

 C. JI. Crawford, secretary and treasurer of the Yellow I^oplar Lumber Company 

 of Coal Grove, O., to visit himself and Leon Isaacson, vice-president of the com- 

 pany. The invitation was accepted. As a result of the conference, Messrs. Isaac- 

 son and Crawford, accompanied by the writer and several other guests, left Ash- 

 land. Ky., on the morning of Monday, November 15, for a trip to the company's 

 limber and logging operations in Dickenson county, Virginia. On this tour it 

 was arranged that the editor of Hardwood Record should prepare and write 

 a. series of illustrated stories telling of poplar timber growth, the history and 

 development of the poplar industry up to the present time, and specifically recite 

 the details of the operations of this foremost yellow poplar manufacturing house 

 — the I'ellow Poplar Lumber Company. 



The trip was an intensely interesting one. and a series of articles reciting not 

 only the details of this trip, but giving also a general history and analysis of the 

 poplar industry, in which special reference will be made to the wonderful opera- 

 tions of the Yellow Poplar Lumber Company will appear in this publication. — 

 Editor. ] 



.\ i'lllX SAP MATURE YELLOW POPLAR. 



CHAPTER I 



Yellow poplar, or wliitewood as it is com- 

 monly called in the eastern sections of the 

 United States, is tlie most esteemed and the 

 highest-priced American hardwood. From a 

 physical viewpoint it is not a hardwood, but 

 it is among the broad-leaved trees and is 

 commercially classed with the hardwoods and 

 IS manufactured and marketed by that branch 

 (if the lumber trade. 



Yellow poplar has been recognized as a 

 high-class wood for many purposes since the 

 earliest days of lumbering in this country. 

 It has continued to advance in value follow- 

 ing the extinction of high grade white pine 

 timber of large size, owing to the fact that 

 it is adaptable to nearly every purpose for 

 which white pine was formerly employed and 

 for many uses where white pine was not re- 

 garded as valuable. Commercially, yellow 

 poplar is the natural successor of high-grade 

 cork pine lumber. 



The original growth of this wood extended 

 from southern Ontario to Ehode Island and 

 west to Lake Michigan; throughout Michigan 

 as far north as the Grand rivor; south to 

 Florida, southern Alabama and Mississippi, 

 and west of the Mississippi river in south- 

 ea.«teru Missouri and adjacent Arkansas. 



The physical characteristics of the wood are 

 as follows: Weight, 26i-> to SSVi pounds to 

 the cubic foot. It is without smell or taste. 

 The grain is very fine, but spongy; it splits 

 with a clean edge ; the surface is dull, the lit- 

 tle luster being due to the shining pores. 



The bark is very thick, often as much as 

 one inch, and is in two layers. The inner 

 layer is much like the sapwood and is about 

 one-quarter of an inch in thickness in old 

 growth, and nearly white in color. The outer 

 bark is of a dull gray color; is corky and 

 ileeply fissured. The heartwood of poplar in 

 its highest development is canary-color, run- 

 ning to white, greenish, gray or brown, in 

 various environments, in different localities. 



and upon varying soil. The highest and most 

 esteemed quality of poplar is canary colored, 

 the thin sapwood of which is white to brown- 

 ish in tone. 



The rings of growth of poplar are clear on 

 account of the very fine boundary line of 

 autumn wood. The contour of the tree is 

 round and somewhat undulating, and there is 

 a slight difference in the color of the spring 

 and autumn wood. 



The leaves of the poplar tree are of marked 

 shape, and once identified can never be mis- 

 taken. The flower is also unusual and very 

 beautiful. The leaves vary from three to 

 eight inches in length. In the springtime, 

 when the tulip-like flowers of this tree are in 

 bloom, it is truly a beautiful sight. 



Botanieally, poplar is of the family Magiio- 

 liacew, genus Liriodendron and species tu- 

 Upifera. The tree is a native of America and 

 the sole surviving species of its genus. In 

 shape it is dull and round, with spreading 

 branches. In height it ranges from sixty to 

 one hundred ninety feet. It blooms tVom 

 April to May. The fruit ripens in September 

 and October, these features depending on the 

 latitude' or compensating altitude of its 

 growth. 



In size the trees vary from the sapling to 

 five, six, seven, eight, up to as high as nine 

 feet in diameter at the base and are the 

 largest trees that grow in the United States 

 east of the Eocky Mountains. The wood is 

 therefore obtainable iu large-sized planks. It 

 is comparatively free from tree diseases, and 

 hence boards of extreme width, from seven- 

 teen inches to often even as high as sixty 

 inches are obtainable in the process of manu- 

 facture. 



Poplar never grows in a pure stand, that is 

 it never constitutes a comprehensive forest 

 growth. Ordinarily one tree to an acre is 

 regarded as a good stand in what is known 

 as poplar timber area. In long years of 

 woods cruising, the greatest number of poplars 

 ever encountered by the writer in a single 



