278 AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



and is less common in the interior, and on the prairies skirting the west- 

 ern margins of the eastern forests. The average size of the tree is from 

 seventy to eighty feet high and two or three in diameter. In many 

 regions it is much smaller, while no very large trees have been reported. 



The wood is heavy, strong, hard ; the layers of annual growth are 

 strongly marked by several rows of large, open ducts; the summerwood 

 is dense and occupies half the yearly ring; the medullary rays are much 

 like those of red oak, though scarcely as broad. They run in straight 

 lines radially, and show well in quarter-sawing. The color of the wood 

 is light brown or red, the thin sapwood rather darker. 



This wood is practically of the same weight as white oak ; but it is 

 rated considerably stronger and stiffer. A number of writers have listed 

 scarlet oak low in fuel value. Theoretically, the fuel values of woods 

 are proportionate to their weights, except that resinous woods must be 

 compared with resinous, and non-resinous with non-resinous. In 

 practice, however, every fireman who feeds a furnace with wood knows 

 that different woods develop different degrees of heat, though they may 

 weigh the same. Results are modified by various circumstances and 

 conditions, and for that reason theory and practice are often far apart 

 in determining how much heat a given quantity of wood is good for. 



It is difficult to procure exact information regarding the uses of 

 scarlet oak. It never goes to market under its own name. An examina- 

 tion of wood-using reports from a dozen states within scarlet oak's 

 range does not reveal a single mention of this wood for any purpose. It 

 is certain, nevertheless, that much goes to market and that it has many 

 important uses. It loses its identity and is bought and sold as red oak. 

 Under the name of that wood it is manufactured into furniture, finish, 

 agricultural implements, cars, boats, wagons and other vehicles, and 

 many other articles. One of the most important markets for scarlet oak 

 is in chair factories. Its grain is attractive enough to give it place as 

 outside material, and its strength fits it for frames and other parts which 

 must bear strain. Chair stock mills which dean up woodlots and 

 patches of forest where scarlet oak grows in mixture with other species of 

 oak, take all that comes, without being particular as to the exact 

 kind of oak. Slack coopers follow much the same course. A wood 

 strong enough to meet requirements, is generally acceptable. Scarlet 

 oak is usually considered unsuitable for tight cooperage, on account of 

 the large open pores of the wood, which permit leakage of liquids. It 

 meets considerable demand in the manufacture of boxes and crates, 

 particularly the latter. 



The size and quality of logs which a tree may furnish to a sawmill 

 is no measure of its full value. Scarlet oak is far better known as an 



