AMERICAN FOREST TREES 585 



satisfactorily converted into lumber, because it is more valuable for 

 spools, tooth picks, pegs, and the like. This wood is frequently listed 

 as a pulpwood, and it is quite generally believed that its use for that 

 purpose is important. This is apparently an error, as the wood is not 

 even mentioned in statistics of pulpwood output in this country. 



Paper birch weighs 37.11 pounds per cubic foot, is strong, hard, 

 tough; medullary rays are numerous but very small and obscure; wood 

 is diffuse-porous, and earlywood blends gradually with latewood in the 

 annual rings which are not very distinct. 



This is one of the woods which does not threaten to become soon 

 exhausted. A supply for half a century, at present rate of use, is hi 

 sight, if no more should grow; but in fifty years new forests, now young, 

 will be large enough to use. 



KENAI BIRCH (Beiula kenaica) is an Alaska species concerning which com- 

 paratively little is known, except that its botanical identity and something of its 

 range have been established. Its small size, and the remote regions where it grows, 

 do not necessarily indicate that it can never be important. Scarcity of other woods 

 may give it a place which it does not now occupy. No reports on the properties of 

 the wood have been made. The bark is deep brown in color. Trees are from twenty 

 to thirty feet high and from twelve to eighteen inches in diameter. The trunks are 

 very short. Cones are an inch or less in length and the double winged seeds are 

 very small. The name applied to this species relates to the region where the best 

 developed trees have been found. As far as known, the species is confined to the 

 coast region of Alaska and to adjacent islands from the head of Lynn canal westward. 

 It has been reported on Koyukuk river above the Arctic circle. 



WHITE BIRCH (Betula populifolia) is known also as gray birch, old-field birch, 

 poverty birch, poplar-leaved birch, and small white birch. It is chiefly confined to 

 the northeastern part of the United States, but grows as far east as Nova Scotia, and 

 west to the southern shore of Lake Ontario. It occurs on the Atlantic coast south to 

 Delaware, and along mountain ranges to West Virginia. The names describe either 

 the habits or the appearance of the tree. The bark is white, and is the most promi- 

 nent feature of a thicket of these graceful but practically worthless little birches. It 

 is called an old-field species because it quickly scatters its small, winged seeds over 

 abandoned farmland and takes possession when it does not have to compete with 

 stronger species. Poverty birch is an allusion, either to the poor ground it occupies 

 or the unpromising nature of the tree itself. The resemblance of its leaves to those 

 of cottonwood leads some people to prefer the name poplar-leaved birch. The tree 

 at its best is seldom more than forty feet high and eighteen inches in diameter. A 

 height of twenty or thirty feet is the usual size. The stem is generally clothed with 

 branches nearly to the ground. The wood is light, soft, not strong or durable, heart 

 light brown, thick sap nearly white. The form and size of the trunk exclude it from 

 sawmills, but it has some special uses: Spools, shoe pegs, and hoops. Its small size 

 does not disqualify it for service along those lines. The tree springs up quickly, 

 grows with fair rapidity, and dies young. It is cut for cordwood in New England 

 and makes good fuel. It takes possession of areas bared by fire, and protects the 

 ground, furnishing shelter for more valuable species which come later. 



BLUB BIRCH (Betula ccendea) is a small tree of which more information is to 

 be desired. It is rarely more than thirty feet high with a diameter of eight or ten 



