THE ASHES 



THERE are sixteen species of Ashes in the United States, 

 but barely six of them produce merchantable lumber. These 

 are White, Red, Green, Blue, Black, and Oregon Ash. In 

 the lumber trade all but the last two are classed and sold 

 as White Ash. This is not a strictly correct classification, 

 for two of them Red and Green produce lumber some- 

 what inferior to White Ash, while Blue Ash is superior for 

 some purposes. Still, for most uses there is little practical 

 difference in value and it cannot be claimed that there is 

 much wrong done by this classification. Black Ash is classed 

 alone, for its wood is widely different, although it is used 

 for many purposes that the others are. 



WHITE ASH : Fraxinus americana 



THIS species leads all others in value when quality of 

 wood, size of tree, length of life, adaptableness to varying 

 conditions of soil, and facility of propagation are considered; 

 and probably there has been more White Ash lumber con- 

 sumed in this country than of all the other species of Ashes 

 combined. Its natural range is from Maine to northern 

 Florida, westward, intermittently, to Minnesota, and, in some 

 localities, across the Mississippi River into eastern Kansas 

 and Nebraska, and its botanical range is, no doubt, greater. 

 Its best development is claimed to be in the Ohio River 

 basin. Very fine specimens were found in Pennsylvania, 

 especially on the gentle slopes and along the streams of the 

 Alleghany Mountains. It was there frequently seen from 

 one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five feet high and 

 four feet in diameter with a straight and slightly tapering 

 stem, clean of limbs for fifty to sixty feet or more. It was 

 never found in pure stands, but mixed with other broadleaf 



