﻿48 BULLETIN 12, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



generally used for the same purposes as sugar maple, but figures 

 showing quantities can not be compiled, because this wood is seldom 

 reported under its own name. Occasionally it is called black sugar 

 maple, and more frequently hard maple. 



RED MAPLE. 



(Acer rubrum. ) 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. 



Weight of dry wood. — 3S.5 pounds per cubic foot (Sargent). 



Specific gra city. — 0.617S ( Sargent ) . 



Ash. — 0.37 per cent weight of dry wood (Sargent). 



Fuel value.— S3 per cent that of white oak (Sargent). 



Breaking strength (modulus of rupture). — 11,400 pounds per square inch, or 

 91 per cent that of white oak (Sargent). 



Factor of stiffness (modulus of elasticity). — 1,297,000 pounds per square 

 inch, or 9S per cent that of white oak (Sargent). 



Heavy, hard, strong, compact, easily worked, medullary rays obscure, color 

 brown, often tinged with red, the sapwood lighter. 



Height, 75 to 100 feet ; diameter, 1* to 3 feet, occasionally larger. 



Red maple grows from Canada to Florida and westward to Wis- 

 consin, Iowa, and Texas. It reaches its best development in the 

 lower Ohio Valley and thence southward to the valley of the Yazoo. 

 In some portions of its range it is abundant, but in others scarce, and 

 estimates of the commercial supply can not be made with any ac- 

 curacy. Statistics of lumber cut throw little light on the subject, 

 for the various species of maple are all grouped as one. In some in- 

 stances, as in the case of broadleaf maple of the Pacific coast, the 

 region is a guide to the species, but that does not hold for red maple, 

 because several of the species are lumbered in the same region with it. 

 In most instances, lumber cut from red maple passes for sugar maple. 

 There is some difference between the woods of the two species, but 

 not enough to be distinguished by the ordinary user. Red maple's 

 name does not come from the color of the wood, but from the flowers, 

 which in some situations are scarlet and in others red. The color is 

 so striking that the trees may be identified by it almost as far as they 

 can be seen. 



MANUFACTURING. 



Because the wood of this tree, when it reaches maturity, is so fre- 

 quently classed as sugar maple, it is not possible to credit the red 

 maple with all the uses which doubtless belong to it. It is known that 

 the early makers of shoe pegs, who whittled them by hand, preferred 

 this maple to all others. That was a very small use, however. Sad- 

 dletree makers in early times found in this wood qualities which 

 caused it to be given preference in many localities. Ox yokes de- 



