100 
TIMBEE 
wood is hard, strong, and durable, but of rather quick 
growth and makes good mallets. The live oak of Florida 
is now reserved by the United States Government for navy 
purposes. 
Iron or Post Oak {Q. ohtusiloha), of the eastern and 
southern United States, gives timber of great strength but 
small in size, the tree being seldom more than 14 inches in 
diameter. The colour is of a brownish yellow hue, close in 
grain, and often superior to the white oak in strength and 
durability. It is much used for posts and fencing. 
Swamp Post Oak grows in the swampy districts of 
Carolina and Georgia, and is a larger tree than most of the 
other oaks, and produces excellent timber, but it grows 
in districts difficult of access, and is not much used. 
Burr Oak {Q. macrocarpa) , one of the most valuable and 
most widely distributed of American oaks, 60 to 80 ft. in 
height, and, unlike most of the others, adapts itself to very 
varying climatic conditions ; the wood is very like that of 
the white oak, and is classed with it ; one of the most 
durable of oaks when in contact with soil. 
Rock Oak or Rock Chestnut Oak (Q. Prinus) and White 
Chestnut Oak are other species producing good timber, but 
scarcely up to that of white oak. 
American oak comes into Great Britain in logs 25 to 
40 ft. long and 12 to 24 inches square or over, also in 
planks 1| to 4 inches thick, and in boards, moulding strips 
8^ by |, and in other forms, and a good deal is imported 
" quartered." In the American timber trade oaks are 
divided into two main classes, White and Black, although 
Bed oak, being the most plentiful, is often referred to. 
Weight of American oak generally from 44 to 49 lbs. per 
cubic foot. 
