AMERICAN FOREST TREES 243 



large, open pores, and requires less filler in finishing than most oaks. 

 There are many pores, however, and those in the springwood are 

 arranged in bands. The summerwood is broad and distinct, usually 

 constituting three-fourths of the annual ring. The medullary rays are 

 as broad and numerous as in the best furniture oaks. They are regularly 

 arranged, and spaces between them do not vary much in width. The 

 wood quarter-saws well. 



The wood has the fault of checking badly in seasoning, unless 

 carefully attended to. In recent years, these difficulties have been 

 largely overcome, both in air seasoning and in the drykiln. 



Chestnut oak has a wide range of uses. It is classed as white oak 

 in many markets, but few users buy it believing it to be true white oak. 

 It is coming year by year to stand more on its own merits. Some 

 sawmills which formerly piled it and sold it with other oaks, now keep it 

 separate, and some factories which once took it only because it came 

 mixed with other oaks, now buy it for special uses, and make high-class 

 commodities of it. One of these is mission furniture, which has become 

 fashionable in recent years. Chestnut oak possesses good fuming 

 properties, and this constitutes much of its value as furniture material. 



The wood is found in factories where general furniture is made. 

 It is largely frame material for furniture though some of it is for outside 

 finish. It is employed as frames in Maryland in the construction of 

 canal boats, and the annual demand for that purpose is about a quarter 

 of a million feet in that state. 



One of the most important places for chestnut oak is in the shop 

 which makes vehicles. It goes into sills for both heavy and light bodies, 

 bolsters, and wagon bottoms. It has become a favorite wagon wood in 

 England and in continental Europe, and there passes as white oak, 

 though dealers well know that it is not the true white oak. There is no 

 indication that demand for it will lessen, for it possesses many characters 

 which fit it for vehicle making. 



In Michigan more chestnut oak is reported by car builders than by 

 any other class of manufacturers, though wagon makers buy it. Car 

 shops use about 220,000 feet a year, and work it into hand cars, push 

 cars, track-laying cars, and cattle guards. 



The large remaining area of timber growth in which chestnut oak 

 appears is the Appalachian range through eastern Tennessee and western 

 North Carolina, and the fact that it is comparatively plentiful in the 

 forests of the Appalachian range will tend to bring it more and 

 more into prominence as a factor in the making of wagons, cars, boats, 

 staves, and furniture as the other oaks become scarcer. 



The probable future of chestnut oak is an interesting problem for 



