THE PRODUCTION OF LUMBER IN 1913. Dt 
OAK. 
While the sawmill statistics group all oak timber as if it were cut 
from a single species, there are, in fact, 50 or more kinds of oak in 
the United States, divided nearly equally between white and red oaks, 
the two classes generally recognized commercially. The bulk of oak 
lumber is cut from less than a dozen species. The wood of the red 
oaks is usually tinged with red, hence the name. The largest part of 
the country’s oak lumber is furnished by the following trees: 
White oak (Quercus alba) is the common tree of the name in the 
eastern half of the United States. It is as widely dispersed as any 
other. 
Post oak (Quercus minor) has practically the same range as common 
white oak but is less abundant. 
Bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa) occurs from ihe northern Atlantic 
coast to the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains in Montana, and 
southward to Tennessee and Texas. 
Overcup or forked-leaf white oak (Quercus lyrata) is the most 
important of the southern white oaks. Its best development is in. 
the lower Mississippi Valley. 
Cow or basket oak (Quercus michauzw) is confined principally to 
the States south of the Ohio and Potomac Rivers. 
Chestnut oak (Quercus primus) ranges through the northeastern 
States, extending a hundred miles or more westward of the Appa- 
lachian Mountains and southward to Alabama. 
The foregoing are white oaks, and are so classed in the forest and at 
the mill yard. The six species which follow are red oaks: 
The common red oak (Quercus rubra) is a northern tree ranging 
from Nova Scotia to Nebraska and along the mountains to northern 
Georgia. 
Texas red oak or spotted oak (Quercus texana) furnishes the main 
supply of red oak lumber in the lower Mississippi Valley. 
Pin oak (Quercus palustris) ranges from Massachusetts south- 
westerly to Oklahoma. ; 
Scarlet oak (Quercus coccinea) is a northern and northeastern tree, 
its habitat being bounded westward and southward by Illinois, 
Tennessee, and North Carolina. 
Yellow or black oak (Quercus velutina) is found in most States east 
of the Rocky Mountains, but is more abundant in the North than in 
the South. 
Willow or peach oak eta phellos) is of commercial importance 
in the oe States only, but it grows naturally as far north as New 
York. 
