OF VIRGINIA 21 



seeds in rough round balls. The black gum has an oval leaf and bears 

 a small bluish-black fruit containing a single seed. Not many years 

 ago red gum had little value as lumber owing to its tendency to 

 twist and warp when seasoned in the ordinary way. Its first ex- 

 tensive use was for slack-barrel staves and heading. With the intro- 

 duction of rotary-cut veneer machines it jumped into prominence as 

 an excellent veneer wood and in 1909 red gum furnished nearly three 

 limes as much veneer material as any other wood. Improved methods 

 of kiln-drying were afterwards inaugurated and the lumbermen were 

 not long learning to market the lumber successfully and it is now 

 in great demand for a number of uses. The sapwood of red 

 gum is almost white. Commercially it is called sap gum and is usually 

 sold separately from the heartwood to meet different uses. Some 

 trees have a large per cent of sapwood. The heartwood is usually 

 a reddish light brown but in some trees the heartwood is dark brown, 

 attractively mottled, and in color and figure resembles Circassian 

 walnut. When such trees are quarter-sawed, and made into high 

 grade furniture, piano cases, and Venetian blinds, their wood often 

 appears in the market under the names Hazel wood, satin walnut, 

 and California red gum. This wood readily absorbs stain and takes 

 on a high polish. In consequence it is made to imitate mahogany, 

 cherry and oak. The Virginia manufacturers use more red gum than 

 any other <hardwood except white oak. Nearly 55 per cent of it is 

 grown in the State. 



YELLOW POPLAR 



The yellow poplar tree has a tulip-shaped flower which gives it 

 the name of tulip-tree, in many localites. In some localities the wood 

 is known commercially as white wood, notwithstanding a large pro- 

 portion of the lumber cut from this tree has a greenish-yellow color. 

 The light colored wood of the tree is often sold on the markets as 

 white poplar and -the darker as yellow poplar. Botanically it is Lirio- 

 dendron tulipifera. It is in a class by itself having in this country no 

 surviving related species. Its range extends from southern New York 

 to Florida and from the Atlantic Coast to the Mississippi River, with 

 a very small area in southeastern Missouri and adjacent Arkansas. 

 In Virginia it is one of the largest and most valuable trees of the forest 

 and reaches its best development on the mountain slopes where trees 

 have been reported to be from 150 to 190 feet high and from 8 to 10 

 feet in diameter. It is also cut for lumber in the farm forests of the 

 Piedmont Region, and less frequently in the coastal plains. The Vir- 

 ginia saw-mills reported sawing 114,000,000 feet in 1909 and the wood 

 users consumed in further manufacture less than 27,000,000 feet. 



