34 



THE LUMBER TRADE JOURNAL 



[New Orleans, La., June 15, 1912. 



light and flat. It, has been tried experimentally for 

 stair balusters and molding, but the effect is too 

 plain to be popular. Its most common use is for 

 vehicle repairs and tool handles. 



Horsebean. The shape of this tree is against its 

 extensive use as a commercial wood. It has a per- 

 sistent habit of dividing near the ground into from 

 three to a dozen stems, some of which may be a foot 

 in diameter. It is a green-bark tree, wide-spreading 

 and handsome, and has been planted in this and 

 foreign countries. It grows about San Antonio, 'but 

 is at its best near the Rio Grande about and above 

 Brownsville, and between there and Kingsville, 

 where it is called "ratama." It is armed with thorns 

 and it seems to be able to make room for its low, 

 wide spreading crown by shading to death other 

 growth near It. The wood is fine grained and tinged 

 with yellow. It lends itself well to the making 

 of small articles, and local shops and individuals 

 work it into paper knives, rulers, cups, goblets, pa- 

 per weights and various novelties. 



Huisache. Along the Rio Grande they. call this 

 tree "cassie," a shortening of acacia. It is much 

 planted for ornament about Brownsville. While 

 the tree is standing it is clearly enough distin- 

 guished from mesquite, but the woods of the two 

 species are so much alike that popularly they are 

 regarded the same. Mesquite is much more abund- 

 ant and reaches larger size. The sapwood of hui- 

 sache is thin and logs that remain in shelter for 

 some time are apt to be bored through the sap by 

 beetles, but the borers stop when they come in con- 

 tact with the heartwood. An examination of several 

 large pieces that had 'been seasoning for several 

 months showed that the wood warps and checks 

 pretty badly. It shows well in turn'ery, such as ta- 

 ble legs, spindles, mallet handles, and small egg 

 cups, .button boxes, and rounds for large chairs. It 

 takes a 'high polish, and it closely resembles the 

 best grade of black walnut, but is much harder and 

 stronger. It was not reported from any furniture 

 factory, tout it is used to some extent in furniture 

 making. The chief objection to it is its extreme 

 hardness. It is next to impossible to drive a nail 

 into it without first boring a hole. 'Some of the rail- 

 roads near the Rio Grande make cross ties of it. 

 The wood resists dec*y many years. 



Iromvood. They make wedges and small tool han- 

 dles of this white, unattractive wood. It is of slow 

 growth and is never large. 



Kalmia. The roots of this laurel are made into 

 pipes, spoons, paper knives and other novelties, but 

 not in large quantities. It is sometimes called calico 

 bush, sometimes spoonwood, and occasionally moun- 

 tain laurel. 



Koeberlinia. The local name of this peculiar tree 

 is "hoonkoo" (Junco). Its nearest relative in this 

 country is the paradise tree of Florida and the ailan- 

 thus introduced from China. It has a small, thorny, 

 crooked trunk; the wood is dark, turning nearly 

 black with exposure; it is rich with oil; and it is 

 very hard. The species grows in certain places 

 along the Rio Grande. The wood is made into canes, 

 rulers, knife handles, turned articles, and a little 

 furniture of the smaller kinds. The trunks are too 

 small for ordinary sizes of lumber. Samples of this 

 wood in furniture were exhibited at the Brownsville 

 midwinter fair in 1911-12. 



Lignum Vitae. The range of this species in Tex- 

 as extends along the lower course of the Rio Grande. 

 A trunk eight inches in diameter, near Brownsville, 

 came from a tree thirty feet high. The annual rings 

 were too vague and complicated to -be counted, ,but 

 the tree is evidently of slow growth. The wood is 

 pitted and it contains cavities and creases; but the 

 clear wood is very hard and of fine and various 

 colors. It is dark green, brown, black, yellow and 

 of mixed colors, and clouded effects, all in the same 

 block. Small pieces of furniture, like bureau cab- 

 inets, present attractive combinations of colors. The 

 wood is of such exceeding hardness that it turns, 

 'breaks, or batters the carpenter's tools. An army 

 officer at Brownsville some years ago made numer- 

 ous articles of it, such as boxes, trays, souvenirs, 

 canes, paper knives and others which are said to 

 have attracted much attention. Candlesticks, egg 

 cups, goblets, vases, checker pieces, and dominos are 

 now manufactured in a small way. The local name 

 for the wood is "guayacan" in Hidalgo county where 

 the best of it is said to grow. 



Lire Oak. Since live oak passed out of use for 

 shipbuilding, it has been a neglected wood, and is 

 now almost forgotten. In some states where it 

 grows it is not even mentioned in wood-using re- 

 ports. A year or more ago a lot of solid logs three 

 feet or more in diameter, and in or very near the 

 city limits of New Orleans, were offered free to any- 

 one who would haul them away, and no one took 

 them. Yet live oak when properly sawed and fin- 

 ished is among the handsomest of the oaks. Trunks 

 are short and the usual lengths of lumber cannot be 

 had. In Texas small quantities are used for a num- 

 ber of purposes, among them being parquetry floor- 

 ing, pedestals, panels, molding, grills, balusters, or- 

 naments and vehicles. The wood shows remarkably 



well when properly finished. The general tone is 

 dark brown and very rich. It takes a smooth polish. 

