COMMERCIAL USES OF WHITE ASH 



1089 



Courtesy Dudley Lumber Company, 



ASH IN A LUMBKR YARD 

 Ash is usually cut as thick as possible, to the advantage of the log, and to produce the best 

 quality of thick stock. The low grade is undesirable in thick lumber and is usually cut 

 into 4/4 X 5/4 thickness. 



Bent rims, the kind used in the manufacture of circu- 

 lar measures, sieves, and cheese boxes, are made of no 

 better wood than ash. It bends without splinters parting 

 from the surface. 



A very small but highly important use for ash is in 

 the construction of aeroplanes. Wood of great strength, 

 stiffness and of moderate weight is demanded. Ash is 



not equal to spruce in this respect, but 

 is next to it. A property of ash which 

 greatly increases its value for airships is 

 its straight grain. It is possible to cut 

 long pieces with little or no crossgrain, 

 though to do so the logs must be care- 

 fully selected. Ash appears in the pro- 

 pellers oftener than in the frames. 

 Some builders construct the propellers 

 of narrow strips glued together, thereby 

 lessening the liability of unseen defects 

 in the wood. A built-up propeller may 

 contain a strip of ash in the middle of 

 each blade. 



The strength of ash leads to its use as 

 sucker rods for pumping oil wells. These 

 are slender pieces of wood, joined end 

 to end, and aggregating great length. 

 They reach from top to bottom of deep 

 wells. A weak wood could not stand the 

 strain but. would pull apart. 



The use of ash as flooring and in- 

 terior house finish is of great importance. 

 The difference in hardness between the 

 spring wood and summer wood of the annual rings 

 causes unequal wear, and this lessens ash's value for 

 flooring, but this has no effect on it when employed as 

 interior finish. Stair builders find it valuable, particu- 

 larly for newel posts, capitals, and other turned work 

 of large size. It is sometimes shown with the natural 

 grain, and sometimes artificial grain is imparted with a 

 camel's-hair brush to imitate quartered oak. Parquetry 

 flooring is one of its uses, and wainscoting another. 



It holds a place of considerable importance in cooper- 

 age. Its open pores exclude it from most places in tight 

 cooperage, but it is serviceable as pork barrel staves. 

 Slack coopers are able to use it for many containers. It 

 is excellent fuel, and has always been in demand for that 

 purpose, but in late years its increased value has caused it 

 to be diverted to other uses, except inferior trees and the 

 waste from sawmills and factories. 



TMuch of the information in this article was secured 

 by the courtesy of the United States Forest Service.) 



Couttesy of the Southern Lumberman 



WHITE ASH BOARD 



WHAT BIRD DESTRUCTION COSTS 



COLOXEL G. C. SHIELDS, president of the 

 League of American Sportsmen, says the de- 

 struction of birds costs this country the stupen- 

 dous sum of $1,000,000,000 a year, and supports the 

 statement by statistics which deserve to be studied by 

 every citizen who desires to be informed upon a question 

 in which this whole nation has a profound interest. Be- 

 cause quail, prairie chickens, meadow larks and other 

 birds which feed on bugs and insects of many kinds have 

 be:en swept away by thousands, the cotton growers of the 

 South lose $100,000,000 a year by the depredations of the 

 boll weevil. 



