FORESTRY AND CONSERVATION 433 



found in pure stands. In the Florida hummocks the chief associates 

 of cedar are live oak, hickory, magnolia, red gum, and palmetto. 

 Among these, cedar once grew to large size, but excessive cutting has 

 taken out most of the large trees, leaving seedlings and saplings scat- 

 tered beneath a dense cover of hardwoods and vines, where the young 

 growth, notwithstanding its tolerance, has little chance for develop- 

 ment. On the uplands farther north the principal associates are 

 oaks, hickory, and elm. Only rarely is it found with pine. Among 

 the hardwoods, cedar often forms from 50 to 60 per cent of the stand, 

 and this proportion, under normal conditions, is increasing. 



Distillation Wood. The woods used are largely beech, birch, 

 and maple, with the last preferred. The wood is cut into cordwood 

 lengths and allowed to season for a year. According to the best 

 information, the amount of the products obtained from green wood 

 and from ordinary dry wood is not different, cord for cord, but the 

 higher water content of green wood dilutes the distillate and ne- 

 cessitates more fuel for the carbonization. Excessive seasoning will 

 doubtless reduce the yield of valuable constituents. Body wood is 

 better than slab wood. Very small wood, such as thin edgings, car- 

 bonizes so rapidly that it must be mixed with larger pieces. The 

 problem of the destructive distillation of sawdust has not yet been 

 satisfactorily solved. (F. S. Cir. 114.) 



Dyewoods. The most important trees sold in the United States 

 for dyewood are the osage orange or hedge-tree, and the prickly 

 ash. The osage orange is native to the rich bottom lands of south- 

 ern Arkansas and westward to Oklahoma and Texas. It has been, 

 planted extensively throughout the eastern and central United States 

 and is largely cultivated for hedges. By some it is claimed to be su- 

 perior to fustic or true dyewood. The prickly ash ranges from southern 

 Virginia to Florida and westward to Texas. The woods of the fol- 

 lowing species of semitropical Florida and the West Indies have 

 appeared as substitutes for fustic or true-dyewood : Espino ; yellow- 

 wood; satinwood; and wild lime. 



Medicinal Barks. The American trees and shrubs furnishing 

 medicinal barks are the white pine, tamarack, aspen, white willow, 

 bayberry, butternut, ironwood, sweet birch, tagalder, white oak, slip- 

 pery elm, magnolia, tulip-poplar, sassafras, spicebush, witch-hazel, 

 blackberry, American mountain-ash, wild cherry, prickly ash, wa- 

 fer-ash black alder, wahoo, false bittersweet, horse-chestnut, cascara 

 sagrada, dogwood, moosew r ood, white ash, fringe-tree, bittersweet, 

 buttonbush, cramp-bark tree, and black haw. (B. P. I. Bui. 139.) 



Nuts. Considerable activity has manifested itself in compar- 

 atively recent years relative to the commercial culture of chestnuts. 

 The steady demand for the large nuts and the ready sale of these 

 in competition with smaller sorts has stimulated their systematic 

 culture, especially in the utilization of waste forest lands, as a sup- 

 plementary crop for farmers. Chestnuts are found native in Amer- 

 ica from Maine on the North to Michigan and Tennessee on the 

 West, and Louisiana and Georgia on the South. The hickory nut, 

 under which general name is included the nuts of several species 



