COMMERCIAL USES OF WHITE ASH 



1083 



The fruit ripens in the fall and hangs on the trees, in 

 clusters, far into the winter. The seed is one-half to 

 three-quarters of an inch in length, resembling an oat- 

 grain in shape. One end of the seed tapers to a point 

 and is attached to the tree by a short stem ; at the opposite 

 end is a narrow wing about twice the length of the seed. 

 Unlike the seeds of other ashes the wing is narrowed 

 at the point where it joins the seed, and does not extend 

 down the sides of the seed. In the black ash the wing 

 completely surrounds the seed. 



The wood is hard, strong, close-grained and tough. 

 The heartwood is brown and forms a sharp contrast with 

 the wide band of much lighter colored sapwood. The 

 rings in the wood that mark each year's growth are set 

 off plainly by lines of wide pores. 



White ash grows rapidly for a tree whose wood is of 

 such high quality. It has numerous insect and fungus 

 enemies, none of which are very serious, and it is an 

 excellent tree for mixing with white pine and other spe- 

 cies in forest plantations for the producing of commercial 

 timber. For ornamental purposes, its stiff, open habit of 

 branching often affords a desirable contrast to bring out 

 the beauties of trees with more delicate branch systems, 

 like birch or beech. The foliage appears late in the 

 season and falls early, but its soft, rich light-green color 

 and the dense graceful masses of leaves, combined with 

 the pleasing outlines of its well-proportioned top, gives 

 value to the white ash for planting on wide avenues and 

 estates. The finely divided root-system makes it easy 

 to transplant. It grows well in decidedly wet, compact 

 soils, although it is best adapted to drier situations. It 

 is a good tree to plant near railroads or in other places 



exposed to smoke, since it is less affected by smoke than 

 the majority of shade trees. 



In fall coloring the white ash is distinct from other 

 trees. At first the entire mass of foliage turns purple 



Courtesy of the Manual Arts Press 



THE AREA OF WHITE ASH 



then chocolate and from this to a violet brown, and 

 finally to a salmon or yellow with a shade of lilac. When 

 the leaves have faded nearly yellow they begin to drop 

 from the tree. 



It is not difficult to grow ash trees from seed. The 

 seed should be gathered in the autumn. They may be 

 sown at once or kept for planting in the spring by 

 placing them on the surface of a garden walk, covering 

 them with a box. A trench should be cut around the 

 box to keep the water away. The seeds will not grow 

 if kept too dry. 



Commercial Uses of White Ash 



SliV'ER.^L si)ecies of ash are cut and marketed in 

 this country, often without any attempt to dis- 

 tinguish one from another. Sawmills list ash with- 

 out naming the particular species, and the woods of dif- 

 ferent ashes are so much alike that factories frequently 

 have no interest in separating them. Their general uses 

 are similar, and an examination of the lumber seldom 

 reveals much difference in appearances or other qualities. 

 The production of this lumber appears to run fairly even 

 from year to year. There 

 was a small increase from 

 1899 to 1900. The reported 

 output for the whole coun- 

 try was 252,000,000 feet in 

 1907; 291,000,000 in 1909; 

 and 246,000,000 in 1910. 

 Much of the apparent dif- 

 ference was due to a differ- 

 ence in the number of mills 

 reporting for the several 

 years. The foregoing fig- 

 ures represent all the ash 



Character and qualities Heavy, hard, strong, ulti- 

 mately brittle; rings of annual growth contain several 

 rows of large pores which occur in the springwood and 

 in slowly-grown specimens occupy nearly the whole 

 ring; meduUory rays numerous and obscure; color 

 brown, sapwood much lighter, often nearly white. 



Growth Height 45 to 100 feet, diameter 3 to 6 feet. 



Supply The commercial range of white ash lies in 

 all states east of the Mi.ssissippi River and occurs 

 west of that stream in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, 

 Oklahoma, Missouri and Iowa 



lumber produced in the United States, and not white ash 

 alone. Probably more than half of the total is white ash, 

 and five or six other species make up the rest. 



All of the early settlers east of the Mississippi River, 

 and some west of it, encountered ash. Few farms were 

 cleared without cutting this tree. Though it entered to 

 a small extent into practically every use which the farmer, 

 carpenter, mechanic, and lumberman made of wood, early 

 writers mentioned it less frequently than some other 



timbers because it was not 

 peculiarly fitted for any spe- 

 cial purpose, as some others 

 were. Some of the first 

 American ash in the market 

 went to Portugal in lumber 

 shipments from New Eng- 

 land. Between 1712 and 

 1718 ash "rafters" to the 

 number of 1 ,100 were bought 

 in Portugal. Rafters were 

 blanks from which boat oars 

 were made. This wood was 



