422 AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



hard, brittle, brown in color, with thick, lighter-colored sapwood. 

 Furniture makers list it as shop material, and such is its largest reported 

 use in Washington. A moderate amount is made into saddletrees and 

 stirrups, and much is used as fuel. 



Oregon ash has been planted for shade and ornament in both this 

 country and Europe. It grows rapidly and develops a symmetrical 

 crown. The habit it has of coming into leaf late in the spring and throw- 

 ing its foliage down early in autumn is held by some as a serious objection 

 to it as an ornamental tree; but it has compensating habits. It is 

 remarkably free from disease, and, though leaves come late and go early, 

 while its foliage is on, it is healthy and vigorous. Reproduction is 

 satisfactory in the tree's wild state, and there is no danger that the 

 species will disappear. No movement has yet been made to plant this 

 ash for commercial timber growing. 



GREEN ASH (Fraxinus lanceolata) has been given that name on 

 account of the bright color of its foliage. It has other names, however, 

 which indicate that its greenness is not always preeminently prominent. 

 In Iowa and Arkansas they call it blue ash; in Kansas and Nebraska 

 white ash; in some regions it is known as water ash, and elsewhere 

 swamp ash. Some botanists do not regard it as a separate species but 

 call it a variety of red ash, but the concensus of opinion is that it is a 

 distinct species, though there appear to be connecting forms grading 

 from red ash into green ash. Certain it is that the two are distinct 

 enough in certain parts of the country. The range of green ash is more 

 extensive than that of any other ash in this country. Beginning in 

 Vermont it passes southward to Florida ; northwestward to the Saskatch- 

 ewan river several hundred miles north of the international boundary 

 line; along the base of the Rocky Mountains and over the ranges to 

 Arizona, and through Texas. This includes more than half of the area 

 of the United States. Notwithstanding a range so extensive, the total 

 quantity of green ash timber in the country is not large. No pure forests 

 or extensive stands exist. Trees are widely dispersed, and when lum- 

 bermen cut them, the wood is sold as some other, usually as white ash. 

 The wood has the general characters of red ash. It weighs about forty- 

 four pounds per cubic foot of dry wood; is moderately strong, fairly 

 stiff and elastic, and, like other species of ash, it is not durable in contact 

 with the soil. 



Green ash is more planted than any other in the cold and dry 

 regions of the West and Northwest. It is a prairie tree and is found along 

 highways and in door yards from Kansas northward into British 

 America. It stands drought better than any other ash, and resists cold 

 fully as well, and yet it endures the warm weather and the rains of the 



