7O 



THE ST. LOUIS LUMBERMAN. 



all parts of the State and small amounts are cut 

 in all the counties. It is not the tree's habit to 

 produce pure forests, like short-leaf pine, but trees 

 are scattered among forests of other species, grow- 

 ing best where the soil is fertile and deep. When 

 no obstacles are met, the hickory likes to send a 

 large central root, like a radish, deep down into 

 the subsoil. It is a tree of fairly rapid growth, 

 and the wood is separated in two parts, white and 

 red. The white is the sapwood, and in young trees 

 makes up most of the trunk. Many small trees 

 show only a small core of redwood in the center; 

 large trees increase the proportionate quantity of 

 the red. The white wood of a young trunk becomes 

 red when the trunk is old. Hickory is not peculiar 

 in this respect, however, since most trees change 

 the sapwood to heartwood as the tree becomes old* 

 The belief is well-nigh universal that the white 

 wood of the hickory is better than the red; yet 

 the differences are so slight as to be negligible, and 

 for some purposes the red wood is fully equal to 

 the other. The red is more often rejected through 

 prejudice or misunderstanding than for any just 

 cause. There are many degrees of excellence in 

 both the white and the red. The butt of a tree 

 is usually better than the top, and a young trunk 

 growing in the open is more apt than a large one 

 to possess the desired properties of toughness, elas- 

 ticity, and strength. Of course, a large trunk near 

 the ground is freer from knots than is the top of 

 the same tree; and the matter of knots often has 

 much to do in determining the fitness of hickory 

 for special purposes. 



It is well known that good commercial hickory 

 is becoming scarce. The demand is enormous; 

 but until recent years there was always plenty a 

 little farther back, and a higher price would bring 

 it to market. But the time has now come when 

 not much lies farther back anywhere, and even if 

 higher prices were offered, few new sources would 

 be made available though the supplies might be 

 used up a little faster. It is by no means too early 

 to discuss the effects which will follow decline in 

 the hickory output. Scarcity is bound to come, and 

 nowhere in the world has there yet been found a 

 wood to take hickory's place for some of its most 

 exacting uses. Claims have been made for a few, 

 notably some species of eucalyptus and the crow- 

 foot elm of Australia; but these claims have not 

 yet been made good. The supply of hickory can be 

 lengthened by economy, by using this wood for 

 the highest purposes only for which it is suitable, 

 and substituting other woods in inferior places. 

 There is much waste and it might be lessened. In 

 some instances it seems well-nigh unavoidable be- 

 cause of distance from market and other economic 

 conditions which prevent full utilization. There 

 is, nevertheless, much waste which might be pre- 

 vented by care and foresight. 



Hickory might be grown with profit. There Is 

 much land in Missouri suited to that purpose. 

 Woodlots planted with trees properly spaced, and 

 the trunks cleared of limbs to give clean and 

 smooth boles, would grow rapidly into money. The 

 cordwood from the tops and limbs of such a cut- 

 ting, when the woodlot is harvested, would, if near 

 a good market, be worth enough to pay a large 

 part of the taxes and other costs incurred tn bring- 

 ing the trees to marketable size. A hickory need 

 not be very large to make good handles, and the 

 growth of a few more years will give it size suffi- 

 cient for larger commodities. 



Yellow Poplar. 



Missouri is not a large producer but is a rather 

 large user of yellow poplar. This fine tree is at 

 its best farther east, in Tennessee, Kentucky and 

 West Virginia, but 86 mills reported cutting some 

 of the lumber in 1909 in Missouri. It is another of 

 the valuable timbers which are passing away. The 

 cut for the whole country in 1909 was 23 per cent 

 less than it was ten years earlier. Poplar was once 

 used for nearly all ordinary purposes, but it has 

 now become expensive and goes chiefly into high- 

 class work. Missouri finds place for nearly ten 

 and three-quarters million feet of it a year, which is 

 several times as much as its forests produce. Nine- 

 ty per cent of the total demanded by the factories 

 of the State comes chiefly from Tennessee and 

 Kentucky. It finishes very smooth, and it takes 

 stains so well that one of its principal uses is as 

 imitation of mahogany, cherry, and birch. It was 

 once largely used for farm wagon beds, but it is 

 made into bodies and panels for buggies, carriages, 

 and automobiles. There is no wood in this country 

 that will paint to better advantage, and that quality 

 gives yellow poplar one of its principal values. 

 The trunks grow large, tall, and free from limbs 

 half or two-thirds of the way to the tops. They 

 yield clear lumber, and of high grade. No Ameri- 

 can hardwood surpasses it in this respect, and few 

 softwoods are its equal. Extra wide pieces are cut, 

 suitable for large panels, or whole counter tops. 



White Ash. 



