COMMERCIAL USES OF TULIP OR YELLOW POPLAR 



837 



YELLOW POPLAR AS A VENEER 



Here is shown a particularly fine specimen of rotary cut yellow poplar veneer, one-eighth of an inch thick, 10 feet wide and 30 feet long. It 



is to be used as a ceiling panel for an electric street railway car. 



Builders of log houses and barns used some yellow 

 poplar, but it was not considered better than many other 

 timbers for that purpose. Its straight trunk was attract- 

 ive, but oak was usually most convenient and was oftener 

 taken. Nor was poplar a favorite fence rail material, though 

 sometimes used. It was too brittle, and in splitting was 

 apt to break across the grain. Oak and chestnut were 

 better. It was due to that fact that many noble poplars 

 remained on the borders of farmlands until the days of 

 sawmills. The wood was never extensively used as fuel. 

 If in small pieces, it burns too quickly; if in large billets, 

 there is little blaze after the surface becomes charred. 



It has held its place for nearly three centuries as the 

 favorite wood for tobacco hogsheads. Before the days 

 of railroads and steamboats, and to some extent, after, 

 tobacco trade and transportation were peculiar. The 

 commodity was bulky, and its carriage from the plan- 

 tation to the wharf or market was a serious problem. 

 The necessities of the case developed the hogshead as the 

 receptacle for storing and vehicle of transportation. It 

 was rolled to market between two shafts, fixed by pivots 

 like the wheel of a wheelbarrow. A horse harnessed 

 between the shafts did the work. The warehouse in 

 Maryland and Virginia was a "rolling house," known 

 almost exclusively by that name in colonial statutes and 

 trade literature. 



Yellow poplar, as the tobacco hogshead wood, played 

 an important part in the industrial development of 

 several States. Heads and staves were poplar, but the 

 hoops were usually oak or hickory. In early times the 

 lumber was sawed and worked by hand, but small saw- 

 mills gradually came in and supplied the trade. The 

 custom of selling tobacco often necessitated knocking 

 down and setting up the hogsheads a number of times, 

 and they met hard usage. At the place of sale, the hoops 

 were cut, and the staves lifted away to expose the tobacco 

 to view. If not sold, the hogshead was set up again to 

 await the next sale day. This was repeated until a sale 

 was made. The same staves and headings were used 

 each time, but new hoops were required. 



Before high prices barred it, poplar was employed in 

 rough construction. Shingles lasted well, and laths were 

 extensively used. Forty or fifty years ago carpenters pre- 

 ferred it for rafters, joists, plates, and upper portions 

 of houses because it was light. Many old houses, par- 

 ticularly in Xew York and Pennsylvania, were made that 

 way. Oak, walnut, chestnut, locust or some other timber 

 considered more durable in damp situations went into 

 sleepers, sills, floors near the ground, and foundations. 

 Ir: those days carpenters often used larger and more 

 numerous timbers than durability and safety required. 