 The medullary rays are dark, conspicuous and run 

 in wavy lines which give a mottled effect when the 

 wood is made into spindles and small articles. When 

 worked into broad panels the colors may not run 

 uniformly, and the artistic effect is not quite so 

 good as in balusters and small moldings. 



Composite panels are manufactured by joining 

 several narrow strips edge to edge. The small pieces 

 may be matched in a way to form a pleasing whole. 

 Some finished pieces of live oak suggest Circassian 

 walnut, but would scarcely pass as an imitation of 

 it, and some resembles black walnut. This indi- 

 cates how different may be the appearance of se- 

 lected pieces of this oak. There is room for the 

 workman to select and match this wood to show 

 the best results. The value of this species as a 

 cabinet material has not been appreciated in the 

 past, nor have its possibilities been suspected. The 

 fine effect produced by made-up panels, and by 

 turned balusters and columns, indicates that piano 

 makers would find something new in live oak that 

 might be worth investigating. It is one of the most 

 abundant of the oaks in the extreme South, and the 

 best of it does not grow far inland from the castal 

 plains. 



Stone masons and others who use mallets and 

 mauls often prefer those made of live oak. The 

 junction of a limb with the trunk is selected as the 

 block from which the mallet is made. 



Longleaf Willow. Unless this species is too scarce 

 in commercial sizes it is worth a trial as furniture 

 material. The tone is softer and the color more 

 pleasing than black willow. When polished it bears 

 some resemblance to 'butternut. A tree fifteen 

 inches in diameter in eastern Texas had eighteen 

 annual rings and no heartwood. The color is a 

 dull white with a suggestion of yellow. The uni- 

 versity collection at Austin has a twenty-four inch 

 slab of this willow. An inspection of sample pan- 

 els and balusters made of it leaves a good impres- 

 sion of the wood's value. 



Longstalk Willow. Osiers of this species are used 

 along the Rio Grande by Mexicans to thatch houses. 

 The willow grows in dense holts on mud flats in the 

 river's flood plain. In the absence or scarcity of other 

 fuel, the small willows are whacked up, roots and 

 all, as wood for cook stoves. 



Mexican Madrona. Plane stocks and tool handles 

 are made of madrona in Texas, but not much is used. 

 The wood is hard, checks badly, and in color is a 

 little lighter than apple wood which it resembles. A 

 seven-inch trunk that was measured had no sap- 

 wood, and its annual rings were scarcely visible. 

 The bark's wine-color readily identifies the species 

 in the forest. 



Mexican Palmetto. In the vicinity of Browns- 

 ville, summer houses and picnic pavilions are con- 

 structed with posts or palisades of palmetto. The 

 leaves are occasionally employed for thatching. 

 Such posts are said to last many years. The lar- 

 gest posts used in that way are about one foot in 

 diameter and twenty feet high, but trees of larger 

 size grow along the Rio Grande. 



Mexican Persimmon. The value of the Mexican 

 persimmon lies in its dark heartwood. A trunk six 

 inches in diameter in the university collection at 

 Austin is nearly all heartwood. The wood is irreg- 

 ular in color, even in the same piece, 'being varie- 

 gated with lighter and darker streaks, and cloudy 

 effects. It ought to be fine brush-back material. It 

 is worked into tool handles, lodge furniture, canes, 

 rules, pen holders, picture frames, curtain rings, 

 door knobs, parasol handles, and maul sticks for 

 artists. The trunk is gnarly, and the bark smooth 

 and thin. 



Mexican Walnut. The Mexican walnut does not 

 reach as large size in Texas as farther west. A 

 trunk eleven inches in diameter was the largest seen 

 in the course of this investigation. The wood re- 

 sembles black walnut, but is a little heavier, and 

 does not appear as regular in color. It polishes 

 well, and is worked into small turnery, gavels, cups, 

 picture frames, knife handles, and a little goes into 

 furniture. The wood is said to be scarce. The 

 nuts are edible, but are quite small, those growing 

 in the canyon of Devil's river not being more than 

 half as large as a medium sized nutmeg and bear- 

 ing much resemblance to it. 



Mistletoe. This is not a tree, and if classed as a, 

 wood it is a peculiar one. It is a parasite, and 

 grows on trees like a branch. No claim of com- 

 mercial importance is made for it, but it has been 

 experimented with for parasol handles, pipe stems 

 and pen racks. The wood is white and weak, and 

 stocks an inch in diameter are exceptionally large.. 



Palo Blanco. In Cameron and Hidalgo counties 

 palo bianco goes to the wagon shops as ash. It is 

 hard but is said to be weaker than ash. Table legs 

 and doubtless other parts of furniture are made 

 of it as a substitute for ash. 



