Table 23 Concluded. 



CHESTNUT. 

 (Castanea dentata). 



Over 1,000 sawmills in Pennsylvania report the cut of chestnut, and the 

 production of this lumber exceeds that of any other hardwood cut in the 

 State. Manufacturers, classified among twenty-seven industries, report chest- 

 nut for nearly 200 separate and distinct uses. Though Pennsylvania is second 

 in importance in the production of chestnut lumber and annually cuts nearly 

 twice as much as the manufacturers consume, only forty per cent, of the total 

 quantity purchased was home-grown wood. The wood is coarse straight 

 grained, light weight, moderately strong and hard, very stiff and brittle, dur- 

 able when exposed, easily seasoned, and holds nails well. The wood is also 

 rich in tannin and is therefore largely used in making tannin extracts. Its 

 other valuable Qualities are ease in working, great porosity, stiffness, non- 

 elasticity, light weight, and brittleness. It has an attractive grain and a beau- 

 tiful figure, and therefore has lately grown in popularity for inside finish of 

 houses and buildings. Nearly two-thirds of the reported usage by manufactur- 

 ers in Pennsylvania is for these and other planing mill products. The largest 

 demand for chestnut is for rough forest products, as posts, telegraph poles, 

 cross ties, mine props and tanning extract. The growing tree is subject 'to at- 

 tacks by boring insects, which make the wood usually defective. Large 

 quantities of the chestnut lumber used in Pennsylvania, therefore, are of the 

 low grade known as "sound wormy" which shows the galleries of insect larvae, 

 but is otherwise sound. It is this grade which the box makers use in amounts 

 equal to more than twenty-three per cent, of the total , and it is this grade that 

 the furniture manufacturers and piano builders demand for veneer backing, 

 being light, holding its shape well, and with a special affinity for glue, and is 

 especially adapted for this purpose. The casket makers use chestnut ahead 

 of any other wood as experience has proved that this wood is one of the most 

 durable underground. The sound wormy grade is most frequently employed 

 as the injury by the borers does not seem to affect particularly its lasting 

 qualities. 



In recent years, the chestnut bark disease that has killed chestnut trees in 

 New York and southern New England has made great inroads on the stanfl 



