30 WOOD-USING INDUSTRIES 



supplying wood of commercial value. Its attractive flower distinguishes 

 it in the spring, and in the autumn it can be identified at once by the 

 clusters of shining scarlet berries and the rich purple color of its 

 leaves. It ranges throughout Virginia in scattered stands along banks 

 of streams but most profusely in the western and southwestern part, 

 in vales and mountain ravines. The wood is in great demand because 

 it is heavy, hard, strong, and close-grained, and the supply is insuffi- 

 cient to meet the demand. For special uses, suitable substitutes have 

 been found in persimmon wood and great laurel. Its most exacting 

 demand comes from the manufacturers of shuttles. 



ELM 



There are four or more species of elm growing in the eastern 

 United States, but only two, in scattered stands, are of commercial 

 importance in Virginia. They are white elm, and slippery elm. The 

 trees are easily distinguished at sight in the forest, for when the leaves 

 of the two are compared the difference is apparent. The easiest iden- 

 tification is by removing a piece of bark. The slippery elm's inner bark 

 as the name suggests, is mucilaginous and fragrant, while that of the 

 white elm is not. Elm is an unimportant lumber tree in Virginia, only 

 thirty-one mills cut it last year and the combined quanitity of them all 

 was almost insignificant. The manufacturers used more than 'three 

 times as much as the sawmills produced. All of the rock or slippery 

 elm reported was shipped in from other States, while the white elm 

 was entirely home-grown. 



WALNUTS 



With one exception, the black walnut yields the most valuable 

 cabinet wood of the North American trees. It was once quite plentiful 

 from the eastern foothills of the Appalachians and the Adirondacks 

 to Nebraska and Kansas. It is now very scarce. It is a slow grower 

 but its increasing value has encouraged effort looking to its propa- 

 gation on a commercial scale. Early in the I7th century the forests 

 of Virginia began to contribute black walnut logs for export to England 

 and since then this wood has been a valuable article of commerce. In 

 1909, 210 sawmills cut 2 1-3 million feet. The dark brown heartwood 

 which was a rich color and takes an attractive finish, is prized for 

 furniture, fixtures, gun stocks, sewing machines and cabinet work. 



Butternut is a species of "walnut" sometimes called white walnut. 

 Its eastern range limit ends in the miountans of western Virginia. The 

 difference in the size and shape of the rough shelled nuts from those 



