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AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



brown, tinged with red, the sapwood lighter. The strength and elasticity 

 of sourwood are moderate. The wood is made into sled runners in some 

 of the mountain districts where it occurs, but no particular qualities fit it 

 for that use. It is occasionally employed for machinery bearings. It 

 has been reported for mallets and mauls, but since it is not very 

 well suited for those articles, the conclusion is that those who so report 

 it have confused it with black gum which it resembles in the living 

 tree, but not much in the wood. Small handles are made of it, and 

 it gives good service, provided great strength and stiffness are not 

 required. Sourwood is not abundant anywhere, and seldom are more 

 than a few trees found in a group. 



TREE HUCKLEBERRY ( Vaccinium arboreum) is the only tree form of twenty-five 

 or thirty species of huckleberry in this country. The cranberry is one of the best 

 known species. The range of tree huckleberry extends from North Carolina to Texas, 

 and it reaches its largest size in the latter state where trunks thirty feet high and ten 

 inches in diameter occur, but not in great abundance. The fruit which this tree 

 bears has some resemblance to the common huckleberry, but is inferior in flavor, 

 besides being dry and granular. It ripens in October and remains on the branches 

 most of the winter. The fruit is about a quarter of an inch in diameter, dark and 

 lustrous, and is a conspicuous and tempting bait for feathered inhabitants of swamp 

 and forest. The bark of the roots is sometimes used for medicine, and that from the 

 trunk for tanning, but it is too scarce to become important in the leather industry. 

 The tree is known in different parts of its range as farkleberry, sparkleberry, myrtle 

 berry, bluet, and in North Carolina it is known as gooseberry. The wood is hard, 

 heavy, and very compact; is liable to warp, twist, and check in drying; polishes with 

 a fine, satiny finish. Medullary rays are numerous, broad, and conspicuous; wood 

 light brown, tinged with red. Small articles are turned from it. 