Persimmon. The heartwood of persimmon is 

 made into mallets and gavels and other lodge fur- 

 niture. The sap is white, the heart very dark; 



though a trunk ten inches in diameter may have 

 no trace of heartwood. Persimmon belongs to the 

 ebony family. 



Pinon. Considerable of this nut pine is said to 

 be used locally in western Texas, on the ranches, 

 and in charcoal burning; but in the central and 

 eastern parts of the state it was not found in use 

 except that the university collection of woods at 

 Austin shows samples of it worked into panels and 

 balusters. 



Poison Sumach. Veneer for inlay and small strips 

 for musical instruments are the principal uses for 

 this small tree. The trunk may be five or six 

 inches in diameter. The wood is brown, streaked 

 with red and green, and contains dark rings not 

 apparently due to annual growth. The figure is 

 novel and attractive. 



Prickly Ash. Some know this species as "tooth- 

 ache tree," "tear-blanket," and "sting tongue." The 

 wood shows little difference in color between heart- 

 wood and sap. A measured trunk eleven inches in 

 diameter grew in twenty-three years. The wood 

 bears some resemblance to buckeye. It takes good 

 polish and some of it looks like birdseye maple, but 

 the figure does not seem to 'be due to adventitious 

 buds. It has been made into picture frames and 

 looks well. It is a rapid grower and since its color 

 fits it for the stencil, it might be worthy of consid- 

 eration for box material, when the time comes in 

 Texas for planting woodlots. 



Prickly Pear. Novelty stores at San Antonio and 

 elsewhere in southern Texas sell baskets made by 

 Mexicans from prickly pear roots the thickness of 

 a small toothpick. The baskets have capacities from 

 two or three to a dozen quarts. The roots are dyed 

 in different colors and the baskets are woven in 

 characteristic patterns. 



Red Bay. The bright red color commends the 

 wood for wider use Ihan it now has in Texas. Pin 

 trays, wooden dishes, small mirror frames, canes 

 and cupboard shelves were the only uses found. 



Red Maple. Its bright scarlet bloom gives the 

 red maple its name. The wood differs so little from 

 that of ordinary sugar or hard maple that in prac- 

 tice the two pass for one. Their uses are, conse- 

 quently, the same, but the red maple belongs more 

 to the South and sugar maple in the North. 



Red Mulberry. Selected mulberry heartwood is 

 darker in color and richer in appearance than much 

 of the black walnut on the market. If it were more 

 abundant it would hold a high place as furniture 

 material. It is used for table legs, chair arms, 

 small turned stock, grills and lattices, base-blocks 

 and panels, and is employed for cup and goblet turn- 

 ing. Mulberry is combined with agarita, prickly 

 ash, Mexican persimmon, holly and others in mak- 

 ing composite vases and cups by first gluing several 

 different colored woods in one block, and passing 

 it through the lathe. Some mulberry is made into 

 parquetry flooring. The tree is not a quick grower. 

 A log ten inches in diameter, measured near Austin, 

 had fifty annual rings. 



Rocky Mountain Oak. The largest trunk of this 

 species measured was only one foot in diameter, 

 with sapwood nearly two inches thick. The medul- 

 lary rays are broad and bright, and though the logs 

 are small they give good results in quarter sawing. 

 The figure is distinct. Spindles and balusters for 

 stairways, and turned capitals for newel posts have 

 been made of this oak. The trees in Texas are not 

 only small but they are scarce. 



Sassafras. In eastern Texas sassafras is used in 

 furniture making. It is not abundant in that re- 

 gion and is only occasionally cut. It is strong and 

 substantial, and while of deeper brown than ash it 

 otherwise resembles that wood in appearance. 



Scarlet Haw. Red haw is the usual name for this 

 tree in Texas. It is small and can never be of much 

 impotrance, but it has been used in small turnery 

 with good results. The wood is very hard and 

 heavy. 



Screwbean. The screwbean is much like mes- 

 quite and is put to similar uses, except that the for- 

 mer is smaller and more limited in its range. It 

 occurs along the valley of the Rio Grande from the 

 mouth of Devil's river to El Paso. 



Shittimwood. This species is abundant in por- 

 tions of Texas, trees at their best attaining a height 

 of sixty feet and a diameter of two or three. It is 

 frequently known as "gum elastic," the name re- 

 ferring to a resin exuded from wounds in the wood. 

 The resin is used locally as chewing gum. Some- 

 times the berries are added. A rather large quan- 

 tity of this species goes to the hardwood mills. The 

 wood is white, with a tinge of yellow, and Is used 

 for furniture, vehicles, agricultural implements, 

 boxes, crates, and for most other purposes for which 

 cheap ash, maple or elm is suitable. The wood is 

 plain. 



Silver Maple. Soft maple is the name commonly 

 applied to this species in Texas. It is softer, weak- 

 er and generally inferior to the sugar or hard ma- 

 ple (which does not grow commercially in Texas), 

 but for some purposes silver maple is liked better. 

 It is white and delicate, fits nicely in joinery, pol- 



