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YELLOW OAK 



(Quercus Velutina) 



kHIS tree is known as black oak in Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode 

 Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, 

 West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, 

 Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, 

 Nebraska, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Ontario; quercitron oak 

 in Delaware, South Carolina, Louisiana, Kansas and Minnesota; yellow 

 oak in Rhode Island, New York, Illinois, Texas, Kansas and Minnesota; 

 tanbark oak in Illinois; yellow-bark oak in Minnesota and Rhode 

 Island; spotted oak in Missouri ; dyer's oak in Texas; and yellow butt oak 

 in Mississippi. 



Those who call this tree black oak have in mind the bark which is 

 usually quite dark, though all members of this species do not present the 

 same appearance in that respect. Some trunks are gray, and in color do 

 not greatly differ from white oaks, but would hardly be mistaken for 

 them. Tanbark oak, a name occasionally given to this tree, is not 

 applied in the region where chestnut oak grows, because it is much 

 inferior to chestnut oak as tanning material. It is not only poorer in 

 tannin, but the coloring matter associated with the inner bark is trouble- 

 some to the tanner who is compelled to remove it or neutralize it unless 

 he wants his leather given a yellow tone. Dyer's oak is a name which 

 refers to the value of the bark for coloring purposes. The botanical 

 name velutina refers to the velvety texture of the inner bark. 



This oak is one of the easiest to identify. The inner layer of the 

 bark is yellow. The point of a knife easily reaches it ; cutting through a 

 deep crack in the bark, and no mistake is possible, for no other oak has 

 the yellow layer of bark. The tree may be identified by leaves, flowers, 

 and fruit, but the process is not always easy, for other members of the 

 black oak group bear more or less resemblance to this one. 



The yellow oak's range extends over nearly or quite a million square 

 miles. It exceeds the limits of most oaks in its geographical extension. 

 It endures severe winters and hot summers. The northern limit of its 

 range lies in Maine ; it grows westward across southern Canada to Minne- 

 sota; it extends two hundred miles west of the Mississippi into eastern 

 Nebraska and Kansas, and follows that meridian south into Texas. 

 It reaches the Gulf of Mexico east of the Mississippi, and is found in 

 many localities in all the southern states, and along the foothills of the 

 Appalachian ranges. It attains its largest size in the lower Ohio valley. 

 The average height is seventy or eighty feet, and its diameter two or 



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