362 AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



of the United States. It is one of the largest and commonest hickories of 

 New England, and is likewise the common hickory of Kansas, Nebraska, 

 and Iowa. It grows from Maine through southern Canada to Minnesota, 

 follows down the western side of the Mississippi valley to Texas, and 

 extends into western Florida. 



Hickory is often lumbered in ways not common with other hard- 

 woods. It is not generally found in ordinary lumber yards, and is not 

 cut into lumber as most other woods are. It is in a class by itself. The 

 person who would consult statistics of lumber cut in the United States to 

 ascertain the quantity of hickory going to market, would utterly fail to 

 obtain the desired information. The statistics of lumber cut in the 

 United States for the year 1910 listed the total for hickory at 272,252,000 

 feet, distributed among 33 states, and cut by 6,349 mills. Reports by 

 users of this wood in a number of states show that probably twice as 

 much goes to factories to be manufactured into finished commodities, 

 as all the sawmills cut. This means that much hickory goes to factories 

 without having passed through sawmills to be first converted into lumber. 

 It goes as bolts and billets, and as logs of various lengths. Some saw- 

 mills hi the hickory region cut dimension stock and sell it to factories to 

 be further worked up; but that is a comparatively small part of the 

 hickory that finds its way to factories of various kinds. Many sawmills 

 refuse to cut hickory, claiming that it does not pay them to specialize on 

 a scarce wood. Scattered trees occur among other timber, but these are 

 left when the other logging is done. Special operators go after the hick- 

 ory, and distribute it among various industries which are hi the market 

 for it. That method often results in much waste, because the man who 

 is specializing in one commodity, such as wagon poles, ax handles, 

 sucker-rods, wheel stock, or the like, is apt to cut out only what meets his 

 requirements, and abandon the rest. Some of the hickory camps where 

 such stock is roughed out are spectacles of carelessness and waste, with 

 heaps of rejected hickory which, though not meeting requirements for 

 the special articles in view, are valuable for many other things. Few 

 woods contribute to the trash heap more in proportion to the total cut 

 than hickory; but the waste nearly all occurs before the factories which 

 finally work up the products are reached. These factories are often 

 hundreds of miles from the forests where the hickory grows. 



Hickory was not a useful farm limber in early tunes, as oak and 

 chestnut were. It decayed quickly when exposed to weather, and was 

 not suitable for fence rails, posts, house logs, or general lumber. It was 

 sometimes used for barn floors, but when seasoned it was so hard to nail 

 that it was not well liked. The pioneers were not able to use this wood 

 to advantage, because it is a manufacturer's material, not a farmer's or 