Six species of ash are found in Missouri, all of 

 some commercial importance, and in the aggregate 

 ot much value. Only one species is reported by 

 manufacturers in the State, the white ash. There 

 is no question that most or all of the others are 

 used, but they are not separately distinguished 

 by those who handle them at the mills and fac- 



tories, and thus go in under one name. The white 

 ash is more abundant than the others; perhaps 

 in Missouri it exceeds in quantity all the others 

 combined. The differences between the wood of 

 that species and that of the other ashes associated 

 with it are not apparent to the ordinary observer. 

 The species of ash in Missouri are the white, black, 

 blue, green, red, and pumpkin. It is noticeable 

 that all, except the pumpkin ash, are named from 

 some color. It is difficult to assign a satisfactory 

 reason why this is so. The winter buds and the 

 bark of the red ash suggest the name, but the red 

 color is by no means pronounced; the other spe- 

 cies in the list have not that much to suggest the 

 colors which commonly go with their names. 



Ash is a strong, stiff, serviceable wood. White 

 ash is usually considered a little better than the 

 others for general use. It is widely distributed in 

 this country, and Missouri produces some of the 

 best in the market, though it is not among the 

 largest producers, as nine States were ahead of it 

 in 1909, Arkansas standing first on the list. More 

 than four per cent of the country's ash lumber is 

 credited to Missouri. This species seldom forms 

 thick forests, but usually the trees grow scatter- 

 ingly, a single tree or a few in a place. It may 

 be said generally that ash is used where strength 

 and rigidity are desired in furniture, machines, 

 and particularly in farm tool handles, such as shov- 

 els, rakes, scythes and hoes. The grain of the wood 

 is rather coarse, yet it may be nicely finished and 

 it then presents a handsome appearance in furni- 

 ture and interior finish. It is the most widely used 

 wood in this country for boat oars. It is heavier 

 than spruce and cedar and for that reason they 

 are sometimes preferred to it for oars. The ash is 

 well able to hold its own among other trees in the 

 matter of reproduction, and it will maintain a place 

 in the forest for a long time to come. Its seeds 

 are winged, and the wind carries them. They do 

 not, however, fly as readily or as far as the ma- 

 ple's seeds, whose wings whirl them rapidly in air 

 and help to sustain them, while the ash's seed has 

 a wing so narrow and of such a shape that it does 

 not whirl as rapidly as the maple's and can not 

 carry the load so far. Seedling ashes, therefore, 

 are usually found in the vicinity of the parent 

 trees. 



Douglas Fir. 



This wood was unknown in the eastern and mid- 

 dle regions of the United States a few years ago, 

 and as a comparatively new comer, it has met 

 with favor. Most of it is cut in Washington and 

 Oregon, but it abounds in the northern Rocky 

 Mountain States. A common name for it is Ore- 

 gon pine, and it is occasionally called red fir. The 

 trees attain great size, and very large timbers are 

 cut from them. In Missouri it enters into competi- 

 tion with long-leaf pine probably oftener than with 

 any other. The two woods are much alike in many 

 ways. Both are very strong and stiff, and are used 

 for similar purposes. Douglas fir is cut in larger 

 quantity than any other wood in the world, except 

 the southern yellow pines, and is so cheap in the 

 regions where it is produced that it is able to force 

 its way into markets hundreds or thousand of 

 miles away. More than five million feet yearly 

 are bought by manufacturers in Missouri at an 

 average price of $33.76 delivered at the factory. 

 That is between seven and eight dollars more than 

 the average price paid in the State for long-leaf 

 pine. 



White Pine. 



The reign of the white pine in the United States 

 is a thing of the past, though a fairly large amount 

 is still demanded by Missouri manufacturers. The 

 tree does not grow in the State, and the lumber 

 now used there conies principally from the Lake 

 States, where it was once lumbered in enormous 

 quantities, but now to a much less extent. One of 

 its largest uses in Missouri is for patterns. No 

 other wood as satisfactory can be had. Of course, 

 much white pine lumber is still in the market, but 

 not all that passes for white pine is the genuine 

 article. Some is Norway pine cut in the Lake 

 States and Canada; some is the western white 

 pine (a different species) from the Northern Rocky 

 Mountain States; the California sugar pine fur- 

 nishes some of it, and the western yellow pine 

 more, and a small amount is the Mexican white 

 pine. This last is said by good judges to be the 

 nearest approach to genuine white pine lumber in 

 this country. These several species pass as white 

 pine in the lumber market, and it is difficult to 

 determine how much of the total is the real article. 

 All are good woods, and for some purposes are 

 doubtless as good as white pine. No manufacturer 

 expects, nor should the buying public expect, to ob- 

 tain white pine now of a grade equal to that on the 

 market when the original pine forests of New Eng- 

 land, New York, Pennsylvania, and the Lake States 

 were available. 



Silver Maple. 



In Missouri this tree is usually called soft ma- 

 ple, and four and a half million feet are bought 

 annually by factories, at an average cost a little 

 under $25 a thousand. One-third of it is cut in the 

 State. The only other maple reported was sugar 

 or hard mapli. It was demanded in smaller quan- 

 tity and cost nearly ten dollars more a thousand. 



