AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



satisfactory results when quarter-sawed. The bright patches are too 

 scarce. Neither does it show as many of these rays as chestnut oak. 

 The wood is very porous, but the large pores are confined to the spring- 

 wood, while the broad bands of summerwood are dense. The contrast 

 between the two parts of annual rings forms a strong, but not particular- 

 ly handsome figure when the lumber is sawed tangentially that is, 

 from the side of the log. The wood finisher can improve this oak's 

 natural appearance by employing fillers and stains to lighten shades or 

 deepen tints. The uses of this oak are numerous. It is excellent fuel, 

 and is rather low in ash; it is weaker and more brittle than white 

 oak; but it is quite satisfactory for railroad ties, car building, house 

 finish, furniture, some parts of heavy vehicles, certain kinds of cooperage, 

 and for farm implements. 



ROCKY MOUNTAIN BLUB OAK (Quercus oblongifolia) is named from the blue 

 color of its foliage, though what little lumber is cut from it, is bought and sold as 

 white oak. It is of little importance, yet in the almost timberless mountains of west- 

 ern Texas it supplies some of the urgent wants of a scattered population. It bears 

 willow-like leaves one or two inches long, and less than an inch wide; but on vigorous 

 shoots they are larger. The acorns are very small. Trees seldom exceed thirty feet 

 in height, and a diameter of twenty inches; and often the trunk is divided near the 

 ground in three or four stout, crooked forks. Ordinarily, it is an impossible tree to 

 lumber, but sometimes a few logs find their way to sawmills and a little passable 

 lumber is produced. The wood weighs 58 pounds per cubic foot. It is strong, but 

 when it breaks, it snaps short. The heartwood is darker than in most oaks, and the 

 sapwood is brown. The tree is useful for fuel. Charcoal for local blacksmith shops 

 is manufactured from the wood. It is abundant on many of the sterile slopes and 

 mesas of New Mexico and Arizona, but usually in the form of brush about the heads 

 of canyons. 



