24 
White Ash. 
(FRAXINUS AMERICANA.) 
The American White Ash, when planted in cool, deep, rich, and 
moist soils, is a tree of rapid growth. If planted singly so as to 
have room for the development of its branches, the head assumes a 
spreading and rounded form, and closeness in the growth and dispo- 
sition of its branches, and mellow green color and density of foliage, 
so different from its usual slender stem, and open branches as seen in 
the natural forest, that it frequently causes surprise and admiration 
on the part of those observers of the works of nature, who delight 
in viewing the varying forms of growth, and the contrast in the size, 
shape, and color of the foliage, that occurs in the same or different 
species of plants and trees. For ornamental purposes, and for shade 
and roadside planting, the White Ash is indispensable. Its rate of 
growth in rich Western soils, is i8 to 24 inches per year.| 
The weight of the wood per cubic foot is 43 to 52 lbs., its specific 
gravity is 600 to 845 lbs.; its strength per cubic inch is as follows : 
Tensile, 14,000 lbs.; transverse, 1^8 lbs.; crushing, 6,663 lbs.; in- 
crease of strength by seasoning, 44. 7 per cent.; proportion of char- 
coal to 100 parts of wood, 25.74; value of wood for fuel as com- 
pared with Hickory at 100, is 81. 
In the ordinary out-door process of seasoning the wood dries fit 
for use in one-fourth of the time required for Oak. 
The toughness, strength and elasticity of the wood of the Ash 
renders it the most valuable of all of our native woods for some of 
the most important uses required by man. There is scarcely an 
agricultural implement of any kind from a hoe-handle to a threshing- 
machine, which does not contain in whole or in part the wood of 
the Ash. The wood is used tor hoops, spade, hoe, rake and pitch- 
fork handles, bodies, brackets, sills, pillars, shafts and springs of 
wagons and carriages, oars, ship-blocks, hand-spikes, pump boxes, 
sofa and chair frames, bowls, cask staves, flour purifiers, fanning and 
smut mill frames, kitchen tables, steps of stairs, floors, and is coming 
into considerable demand for the interior finishing of omnibusses, 
cars, fine residences and churches. 
The invention and introduction of improvements in machinery, 
tools and appliances for the purpose of cheapening and expediting 
the processes of the cultivation of crops and preparing for market, 
has resulted in an enormous demand for Ash lumber, and which, in 
combination with the demand for export to foreign countries, in the 
form of the raw or .manufactured material, has resulted in a large 
diminution of the forest supply and an advance of prices within a 
few years in the Eastern States to the present price of $70 to J885 
per thousand, and in consequence some of “the manufacturers who 
use Ash largely in the construction of implements have moved their 
establishments to Ohio and other interior States.” 
The forest supply of Ash in that portion of Wisconsin bordering 
upon Lake Michigan is practically exhausted. In the northern por- 
