USES OF COMMERCIAL WOODS. 55 



Fuel value. — 58 per cent that of white oak (Sargent), 



Breaking strength (modulus of rupture). — 7.4f)() pounds per cubic foot, or 

 GO per cent that of white oak (Sargent). 



Factor of stiffness (modulus of elasticity). — S0r>.<^KiO pounds per cubic foot, 

 or 61 per cent that of white oak (Sargent). 



Wood light, soft, weak, compact, medullary rays numerous, thin, color creamj- 

 white, the thin sapwood hardly distinguishable. 



Height. 45 to 75 feet: diameter, 18 to 36 inches, occasionally larger, but in 

 some regions much smaller. 



SUPPLY. 



Box elder, including its California variety, has a range of nearly 

 4.000.000 square miles, which is exceeded by few American trees. In 

 many portions of its extended range, however, the tree is very scarce, 

 and in other regions the growth is too small to l)e of importance. 

 Here and there 1)ox elder timber is put to use, but the total quantity 

 used is very small for a range so large. The species reaches its best 

 development in the valleys of the AVabash and Cumberland Rivers. 

 From Vermont it ranges to Florida, though it is rather rare east of 

 the Allegheny Mountains. It extends west from Xew England 

 through Canada to the base of the Rocky Mountains on the Saskatche- 

 wan River, thence southward along the eastern base of the Rocky 

 ^Mountains into Mexico. A variety crosses the mountain into Ari- 

 zona and covers the southern half of California. The tree resembles 

 both ash and maple, and is called ash-leaved maple, cut-leaved maple, 

 negundo maple, black ash. stinking ash. sugar ash. and wat-er ash. 



EARLY USES. 



It appears that the wood's white creamy color led to its first use 

 for manufacturing purposes. Early in the nineteenth century the 

 makers of mahogany, cherry, and black walnut furniture in the East- 

 ern States employed it for inlay and other ornamentation. The con- 

 trast between the white wood of this tree and the dark cabinet woods 

 vvith which it was associated was all that could be desired. Its color 

 also gave it a place in the early manufacture of dishes and other 

 woodenware. Its habit of growing on fertile land made it the enemy 

 of the first settlers who cleared those lands for farms, and it was cut 

 in comparatively large quantities without being put to any use. except 

 occasionally in the construction of fences or for fuel. It was rather 

 poor material for both. 



MANUFACTURING. 



With so wide a range box elder is of necessity put to many uses. 

 Anything approaching a complete list of these is hard to procure, 

 for the wood, like many other minor species, loses its name and 

 identity as soon as it reaches the sawmill, and often before the saw 

 log gets out of the woods. It is ash or maple when the furniture 

 factory or the planing mill receives it. If it is considered a maple 

 it is the weakest and least elastic of them all : if it is an ash it does 



