IMS AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



into central Alabama and Mississippi, through Arkansas and the north- 

 ern portion of Louisiana to the eastern part of Oklahoma and parts 

 of Texas even to the canyons of the Guadaloupe mountains, in the ex- 

 t n-me western part of that state. It is a timber tree of much importance 

 in Texas, and in 1910 manufacturers reported the use of 1,152,000 feet 

 in that state, largely for making furniture and vegetable crates. 



The chinquapin oak is named from the form of its leaf. Its 

 acorn bears no resemblance to the nut of chinquapin. Trees average 

 smaller in size than white oak, but when all circumstances are favorable 

 they compare well with any of the other oaks. In the lower Wabash 

 valley, trees of this species were found in the original forests 160 feet 

 high and four or five in diameter. When it grows in crowded stands it 

 develops a tall, symmetrical trunk, clear of limbs; but it is shorter in 

 open growth. The base is often much buttressed. 



The wood is very heavy, hard, strong, stiff, and durable. In 

 color the heartwood is dark, the sapwood lighter. The springwood is 

 narrow and filled with large pores, the summerwood broad and dense. 

 Medullary rays are less numerous and scarcely as broad as in chestnut 

 oak, which this wood resembles. It checks badly in drying, both by 

 kiln and in the open air; but when properly seasoned it is an excellent 

 wood for most purposes for which white oak is used. It shows fewer 

 figures when quarter-sawed than white oak shows, but it is satisfactory 

 for many kinds of furniture, particularly when finished in mission style. 



Railroads throughout the region where this species is found have 

 laid chinquapin oak ties in their tracks for many years and they give long 

 service, because they resist decay and are hard enough to stand the 

 wear of the rails. In early times in the Ohio valley it helped to fence 

 many a farm when the material for such fences was the old style fence 

 rail, eleven feet long, mauled from the straightest, clearest timber 

 afforded by the primeval forest. It had for companions many other 

 oaks which were abundant there, and it was on a par with the best 

 of them. In the first years of steamboating on the Ohio river, when 

 the engines used wood for fuel, they provided a market for many an 

 old rail fence. The rails were the best obtainable fuel, and the chin- 

 quapin oak rails in the heaps were carefully looked for by the pur- 

 chasers, because they were rated high in fuel value. It is now known 

 that chinquapin oak in combustion develops considerably more heat 

 than an equal quantity of white oak. 



When southern Indiana and Illinois were furnishing coopers with 

 their best staves, chinquapin oak was ricked with white oak, and no 

 barrel maker ever complained. The pores in the wood seem large, but 

 in old timber which is largely heartwood, the pores become clogged by 



