3S AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



to hickory. Such is probably the case when the best cork elm and a 

 medium or poor quality of hickory are in competition. 



The fibers of cork elm are interlaced, rendering the splitting of the 

 wood difficult. For uses in which that is a desirable property, it is 

 preferable to hickory. It is better for hubs for large wagons, and that is 

 a very important use for this elm. 



The wood of all the elms is ring-porous; that is, the springwood, or 

 inner part of the annual ring, consists of one or more rows of large ducts. 

 The summerwood contains pores in large numbers, but they are small, 

 and are usually arranged in short curved lines. The medullary rays are 

 not prominent in the wood of any of the elms, and quarter-sawing adds 

 no beauty to the lumber. The wood is practically without figure, on 

 account of either annual rings or medullary rays; but it may be stained, 

 polished, and made very attractive. That is done oftener with white 

 elm than with any other. 



The strength of cork elm created demand for it in boat building at 

 an early day. The tree is and always was scarce in the vicinity of the 

 Atlantic sea board, and the earliest boat builders seem not to have been 

 acquainted with the wood. It was most abundant in the forests of 

 Michigan, though it extended westward to Nebraska. It was plentiful 

 in the province of Ontario, and the timbers from that region acquainted 

 English shipbuilders with the merits of the wood. They sent contractors 

 into Michigan to buy cork elm, long before the other hardwoods of that 

 region had attracted the attention of the outside world. The most 

 convenient supplies of cork elm on the Lower Michigan peninsula thus 

 passed through Canada to ship yards on the other side of the sea. The 

 wood is reputed to be more durable than any of the other elms. 



It is generally understood that the country's supply of cork elm is 

 running short, but there are no statistics which show how much is left 

 or how much has been cut. It is doubtful if the original forests, includ- 

 ing the whole country, had one tree of cork elm to twenty of white elm. 

 The average size of cork elm is sixty feet high and two in diameter. The 

 trunks are well shaped, if forest grown. They develop small crowns in 

 proportion to the size of trunks; and the crowns are less graceful than 

 those of white elm lacking the long, sweeping curves of the latter. 

 The general contour of the tree has been compared to white oak. 



Cork elm grows well when planted on the Pacific coast, in environ- 

 ments quite different from its native habitat. In the forest it increases 

 in size slowly ; when planted it makes much better headway. It has a 

 disagreeable habit of sprouting which puts it out of favor as a park tree. 



The wood of the different elms is largely used for manufacturing 

 purposes. They are sometimes kept separate, but generally not. The 



