THE ASH 227 



bestir ourselves and do intensive cultivation or see the iinportant 

 industries that use ash lumber pinched by scarcity and consequent 

 higher prices or obliged to use inferior substitutes. 



Ash timber has such special uses that it is too valuable to be 

 used for ordinary construction purposes. These uses all depend 

 on its straightness of grain, elasticity, strength, hardness, and the 

 characteristic of wearing smooth with use. Among these special 

 uses the making of handles, which the layman might think unim- 

 portant, utilizes about 22 per cent of the total cut with a value of 

 about $2,000,000 annually. Next in importance has been the use 

 of ash for butter tub staves and other dairy supplies, which con- 

 sumes over 20 per cent of the annual cut. Vehicle manufacturers 

 take about 15 per cent, while planing mills use large amounts and 

 the manufacturers of boat oars consume about a quarter of a mil- 

 lion dollars worth of ash lumber every year. 



Next to spruce, ash is the most important wood used in aeroplane 

 construction. It enters into frames, outriggers, skids, rudders 

 and propellers. As recently as 1914 this use amounted to a trifling 

 percentage of the total annual cut but during the war and at the 

 present time this percentage must be much larger although I do 

 not have the figures. Ash, chiefly black ash, enters largely into 

 bent frame parts, as well as slats and splints for basketry. The 

 early settlers of New England learned from the Indians of the 

 region who had long practised it the art of making baskets of ash 

 splints and strips that lasted a lifetime. 



The production of Chinese or insect white wax (Peh-la) is, next 

 to agriculture or silkworm culture (sericulture), the most important 

 industry in certain parts of China (Szechuan). This wax is de- 

 posited by a scale insect of a species of ash {Fraxinus chinensis). 

 The insects are bred on a privet {Ligustrum lucidum) another 

 member of the family which does not grow in the immediate vicinity 

 of the ash plantations, so that the eggs must be carried rapidly by 

 coohes a distance of over 150 miles from privet to ash. This Chi- 

 nese wax is highly valued by the Chinese and since it does not melt 

 until a temperature is reached around 180° it makes exceedingly 

 valuable candles, but because of its price it is usually used merely 



