416 AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



or arborvitae, which separates into thin pieces by beating and bending. 

 Barrel makers took advantage of the splitting properties of black ash to 

 make hoops of it, hence the name hoop ash, or hoop tree as Washington 

 called it. The name basket ash has a similar origin. 



The names swamp ash and water ash refer to situations in which the 

 tree grows best. It is one of the thirstiest inhabitants of the forest. Its 

 aggressive roots ramify through the soil and drink up the moisture so 

 voraciously that if water is not abundant, neighboring trees and plants 

 may find their roots robbed, and the functions of healthy growth will 

 be interfered with. This has led to a general belief that black ash poisons 

 trees that it touches. It simply robs their roots. Carolina and Lom- 

 bardy poplars will sometimes do the same thing. 



The name black ash by which this tree is now known in most regions 

 where it grows refers to the color of the large, prominent, shiny, blue- 

 black buds in late winter and early spring; to the very dark green leaves 

 in summer which at a distance resemble the foliage of post oak and, 

 to some extent, to the dark brown color of the heartwood, though the 

 wood is not always a safe means of identification if judged from super- 

 ficial appearance only. The form of the tree assists in identifying it; 

 for it is the slimmest of the ashes, in proportion to its height. Trunks 

 three feet through are heard of, but few persons have ever seen one much 

 over twenty inches, and many are about done growing when they are one 

 foot in diameter. Yet the trunks of such are very tall, perhaps seventy 

 or eighty feet. Their appearance has been likened to tall, slender 

 columns of dark gray granite. They often stand so straight that a 

 plummet line will not reveal a deviation from the perpendicular. 



The tree has been called elder-leaved ash. The form of the foliage 

 has something to do with that name, but the odor more. Crush the 

 leaves, and they smell like elder. The compound leaves are from twelve 

 to sixteen inches long; the leaflets range from seven to eleven in num- 

 ber, and the side leaflets have no stalks. The leaves appear late in 

 spring, and they fall early in autumn. They drop with the butternut 

 leaves, and like them, all at once. The seed is winged, and the wing 

 forms a margin entirely round the seed. 



The wood of black ash is rather soft, moderately heavy, tough, but 

 only moderately strong, not durable in contact with the soil, dark brown 

 in color with sapwood whiter. The species ranges farther north than 

 any other ash, and grows in cold swamps and on the low banks of streams 

 and lakes from Newfoundland to Winnipeg, and southward to Virginia, 

 southern Illinois, southern Missouri, and Arkansas. 



Black ash fills many important places in the country's wood-using 

 industries, but the total quantity is not large. In 1910 Michigan manu- 



