838 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



and they put the light wood above to lessen the weight on 

 the lower i)arts. 



MANUKACTL'RK OF YELLOW POPLAR 



The drain upon yellow poplar began when sawmills 

 sought, cut and sold it to meet the popular demand. No 

 exact time can be mentioned as the commencement of 

 that trade, but it followed white pine in regions where 

 both grew because builders preferred pine. 



Yellow poplar is surpassed in size by no eastern tree, 

 and this has been one of its chief advantages in holding 

 its ground in competition with cheaper lumber. It yields 

 the longest, clearest planks of all .\merican hardwoods. 

 This is due to its habits of growth. It goes straight up 



became so great that he could not command the capital 

 to carry on the business, wealthy companies took it up. 

 They bought tracts or stumpage, built railroads and 

 mills and worked on a large scale. Some made a spe- 

 cialty of yellow poplar; others took it out with other 

 kinds. Perhaps more culling from other timber has 

 been done to procure poplar than any other wood except 

 black walnut. 



Size of planks is not the only prop- 

 erty which commends yellow poplar to 

 many uses. It is soft and easily 

 worked; it is light; its color is hand- 

 some; it polishes nicely, does not warp 



A TYPICAL YELLOW POPLAR BOARD 



This is 16 feet long and 30 inches wide and was made from timber cut in the low Appalachian Mountains. The picture was furnished by Mr. 

 F. S. Underbill, of Wistar, Underbill & Nixon, of Philadelphia, and was taken in the firm's lumber yard at Basic City. 



to the light over the tops of other trees with which it 

 is associated, and early in life gets rid of all unnecessary 

 branches. The wood laid on year by year is clear of 

 knots, or nearly so. The tree is seriously damaged by 

 no insect pests, and is remarkably free from windshake 

 and frost cracks. Though sensitive to fire, its preference 

 for damp cover has in a measure saved it from injury, 

 because forest fires are slow there. The logs are sawed 

 in wide, first-class stuff, which goes to choice markets. 

 Boards 18 inches wide are not unusual with mills making 

 a specialty of poplar, and twice that width and more are 

 occasionally put on markets which demand them. 



Sometimes a yellow poplar, by reason of growing in 

 unfavorable soil, develops peculiarities of wood, and 

 lumbermen call it white or hickory poplar. The wood is 

 coarse-grained, tough, decays quickly, and the trunk is 

 largely sapwood. 



The first lumber operations which handled yellow 

 poplar were on a small scale. Farmers cut convenient 

 trees and hauled or rafted the logs to the mills, satisfied 

 if they made a little 

 more than cost of 

 labor, and continuing 

 until the convenient 

 supply was exhaust- 

 ed. Then the small 

 lumberman entered 

 the woods. He went 

 farther back from the 

 streams and bought 

 stumpage, and deliv- 

 ered the logs. After 

 convenient supplies 

 were worked out and 

 distance to the timber 



or shrink badly, and holds nails well. But equal 

 or superior to its other good qualities is its ability to 

 hold paint. In that respect it stands in the very first 

 rank of woods. Poplar does not need repainting often, 

 and it holds the finest and the cheapest pigments. It is 

 an ideal wood for bodies of sleighs, carriages, and auto- 

 mobiles, and for finish for steamer staterooms, cabins 

 and interior finish of sleeping cars, where high-class 

 painting is required. It is dented less easily than sheet 

 metal, and many prefer it for panels. That is one of 

 its uses from which high price has not been able to 

 drive it. 



Where cheaper paints are employed, it serves equally 

 well ; in weatherboarding, for example. In 1902, the 

 II. C. Frick Coke Co., at Mount Pleasant, Pa., tore 

 down an old grist mill whose yellow poplar siding was 

 sound and bright though repainted but once in fifty- 

 three years. Poplar siding that had served more than 

 sixty years at Evansville, Ind., was again used on a 



new house. 



Increased cost of 

 poplar has retired it 

 from some of the 

 ground once held in 

 the box trade, par- 

 ticularly boxes for 

 shipping lard, starch, 

 butter and similar 

 commodities, which 

 boxes, a generation 

 ago, were often 

 made with bottom, 

 side and top each a 

 single piece. Poplar 



