WHITE OAK 233 



from Texas north to central Wisconsin, and from there 

 across Michigan to the Canadian line and along that line 

 to central Maine and thence to the Atlantic Ocean. The 

 western slope of the Alleghany Mountains and the valley 

 of the Ohio River are the regions of its best development, 

 yet vast quantities of this noble tree have been found else- 

 where. In many sections of our country there once stood 

 pure forests of it, and in others it constituted more than 

 one half the stand. 



As with other trees, a rich suitable soil is conducive to 

 a vigorous growth, and the rapidity of that growth and the 

 size of the tree depend upon favorable conditions and sur- 

 lundings. Vigorous and rapidly growing Oaks produce 

 -ne best lumber. On dry, rocky ridges the tree grows slowly 

 and will not there attain a large size of body, but appears 

 to reach a limit beyond which it cannot go, and the wood 

 is not of the best quality. It is decidedly a light-demanding 

 tree. In the open, it will grow a large, short, and rapidly 

 tapering stem, with wide-spreading, large and frequently 

 specialized limbs, and assumes a rounded, low crown ; but 

 when crowded in a forest, it will shoot up a straight stem, 

 free from large limbs until well up, when it will throw out 

 spreading ones and form a somewhat irregular crown, but 

 in the main a round one. As a rule the stem tapers but 

 little when crowded until the large limbs are reached. In 

 some localities small bunches of twigs will be found along 

 the stem, even in quite a dense shade, but these never grow 

 large and do little injury to the lumber. 



The wood is strong, hard, heavy, tough, rather coarse- 

 grained, does not split easily, and shows a distinct mark- 

 ing between spring and summer growth. It is durable when 

 exposed to the weather or in contact with the ground. The 

 large amount of acid in the wood serves to protect it from 

 the attacks of many of the fungi. The heartwood is of a 

 rather yellowish light-brown color, with slightly lighter and 

 not very thick sapwood. Its medullary rays are large and 

 conspicuous, and when lumber is sawed radially "quar- 



