CHARACTERISTICS AND SEEDING OF THE TULIP TREE 



841 



YELLOW POPLAR IN THE EXCELSIOR INDUSTRY 



picture shows various grades of 



This wood is eighth in importance in the making of excelsior. Th 



the product ready for baling. 



want of light, and grow a straight, tall, slightly tapering 

 stem with few or no limbs on its lower half. If it 

 fairly outstrips its competitors in the race for light, it 

 will then send out specialized limbs above these com- 

 petitors' heads and the leader will lessen in rapidity of 

 growth until the large limbs become enveloped in the 

 shade of its persistent companions, when it will again 

 shoot upward leaving the large limbs to their fate, which 

 is generally that of death ; and 

 these dying and dropping off 

 give fungi access to the wood 

 and decay in the stem sets in. 

 There is seldom any decay in 

 the stem unless brought about 

 by such conditions. It has no 

 known insect enemies, and ap- 

 pears to be free from attacks 

 of any sort of fungi except as 

 noted. So insistent is it for 

 light after its babyhood, that 

 when grown in the open, and 

 largely so when grown in a 

 dense stand, the leaves will 

 nearly all be found on or near 

 the outer ends of the limbs, 

 leaving the interior of the 

 crown practically destitute of 

 them. 



The tulip tree is a prolific 

 seed-bearer. When grown in 

 the open it frequently bears 



seed when only twelve or thir- 

 teen years old, and when grown 

 in a dense stand, if not too 

 closely crowded by competitors,, 

 at from twenty to twenty-five 

 years of age. Of course the 

 younger trees do not bear a 

 heavy crop at first, but it rap- 

 idly increases with age. The 

 fruit is practically a scaly cone 

 and the small seed is enclosed 

 in a hard, woody receptacle in 

 the base of the scale. The 

 seeds ripen about the middle 

 of autumn, varying according 

 to latitude and locality, and the 

 seed scales soon begin to drop 

 oflf, and, as they have a sort of 

 wing about 2 inches long and 

 a little over one-quarter of an 

 inch wide, they can be blown 

 quite a distance by a moderate 

 wind. As there is a gyrating 

 motion given to the wing when 

 it falls the seed may land sev- 

 eral feet beyond the extreme 

 ends of the branches, even 

 though there is no wind at the time. The seeds do not 

 all fall at once, as do those of the pine, but some remain 

 attached to the central cone for a more or less period of 

 time, thus giving the changing winds an opportunity to 

 scatter them in every direction. The central part of the 

 cone does not drop off until the following spring, and 

 even up to that time there may be some of the outer 

 scales still attached. 



STREET CAR CONSTRUCTION 



Showing the ash or oak frame of an electric street railway car, with process of manufacture at the 

 point at which the frame is ready for the yellow poplar siding and inside paneling. 



