470 AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



much of its trunk has disappeared. A little green bark on the side, and 

 sprouts from the stump will maintain life long after all usefulness has 

 ceased. 



Young willows are usually pliant and tough, old are stiff and 

 brash. They range from sea level up to 10,000 feet or more; grow 

 profusely in the wet lands about the gulf of Mexico, and likewise on the 

 bleak coasts of the Arctic ocean. Commander Peary found willows 

 blooming in considerable profusion on the extreme northern shore of 

 Greenland, where they produce enough growth during the few weeks of 

 summer sunshine to afford the muskox the means of eking out a living 

 during his sojourn in those inhospitable regions. 



The identification of willows is one of the most difficult tasks that 

 fall to the botanists. Black willow is unquestionably the most im- 

 portant willow in this country from the lumberman's standpoint. It is 

 the common tree willow that attains size suitable for sawlogs. If a 

 forest grown willow of large size is encountered east of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains in the United States, it is pretty safe to class it as black willow. 

 There are some others which grow large, but not many. Planted 

 willows, both large and small, may be foreign species, and white 

 willows, which are not native in this country, but have been widely 

 planted, and are running wild, may be occasionally found of ample size 

 for saw timber. 



Black willow's range extends from New Brunswick to Florida, 

 west to the Dakotas, and south to Texas, thence passing into Mexico, 

 New Mexico, Arizona, and California. It attains its best size in the Ohio 

 and Mississippi valleys, though large trees are found in other parts of 

 its range. It is difficult to say what its average size is, for some black 

 willows are only a few feet high and an inch or two in diameter. The 

 largest trees exceed 100 feet in height and three in diameter. An 

 extreme size of seven feet in diameter has been reported. It is not 

 unusual to see willow logs three feet in diameter in mill yards in Louis- 

 iana, Mississippi, and Arkansas, and logs four feet in diameter are not 

 so unusual as to excite much comment. The average sizes, however, 

 of willow sawlogs in that region are from eighteen inches to two feet. 



The wood of black willow is pale reddish-brown. When freshly cut 

 it is sometimes purple, almost black. When sawed in lumber and 

 exposed to the ah* the dark color fades. The wood is soft but firm. It 

 has about fifty per cent of the strength of white oak, and forty per cent 

 of its stiffness. It weighs 27.77 pounds per cubic foot; and considering 

 its weight, it is tolerably strong and stiff. 



Probably no other wood in the United States is as systematically 

 cheated out of its just credit as this one. Many of the oaks are seldom 



