BEECH : Fagus americana 



THIS well-known tree is distributed, intermittently, 

 throughout nearly the whole country east of the Missis- 

 sippi River. It is one of the very few trees that have escaped 

 a number of names. It is universally known as Beech, al- 

 though in some sections it is called Red, White, and Ridge 

 Beech. It was long used for a limited number of pur- 

 poses, but as other species of timber trees became scarce, 

 it has been made to play its part in furnishing a supply of 

 lumber, and it is now put to many uses, mainly because 

 nothing better can be secured for the money. Homer says 

 the Beech is "the tree of Father Jupiter." When grown 

 in a dense stand, it sends up a straight, smooth, and slightly 

 tapering stem, clear of limbs for fully one half or more 

 of its height, with comparatively small and short crooked 

 limbs ; but when in the open, it branches out low down and 

 forms a rather dense and rounded crown. It is tolerant of 

 shade, as much so as any of our timber trees. It has been 

 known to reach a height of one hundred and fifteen feet, 

 with a diameter of forty inches, but the average of what 

 may be called mature trees is much less, ordinarily reach- 

 ing a height of seventy-five feet and a diameter of eighteen 

 to twenty inches. 



There is quite a prevalent belief that there are two spe- 

 cies in this country, Red and White Beech. That is a mis- 

 take. When in the open, the tree grows rapidly in early 

 life. It is not unusual for it to make an annual growth of 

 one fourth or even five sixteenths of an inch during the 

 first thirty or forty years of its life, and nearly all of this 

 will be sapwood and white ; but in the forest its growth is 

 slower, and for some unknown reason the change from sap- 

 wood is there more rapid and the relative amount of sap- 

 wood is much less ; this has given rise to the belief in two 



