236 AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



growth of the upper part. The limbs are strong and heavy as are tin- 

 branches and twigs. The bark is a grayish-brown with shallow fissures, 

 the broad ridges being sometimes broken across forming square plates 

 which are covered with the grayish flakes or scales. The buds are long 

 and acute, and are coated with a red fuzz. The leaves are from four 

 to six inches long and are bilaterally developed, having seven or nine 

 coarse round lobes ; the sinuses being rounded or rather shallow. The 

 color is a dark lustrous green and the texture leathery. 



The acorn is rather large being about an inch and a quarter in 

 length and usually about half as broad as long; has a shallow cup covered 

 with pointed sometimes elongated scales. 



This oak is one of the most important hardwoods of the far North- 

 west. It is often compared with the eastern white oak, but its physical 

 properties fall below that species in some important particulars. The 

 two woods weigh about the same, but the eastern species is stronger and 

 more elastic, and is of better color and figure. All oaks season some- 

 what slowly, but the Pacific post oak is hardly up to the average. It is 

 a common saying that it must remain two years on the sticks to fit it for 

 the shop, but that time may be shortened in many instances. Checking 

 must be carefully guarded against. 



Some of this oak is exceedingly tough, and when carefully sorted 

 and prepared it is excellent material for heavy wagons; but the best 

 comes from young and comparatively small trees. When they attain 

 large size they are apt to become brash. The tree usually grows rapidly, 

 and is not old in proportion to the size of its trunk. An examination of 

 the wood shows broad bands of summerwood and narrow, very porous 

 springwood. The medullary rays are broad and numerous, and ought to 

 show well in quarter-sawed stock; but it does not appear that much 

 quarter-sawing has been done. 



Practically all of this species cut in the United States is credited to 

 Oregon in the census of sawmill output in 1910. The cut was 2,887,000 

 feet, and was produced by fourteen sawmills, while in Washington only 

 one mill reported any oak, and the quantity was only 4,000 feet. On the 

 northwest Pacific coast it comes in competition with eastern oak and 

 also with Siberian or Japanese oak. 



Basket makers put this wood to considerable use. Young trees 

 are selected on account of their toughness. The wood is either split in 

 long, thin ribbons for basket weaving, or it is first made into veneer and 

 then cut in ribbons of required width. The largest users are furniture 

 makers, but boat yards find it convenient material and it takes the place 

 of imported oak for frames, keels, ribs, sills, and interior finish. It is 

 durable, and it may be depended upon for long service in any part of boat 



