OUTLOOK FOR FUTURE SUPPLY. 57 



DEFECTS. 



Iron streaks and birdpecks of small size do not appear to affect the 

 strength or toughness of hickory. Hair checks are usually found 

 in the heavier and better timber, and have but little effect upon the 

 strength and toughness. Cross and spiral grain and dips in grain are 

 all serious defects, and greatly reduce strength and toughness. The 

 weakening effect of knots is due chiefly to the cross grain which they 

 cause. 



OUTLOOK FOB FUTURE SUPPLY. 



A shortage in the hickory supply is imminent. Virgin hickory, 

 which has hitherto furnished the chief supply, is disappearing rapidly, 

 and there are no foreign sources which can be drawn upon when the 

 home supplies are exhausted. It will soon be necessary, therefore, 

 to depend entirely upon the second growth. The maintenance of the 

 supply is of vital concern, because no satisfactory substitute has as 

 yet been found. 



Forest owners, with some justice, regard the hickories as inferior 

 trees, but there is one important consideration in their favor; large 

 sizes are not required. With oak, black walnut, black cherry, yellow 

 poplar, and other important hardwood trees, there is a great increase 

 in value with size, because the heartwood is most valuable and timber 

 of large dimensions is needed. But with hickory, the only increase 

 in value with size comes from the increased number or size of the 

 clear billets or strips which can be obtained from a tree. Sap wood 

 is now preferred to heartwood and the younger and faster-grown 

 material is tougher than the older and the slower grown. For most 

 of its uses hickory can be cut when it is 8 or 9 inches in diameter and 

 from 40 to 60 years old, while oak generally must be from 18 to 20 

 inches in diameter and from 100 to 120 years old. Even hickory, 

 however, can not be cut so early as can catalpa and black locust for 

 fence posts, cottonwood and yellow poplar for pulp, chestnut for ties 

 and poles, and white .pine for box boards, and all of these grow faster 

 than hickory. Moreover, the yield of hickory per acre, as is usual 

 with trees which produce a hard, heavy wood, is comparatively low. 



For similar sites and areas, the total volume production of white 

 pine is at least three times that of hickory; of catalpa, yellow poplar, 

 and chestnut at least twice as much as hickory; and of ash, black 

 walnut, and white oak at least from one-third to one-half more. 

 Then, too, the demands of the . hickory trade are very exacting. 

 Generally less than half the total volume is used, whereas, with white 

 pine and other conifers the utilization is very close; in New England, 

 for instance, more than 90 per cent of the total volume of white pine 

 is used. Even the other hardwoods, such as chestnut, white ash, and 

 yellow poplar, are utilized more closely than hickory. Yet present 

 prices do not take these facts into account, and even at the compara- 



