71 
WOODPECKERS IX KKLATION TO TREES. 
checking on a line with them. For cabinet or other work requiring 
sightliness, or where strength is required in any but large pieces, 
chestnut with abundant sapsucker work would be useless. (Speci- 
mens from Pickens, W. Va.) 
Black oak (Quercus vdutina). — The defects produced in this tree 
by sapsucker pecking are large, widely 
open, black-walled checks surrounded by 
much gnarled and stained wood (fig. 23). 
These checks vary in size up to 1 by \ by 
5 inches and constitute defects so extreme 
that the lumber is useless for any struc- 
tural purpose. (Specimens from Abbe- 
ville, La.) 
Cow oak {Quercus michauxi). — The de- 
fects produced in this wood are large to 
very large black gnarly checks. These are 
sometimes contiguous, forming a stained 
crack following an annual ring (fig. 24), 4 
inches horizontally and 2 to 3 inches ver- 
tically. Open fissures extending toward 
the bark and surrounded by much gnarly 
wood are characteristic. The wood under 
the wounds is usually soft and rotten. 
The specimens examined show that wind- 
shakes tend to occur along the line of sap- 
sucker defects. The blemishes are large 
and numerous, hence serious. Many wind- 
fallen trees examined by the writer at 
Abbeville, La., were so filled with defects 
that they would not afford a single board 
of marketable dimensions. The wood is 
useless except for fuel. 
Colorado white oak {Quercus lepto- 
phyUd). — Numerous open knotty checks 
stained dark brown occur in a trunk of 
this species attacked by sapsuckers. They 
are surrounded by gnarly wood, and some 
are one-half inch by 1 inch in size, being 
equivalent to open knots of those dimen- 
sions. When several occur along the same 
wood layer they constitute a line of potential fracture, thus rendering 
the trunk more liable to injury by wind-shake. (A. A. and A. M. 301.) 
Species of Fagaceje blemished. Beech, chinquapin, chestnut, 
tanbark <>ak. turkey oak, black oak (fig. 23), Texan oak, Spanish oak. 
Fig ' '■ Effects of sapsucker work- 
on wood of black oak (Querent 
nhitiiKi i. Large gnarly checks. 
