81 



^'^ftrs i but the wood is so valuable, that it deserves to be .extensively plant- 

 ed for timber, in all parts of the state, where it does not already exist. Take 

 away the white oak, white ash and hickory, and the wagon and carriage maker 

 would lose the three most valuable materials which enter into the composi- 

 tion of his work; so too with the maker of farming implements. White oak 

 is also extensively used for building materia], for railroad sleepers, for fence 

 posts and rails, in which situations it is ranked with the most durable tim- 

 bers. The sawed lumber is apt to warp considerably in seasoning, but it re- 

 tains its place afterwards, especially ii kept dry or painted. 



QuERCns Obtusiloba, Q. Macoeocakpa and Q. Oliv^pokmis, are generally 

 included under the common name of Burr oak, because the cup incloses most 

 of the acorn, and there is colislderable resemblance in the appearance of the 

 bark and trees. 



QUERCTJS BICOLOE OR PRINUS. {Swamp While Vak.) 



This is one of the chestnut oaks, with leaves coarsely sinuate-toothed, not 

 Jobed— cup hemispherical, often a little mossy-fringed at the border, inclos- 

 ing less than one-half the oblong-ovoid acorn. 



This oak grows rapidly into a large tree, in soil too moist for the quercits 

 alba, along with the red maple and black ash. It is found native in all the 

 wet grounds of the state, and is almost the sole species growing in the over- 

 flowed lands of the Wisconsin and other rivers. The tree is tall and straight,. 

 with a good body^ though apt to produce small limbs on the stem, if the tree 

 is at all isolated. It grows with about the same rapidity as the white oak, 

 but is not as long lived, hence trees more that two feet in diameter are rare. 

 The wood is as valuable in every way as the white oak, and for the purpose of 

 growing timber in the moist soils in which it grows it would be very profita- 

 bly cultivated. 



These two white oaks are the only ones which can be fully recommended 

 in every particular as worthy of Cultivation as forest trees, and with them, 

 both the wet and dry rich land may be converted into forests. Oaks like the 

 hickory will grow alone or with other trees, thus occupying part of the sur- 

 face or all. The white oak as fuel ranks higher than maple, and with the 

 lower giades of hickory. The small trees are nearly as valuable as hickory 

 for hoop-poles, so far as suppleness is concerned, and when once formed and 

 driven are more durable, especially when placed in a moist situation ; nor is 

 it so subject to the attacks of the powder- post worm, which not unfrequent- 

 ly destroys the hickory. 



QUEROtfS COCCINEA. {ScarUt Oak.) 



Leaves oval in outline, deeply sinuate ; acorn globular ovoid, one third or 

 more immersed in the thick and somewhat top-shaped conspiculously scaly 

 cup. The long petioled shining leaves cut two-thirds to the mid rib, turning 

 bright scarlet in autumn. 



This oak is often known in this state as Uachjach, and is found on lands in 



which sand either on the surface, or in the subsoil predominartes ; and in .the 



Bbp. 6, 



