L>7J AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



three feet. In some localities the trees are scrubby and produce little 

 merchantable timber. 



The growth rings are only moderately wide in the typical yellow 

 oak ; the ring is divided nearly evenly between springwood and summer- 

 wood. The former contains two or three rows of large, open pores. 

 The medullary rays are fewer and smaller than those commonly found in 

 oaks. A general average of the properties of the wood is somewhat 

 difficult to give, because of remarkable variation in trees which grow 

 under different conditions. In some instances, where the soil is fertile 

 and climate favorable, the yellow oak produces a large, clear trunk, 

 with sound wood, of good color, and equal to that of red oak; but the 

 reverse is often the case trunks are small and rough, wood hard and 

 brittle, color not satisfactory, and strength not up to standard. Some- 

 times first class yellow oak passes without question as good red oak 

 in the finish and furniture business, but that is not its usual course. 

 Well developed wood is heavy, hard, strong, bright brown, tinged 

 with red, with thin, lighter colored sapwood. Its weight is 43.9 pounds 

 per cubic foot. 



The uses of yellow oak follow red oak pretty closely, but are not so 

 extensive. Figures cannot be given to show the total annual cut of 

 yellow oak, but the output is likely much below red oak, though it is 

 found over a wider area, and some of it gets into the lumber yards in all 

 regions where it grows. It is made into furniture from Maine to 

 Louisiana. In cheaper grades of furniture, it may be the outside ma- 

 terial, but its place is usually as frame stock, to give strength, but is not 

 visible in the finished article. An exception to this is found in chairs 

 where yellow oak is one of several species which go regularly to the saw- 

 mills which cut chair stock. Massachusetts snow plow makers use it, 

 but of course it fills no such place in the South. In Mississippi, Louisiana, 

 and Texas it is bought by manufacturers of agricultural machinery. It 

 is worked into cotton gins in Mississippi. Some extra fine stands of this 

 oak occur in the Delta region of Mississippi. Frames of freight cars are 

 made of it in Louisiana and Texas, and warehouse and depot floors are 

 occasionally laid of this lumber. It is floor material in Michigan also, 

 but that is of a better class than is required for warehouses. It is not 

 infrequently sold as red oak for flooring and interior finish. Throughout 

 the whole extent of yellow oak's range it finds its way to wagon shops. 

 It is less tough than white oak, but in many places, such as bolsters, 

 sandboards, and hounds, it serves as well. Warehouse trucks and push 

 cars are of this wood in many instances. 



Slack coopers convert this wood into their wares in many regions. 

 The pores are too open to permit its use as tight cooperage, where 



