RED OAK 249 



coarse-grained, seldom tough, and has well-marked annual 

 rings, showing plain distinction between spring and sum- 

 mer growth. The heartwood is light brown or red with 

 rather thin, darker-colored sapwood. The medullary rays 

 are neither so broad nor so conspicuous as in White Oak. 

 There is considerable tannic acid in the wood. The wood 

 is not durable when exposed to the weather or in contact 

 with the ground. It is easy to work, takes a good finish 

 when the pores or ducts are filled, but is quite given to 

 checking when seasoning; but this can be largely obviated 

 by proper piling. It takes glue well, but, as with all other 

 woods, heartwood should be joined to heartwood and sap- 

 wood to sapwood. It is used for interior finish, furniture, 

 some kinds of cheap cooperage, general construction, and 

 even clapboards and shingles. When chemically treated, it 

 makes a very good railroad tie, especially if the tree from 

 which it is cut is healthy and vigorous. Several railroad 

 companies are planting it for that purpose with a view 

 to treating it chemically. It has its defects. One is that 

 cracks will frequently be found in large trees reaching 

 from the centre quite out to the sapwood and running from 

 the ground twenty or thirty feet upward. Unless properly 

 placed on the mill carriage the saw cuts across these checks 

 and spoils more or less lumber. Another defect is that old 

 trees are infested with worms the same as old Chestnut. 



Red Oak sprouts from the stump quite freely, and if 

 properly cared for, natural reproduction will take place 

 after a fashion, but, as with other trees that throw up 

 sprouts, the second generation will be so weakened as to be 

 of little value. Sprouts of Red Oak rarely attain a size 

 suitable for the saw and are almost invariably more or less 

 decayed at the butt. This is the experience of practically 

 all lumbermen who have harvested such growth. 



The tree is a prolific seeder, bearing large acorns, which 

 are so bitter and so highly charged with tannin that few 

 animals will eat them. They require two "years to mature. 

 Propagation by planting the acorns where the trees are to 



