﻿52 BULLETIN 12, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE^ 



ness, but because it is convenient and unobjectionable. It is manu- 

 factured into tool boxes on mowing machines, reapers, and seed 

 sowers, parts of corn planters, garden cultivators, fanning mills, 

 grass seeders, potato planters, and root cutters. It is most fre- 

 quently used for hoppers. The largest demand for silver maple in 

 implement work appears to come from Illinois, and the supply is 

 derived from the South rather than from the North. Silver maple 

 reaches its best development and largest size in the lower Ohio 

 Valley. 



It is not largely employed for vehicles, but is preferred to many 

 other woods for the handles of baby carriages and gocarts to be 

 finished in white enamel. Children's cribs, for the same reason, are 

 made of the wood. Hand sleds and parts of automobile frames take 

 some of it, and it is used by makers of railroad velocipedes. 



Many articles belonging to woodenware show the use of silver 

 maple — veneer plates, butter bowls, bread boards, ironing boards, 

 clothes dryers, mangles, sleeve boards, broom handles, carpet sweep- 

 ers, and coat hangers. Boxmakers in nearly all parts of eastern 

 United States use silver maple, and often in large quantities. Per- 

 haps more is made into crates than boxes. Egg cases are specially 

 mentioned, and near akin to them brooders and incubators. Sign- 

 boards, reels on which to wind barbed wire, umbrella racks, picture 

 frames, hay racks, and ballot boxes are in the miscellaneous list of 

 articles in the manufacture of which silver maple finds a place. It 

 is a rather important material in manual-training supplies, school 

 apparatus, tool handles, and professional and scientific instruments. 



BROADLEAF MAPLE. 



(Acer macrophyllum.) 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. 



Weight of dry wood. — 30.59 pounds per cubic foot (Sargent). 



Specific gravity. — 0.49 (Sargent). 



Ash. — 0.54 per cent of weight of dry wood (Sargent). 



Fuel value. — 66 per cent that of white oak (Sargent). 



Breaking strength (modulus of rupture). — 9,590 pounds per square inch, or 

 77 per cent that of white oak (Sargent). 



Factor of stiffness (modulus of elasticity). — 1,065,000 pounds per square inch, 

 or 81 per cent that of white oak (Sargent). 



Light, soft, not strong, compact, easily worked, susceptible of a good polish, 

 medullary rays numerous, thin, color light brown, tinged with red, sapwood 

 often nearly white. 



Height, 75 to 100 feet; diameter, 2 to 4 feet. 



SUPPLY. 



This western tree is known by several other names besides broad- 

 leaf maple. It is frequently called Oregon maple, because it reaches 