Most of it came from States north of Missouri. 

 The wood of these two maples bears much resemb- 

 lance. Their differences are well expressed by the 

 terms hard and soft as applied to the wood. That 

 of the silver maple is weaker and of the sugar ma- 

 ple stronger. Both produce accidental forms of 

 growth called birdseye. This is not, as some sup- 

 pose, a different kind of tree, but the birdseye ef- 

 fect is caused by buds that grow up through the 

 wood during many years, and never succeed in 

 forcing their way through the bark. Birdseye ef- 

 fect is found in other woods than maple, and is 

 due to similar causes. 



The botanical ranges of the sugar and the silver 

 maple lie in the same general regions the eastern 

 and northeastern parts of the United States, ex- 

 tending into the Gulf States but their commercial 

 ranges differ. Most of the sugar maple is cut in 

 northern regions, but not much in the South. The 

 reverse is true for silver maple. Little is cut in 

 the North, and a comparatively large amount fur- 

 ther south. Missouri produces more silver maple 

 than sugar maple. Sawmills do not usually keep 

 the two species separate where they cut both, for 

 which reason it is difficult to determine the pro^ 

 portionate quantities of each in the output. The 

 census returns compiled by the United States do 

 not list maple separately in lumber returns, though 

 five or six species contribute to the total. The 

 maple is a tree difficult to exterminate. It pro- 

 duces multitudes of seeds, ripens them in the spring 

 and scatters them well before the early sur/mer 

 rain? are over, and maple reproduction is heavy. 

 Young trees thus constantly come on, and their 

 effect on the lumber supply will be apparent in 

 future years. Trees, like the cypress, which go 

 and leave few seedlings to take their places, can 

 not be counted upon in the country's future lum- 

 ber supply, as the maple can. 



White Elm. 



This was the only elm listed by the Missouri 

 manufacturers, but there can be no question that 

 other species of elm were included. Pour are found 

 in that State in quantity to make them commercial- 

 ly important. The white elm is most abundant, and 

 is associated with slippery elm, cork elm, and wing 

 elm. The name "rock" elm is sometimes applied 

 to all of these, by different persons and in differ- 

 ent localities. It is a term like "rock" oak which 

 does not mean any tree in particular, although 

 the man who uses the term may know what species 

 he has in mind. White elm is the most common 

 of the elms in most regions where different species 

 grow; slippery elm is seldom mistaken for any 

 other, because of its thick, soft, mucilaginous inner 

 bark; cork elm is so named on account of the 

 dark, chocolate colored corky excrescences on the 

 small twigs; and wing elm receives its name 

 from a very similar growth, but in its case, the 

 excrescences are flattened, like little keels, on op- 

 posite sides of the twigs, and resemble long narrow 

 wings. 



Workers in wood say that few trees show as 

 readily as elm the effect of soil upon wood. One 

 soil may produce brash wood, another a very tough 

 one; and there seems to be much difference in 

 weight and color, which is accounted for by differ- 

 ences in soils. This may explain why in one lo- 

 cality the name rock elm is applied to a certain 

 species, and in another locality the term is given 

 to an elm of a different species. The wood of all 

 the elms is coarse and characterless, and is never 

 employed where handsome appearance is the ob- 

 ject sought. 



Sweet Birch. 



Manufacturers of furniture, interior house finish, 

 and other wood commodities in Missouri use nearly 

 three million feet of birch, which comes almost en- 

 tirely from outside the State. A large part of it 

 is sweet birch, also called cherry birch and ma- 

 hogany birch because it is frequently finished in 

 imitation of those woods. It is a northern tree, 

 rather expensive when it reaches the furniture fac- 

 tory, and it is becoming scarce. The name "sweet" 

 is given it because the soft new growth of wood 

 just under the bark in early summer is often 

 scraped off and eaten by children and others. It 

 has an aromatic flavor and a pleasant and peculiar 

 taste. Most of the oil of wiutergreen of commerce 

 is made from this birch. There are other birches 

 in the lumber market, but yellow birch is probably 

 the only one which ever passes for the sweet birch. 

 Most of it comes from regions where the sweet 

 birch grows, and the heartwood of the two species 

 bears considerable resemblance, but no one would 

 ever mistake a standing tree of one for the other. 

 River birch grows in Missouri, and doubtless some 

 of it is used, though no manufacturer reported it. 

 The wood is very plain, presents no figure, and the 

 color is dull and without character; yet the wood 

 possesses substantial qualities which fit it for many 

 common purposes. 



Chestnut. 



This wood does not grow in Missouri, and there 

 is no reason to suppose that it will ever be planted 

 in the State for commercial purposes. The larg- 

 est supply comes from Pennsylvania, West Vir- 

 ginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. Some chinquapin, 

 which resembles chestnut, grows in Missouri and 



