White Oak of the United States. 123 



Art. X. On the white Oak of the United States (Quercus alba L.). 



By G. C. 



In answer to your enquiries respecting the white oak, I have to state that it 

 grows in all the middle States in America ; it grows some distance south of 

 Pennsylvania, but I do not know how far. I know it does not grow in the 

 extreme southern States. It grows north of Boston, but it ceases to grow in 

 Maine; therefore the oak that comes from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, &c., 

 is but of little value. White oak is good for building purposes ; and the 

 timbers of the old houses, barns, mills, &c., built with it, which is the case with 

 most of them, are as sound, after standing 150 years, as those in this country 

 that are built of English oak. White oak is the principal timber used in ship- 

 building : all the line-packets are built with it, timbers, planks, and knees ; 

 and all the government ships of war are pretty much built of live oak, but 

 planked with white oak. White oak is excellent for machinery, far surpassing 

 any wood that we have in this country, being so much stronger and so much 

 tougher than our ash. All the naves and sides of their light waggons and other 

 vehicles are made with it, also the hoops or bows that go over the tops, whether 

 covered with leather or canvass ; also the spokes of the wheels, and being so 

 much tougher than our oak they are made much less ; the rims, or felloes, 

 also, are sawed out of white oak plank, and being so much stronger than 

 our ash or elm they are not near the size we have them, and will last as long 

 again, as the wood is so much more durable. Shafts of all waggons, carts, 

 &c., are made of it, let them be ever so heavy or ever so light. For coach- 

 poles it is better than lance-wood, because it is lighter, and will not fly ; it is 

 better than our ash, because you can make it less, and it will not snap off like 

 ash. All the frames of their railroad cars and steam-engines are made of 

 white oak, and they make them lighter than we do with English oak, because 

 it is tougher ; also staves for casks, vats, &c. The white oak is the wood 

 generally used there, more than oak and^ ash both put together are here, as it 

 has the qualities of both, and is much superior. This wood enables the Ame- 

 ricans so much to surpass us in carriage and steam-boat building. We are a 

 quarter of a century behind them, at least. A gentleman's carriage here will 

 weigh more than two of theirs ; and there is as much difference between a 

 steam-boat at New York and one at London, as there is between a gentle- 

 man's carriage and a common cart. When the white oak is small, it is fit for 

 hoops for barrels, &c. ; when it is as big as your arm, it is fit for all purposes 

 that our ash is ; and, as it gets larger, it is fit for all purposes that I have 

 enumerated, and many others. I should say a nice warm sandy loam will 

 suit the growth in this country. 1 do not think it would do in the deep clays, 

 like our oak. I think a soil adapted for elms would suit it better. 

 Southampton, Dec. 2. 1842. 



The American White Oak (^Querciis alba L., Encyc. of Trees and Shrubs, 

 p. 862.). — " A laudable anxiety to introduce this species on a large scale has 

 existed in England from the days of Elizabeth to the present time ; and, during 

 this period, hundreds, nay thousands, of pounds have been expended in the 

 importation of acorns. Bartram, Michaux, Cobbett, and a host of nursery- 

 men, besides private gentlemen, have all signally failed. Cobbett, alone, ex- 

 pended many hundred pounds in his efforts to accomplish this object; and 

 every plant he raised, I have no doubt, cost him a crown. Nurserymen do 

 sometimes succeed in obtaining a few plants from a large importation of acorns ; 

 but at so great an expense, that no gentleman can afford to plant them: and 

 this I call failing, failing to introduce this invaluable tree, for the purpose of 

 forming plantations on that scale necessary to render it worthy of consider- 

 ation in a national point of view. Acorns cannot be gathered from the tree 

 on account of the expense, though even this might be submitted to, if the 



