AMERICAN FOREST TREES 631 



ash, weight for weight of wood. The species reaches its best develop- 

 ment in the rich valleys of southwestern Oregon, where, with the broad- 

 leaf maple, it forms a considerable part &f the forest growth. The largest 

 trees are from sixty to eighty feet high, and two to four in diameter. In 

 crowded stands the trunks are shapely, and often measure thirty or 

 forty feet to the first limbs; but more commonly the trunk is short. 



The boat yards in southwestern Oregon were the first to use Cali- 

 fornia laurel for commercial purposes, but early settlers made a point 

 of procuring it for fuel when they could. The oil in the wood causes it to 

 burn with a cheerful blaze, and campers in the mountains consider 

 themselves fortunate when they find a supply for the evening bonfire. 



Shipbuilders have drawn upon this wood for fifty years for ma- 

 terial. It is made into pilot wheels, interior finish, cleats, crossties, and 

 sometimes deck planking. Furniture makers long ago made a specialty 

 of the wood for their San Francisco trade. For thirty years travelers 

 admired the superb furniture of the Palace hotel in that city, and won- 

 dered of what wood it was made. It was the California laurel. The 

 hotel's furniture was hand-made, or largely so, at a time when wood- 

 working factories were few on the Pacific coast. The furniture was 

 finally destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake. Furniture is still 

 one of the products made of the wood, but the quantity is small. Other 

 products are interior finish; fixtures for banks, stores and offices; musical 

 instruments, including organs ; mathematical instruments, and carpen- 

 ters' tools, including rulers, straight-edges, spirit levels, bench screws 

 and clamps, and handles of many kinds. 



Makers of novelties and small turnery find it serviceable for paper 

 knives, pin trays, match safes, brush backs, and many articles of like 

 kind. One of the largest uses for it is as walking beams for pumping 

 oilwells in central and southern California. The beauty of grain has 

 nothing to do with this use. 



Country blacksmiths repair wagons and agricultural implements 

 with this wood. Farmers have long employed it about their prem- 

 ises for posts, gates, floors, and building material. Cooks flavor soup 

 with the leaves, and poultrymen make henroosts of poles, believing that 

 the wood's odor will keep insects away. This is probably the old sassa- 

 fras superstition carried west by early California settlers. 



RED BAY (Persea borbonia) is a southern member of the laurel family, and close 

 akin to sassafras and the California laurel. The bark is red, hence the name; but it is 

 known also as bay galls, laurel tree, Florida mahogany, false mahogany, and sweet 

 bay. It grows from Virginia to Texas, but is most abundant near the coast, yet it 

 ascends the Mississippi valley to Arkansas. The leaves remain on the tree a full year, 

 but turn yellow toward the last, in consequence of which the species is not evergreen. 

 In shape and color the leaves resemble laurel. The fruit is a small, dark blue drupe, 



