TIMBER OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 95 
inside finish, but chiefly for boxes, as it ishght, strong, 
and cheap. It is of fine even grain, moderately hard and 
stiff, not elastic, very tough and hard to split, easily worked, 
but is not durable in contact with ground ; it is also used in 
the States for flooring, laths, wooden pumps, and turnery, 
largely for mouldings, and in Great Britain chiefly for 
casings over electric wire fittings ; great quantities are 
used for this purpose. Great Britain is the best market 
for tupeloe. 
Weight when well seasoned about 32 lbs. per cubic foot. 
Some of it lost 32 per cent, of its weight by kiln drying 
for fifteen days and shrunk per cent. 
Black Gum (Nyssa sylvatica) is the other of the southern 
States gums, and, though it has a greater range than 
tupeloe or red gum, nowhere forms an important part of 
the forest. Owing to its less abundant supply and the 
poorer quality of its timber it is not cut as mill timber, 
but is used for wagon repairs, cattle yokes, and other 
purposes requiring a strong non-splitting wood, also largely 
for pulley blocks and belt wheels. 
Chestnut (Castanea vulgaris) was formerly common over 
the New England States, Pennsylvania supplying 18 percent, 
of the total cut, Tennessee coming next, but the timber is 
getting so scarce that supplies have been drawn from the 
Canadian boundary and as far west as Minnesota on the 
north to the centre of Texas on the south ; it is one of the 
chief timbers used in the States for telegraph poles, and 
something like 53,000,000 cubic feet are required annually 
for this purpose, also for sleepers and fencing. Chestnut 
is a long-lived tree attaining an age of 400 to 600 years, but 
trees over 100 years are usually hollow ; it grows quickly, 
and sprout? from a chestnut stump often attain a height 
