The Oaks 285 



young to have a heart worth reckoning. 

 Old timbermen say that the thickness of 

 sapwood is always the same. In the 

 merchantable tree it seems a mere skin 

 round the heartwood, yet is really as wide 

 across as it was when the heart was but a 

 slender dark streak down the middle of a 

 white stem. All real hard wood comes out 

 of the heart. For riving, as boards, staves, 

 tobacco sticks, and so on, the core of the 

 heart will not answer. It is full of scars 

 and knots, left by outgrown and overgrown 

 branches. A tree, like a man, keeps deep 

 in the heart ineffaceable records of every 

 vital event. The scars, the knots, may be 

 overgrown, buried under inches of sound, 

 straight-grained wood, but remain just the 

 same. Sapwood ■ rots much sooner than 

 heartwood — hence extra careful builders 

 split off" the sap-edge from board timber 

 before riving it. Thus the boards are nar- 

 row, but a roof of them lasts twice as long 

 as one of ordinary boards. 



Spanish oak and black oak are close kin. 

 Both love rich, warm land inclining to be 

 moist; both grow very straight, and very 

 tall, not branching considerably until well 

 up in air. Neither is very umbrageous. 

 The branches fork sharply instead of stand- 

 ing straight out or drooping. The leaves 



