THE PRODUCTION OF LUMBER IN 1&13. 11 



OAK. 



While the sawmill statistics group all oak timber as if it were cut 

 from a single species, there are, in fact, 50 or more kinds of oak in 

 the United States, divided nearly equally between white and red oaks, 

 the two classes generally recognized commercially. The bulk of oak 

 lumber is cut from less than a dozen species. The wood of the red 

 oaks is usually tinged with red, hence the name. The largest part of 

 the country's oak lumber is furnished by the following trees: 



White oak (Quercus alba) is the common tree of the name in the 

 eastern half of the United States. It is as widely dispersed as any 

 other. 



. Post oak (Quercus minor) has practically the same range as common 

 white oak but is less abundant. 



Bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa) occurs from the northern Atlantic 

 coast to the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains in Montana, and 

 southward to Tennessee and Texas. 



Overcup or forked-leaf white oak (Quercus lyrata) is the most 

 important of the southern white oaks. Its best development is in 

 the lower Mississippi Valley. 



Cow or basket oak (Quercus michauxii) is confined principally to 

 the States south of the Ohio and Potomac Rivers. 



Chestnut oak (Quercus prinus) ranges through the northeastern 

 States, extending a hundred miles or more westward of the Appa^ 

 lachian Mountains and southward to Alabama. 



The foregoing are white oaks, and are so classed in the forest and at 

 the mill yard. The six species which follow are red oaks: 



The common red oak (Quercus rubra) is a northern tree ranging 

 from Nova Scotia to Nebraska and along the mountains to northern 

 Georgia. 



Texas red oak or spotted oak (Quercus texana) furnishes the main 

 supply of red oak lumber hi the lower Mississippi Valley. 



Pin oak (Quercus palustris) ranges from Massachusetts souths 

 westerly to Oklahoma. 



Scarlet oak (Quercus coccinea) is a northern and northeastern tree, 

 its habitat being bounded westward and southward by Illinois, 

 Tennessee, and North Carolina. 



Yellow or black oak (Quercus velutina) is found in most States east 

 of the Rocky Mountains, but is more abundant in the North than in 

 the South. 



Willow or peach oak (Quercus phellos) is of commercial importance 

 in the Southern States only, but it grows naturally as far north as New 

 York. 



