44 



Table 27. Consumption of Basswood, year ending June, 1912. 



BIRCHES. 



Three species of birch are of commercial importance in Pennsylvania. They 

 are sweet or cherry birch, in Pennsylvania often called black birch (Betula 

 lento, ), well distributed throughout the State; yellow birch (Betula lutea) , 

 found mainly on altitudes associated with beech, maple, ash, and elm; and 

 that called red or river birch (Betula nigra) , of little commercial impor- 

 tance, inhabiting the banks of streams and rivers in all parts of the State. 

 In 1912, the cut of birch in Pennsylvania exceeded by nearly 8,000,000 feet the 

 quantity of State-grown lumber reported by the manufacturers, these fac- 

 tories drawing forty-three per cent, of their requirements from the producing 

 regions of other States, principally New York and Vermont. Sweet birch 

 lumber can be identified by the fact that its sapwood is nearly white and its 

 heartwood red or nearly black. It is a fine wood, hard and strong, easily 

 worked, takes a high polish, due, it is claimed, to the bright lining of the 

 wood cells, and takes stains readily, which allows its use in imitation of more 



