206 AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



reaches eastern Nebraska and eastern Kansas, and runs southward 

 through Oklahoma to the Brazos river, Texas. It is scarce in the northern 

 parts of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Its total range covers an 

 area of more than 1,000,000 square miles. Like all other important 

 timber trees, it has regions where the species is best developed. The 

 finest original stands of white oak were found in the upper Ohio valley, 

 beginning in Indiana. The timber in many other districts was, and in 

 some still is, very good, such as southern Michigan, eastern Arkansas, 

 some of the Appalachian valleys and slopes, and in certain places along 

 the upper tributaries of streams flowing into the Atlantic ocean. 



This tree is in the very front rank in economic importance, and it 

 has held that place since the earliest settlements in this country. No 

 forest tree was more evenly distributed than white oak over the eastern 

 half of the United States. It did not form pure forests of large extent, 

 as some of the pines did, but white oaks were within reach of almost 

 every part of the country. Conditions have greatly changed. The 

 establishment of farms where woods originally occupied the whole 

 country, lessened the abundance of oak long before lumbermen made it 

 a commodity; and since then, the cutting of billions of feet of it has 

 depleted or exhausted the supply in many regions. Still, white oak is as 

 widely dispersed as ever. It has not been completely exterminated in 

 any extensive region. White oak of as high grade goes to market now 

 as ever in the past, but in smaller amounts, and the lower grades go in 

 proportionately larger quantities. In other words, prime white oak 

 has passed its best day. A hundred years of use and abuse in states 

 west of the AUeghany mountains, and two hundred years in some of the 

 regions east, have reduced original forests to remnants. But with all 

 that, white oak remains undisputed king of American hardwoods. 



At its best, white oak attains a height of 125 feet and a diameter of 

 six, but that size is unusual. A diameter of three feet and a height of 

 100 is above the average. The leaves are peculiar in that they hang on 

 the branches until late winter, sometimes dropping only in time to give 

 place to the new crop. They turn brown after the first hard frost. In 

 some sections of the Appalachian region white oak coppice (sprout 

 growth) is known as "red brush," because of the adherence of the brown 

 leaves during winter. The leaves of some other species have the same 

 habit. 



The wood of white oak is very strong, stiff, heavy, and durable 

 when exposed in all kinds of weather. Scarcely any other wood which 

 can be had in merchantable quantities equals white oak in these qualities. 

 It rates high in fuel value, and 6,000 pounds of dry wood when burned, 

 leaves about 245 pounds of ashes. The color of the heartwood is light 



