UTILIZATION" OF SYCAMORE. 
broad. Figure 1 shows the differences in structure in beech, syca- 
more, and birch, which are all diffuse porous woods. In beech, as 
in sycamore, there are broad rays; but in beech there are many 
narrow rays and the broad rays are unevenly spaced, whereas in 
sycamore they are evenly spaced. In birch the rays are all narrow. 
Plate I is a photograph of a cross section of sycamore wood. 
SUPPLY AND DEMAND. 
RANGE AND SIZE OF TREE, 
Practically all of our native sycamore wood comes from a single 
species, Platanus occidentalis , which grows throughout nearly all of 
the eastern half of the United States (fig. 2). Other names applied 
to the tree are buttonwood and buttonball. Two other species 
occur in the western part of the United States, but these are unim- 
portant commercially, yielding only a small amount of timber for 
local purposes. The common eastern sycamore usually grows to a 
height of from 75 to 110 feet and a diameter of from 2 to 5 feet. 
There are records of sycamores measuring up to 14 feet in diameter 
and 140 feet in height, and a few such trees are still found. It is, 
therefore, the largest hardwood of the United States in size of trunk, 
but not in height. 
Sycamore trees do not, as a rule, yield a large amount of the 
highest quality timber because of the shortness of the clear length 
of stems. Large logs are frequently shaky and often hollow, and 
on this account there is a high percentage of waste in the manu- 
facture of lumber and veneer. Logs over 20 inches in diameter are 
likely to be very defective. Smaller second-growth logs are usually 
quite sound. The southern sycamore is said to - be often badly 
affected with worm holes, which makes it unsuitable for most uses. 
(See PL II.) 
COMMERCIAL SUPPLY. 
The principal supply of sycamore is from that part of the central 
hardwood region which includes West Virginia and Missouri, the 
States lying between them, and Arkansas and Tennessee. The 
greatest supply of sycamore is located along river bottoms in the 
Ohio and Mississippi Valleys and along the large streams tributary 
to these rivers. 
The principal center of the sycamore industry seems to be at 
present located near the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. 
Much sycamore is available in this region along these streams and 
their large tributaries, and, therefore, many factories using large 
amounts of sycamore are located near by. The factories are usually 
located on the rivers and get their sycamore logs in rafts. The 
logs are placed in the water at different points along the streams, 
and are collected by a man with a power boat, who assembles them 
into rafts and tows them to the factory. Considerable quantities 
