IMPORTANT FOREST TREES AND THEIR USES
Of our native trees, the white pine is one of the best and most
valuable. It is a tall straight tree that grows to a height of
100 to 150 feet. It produces wood that is light in weight and
easy to work because it is so soft. At one time there were
extensive pine forests in the northeastern states. Many of the
trees were very large, and occasionally one may still see pine
stumps that are 5 to 6 feet in diameter. White pine made fine
lumber for houses and other buildings and this timber was among
the first to be exhausted in the country.
Spruce trees have long furnished the bulk of the woodpulp used in
making our supplies of paper. These trees live in the colder
climates of the northern states. They like to grow in low, wet
localities close to lakes or rivers. The spruces generally do not
grow higher than 75-100 feet. The wood is soft like pine and even
whiter in color. The aboriginal Indians used the roots of the
spruce trees as thread, twine and rope.
The cedar trees, which are landmarks in many of our northern
states, yield light, soft, durable wood that is useful in making
poles, fence posts, lead pencils and cedar chests. The wood of
the red cedar gives off a peculiar odor which is said to keep
moths away from clothes stored in cedar chests, but it is the
close construction of the chest which keeps them out. These trees
are becoming scarce in all parts of the country. Cedars generally
are small trees that grow slowly and live a long time. The
outside wood is white and the heartwood is red or yellow. Cedar
posts last a long time and are excellent for use in farm fences.
Chestnut blight, which destroys entire forests of chestnut
timber, is gradually exhausting our supplies of this wood.
Chestnut timber has long been used for railroad ties, fence posts
and in the manufacture of cheap furniture. The wood is soft and
brown in color. The bark and wood are treated at special plants
in such a way that an extract which is valuable for tanning
leather is obtained. Chestnut trees are upstanding, straight
trees that tower 80 to 100 feet above the ground. The extinction
of our chestnut forests threatens as no effectual control
measures for checking the chestnut blight disease over large
areas has yet been discovered.
The yellow poplar or tulip poplar furnishes timber for the
manufacture of furniture, paper, the interior of railroad cars
and automobiles. The dugouts of the early settlers and Indians
were hewed out of poplar logs. These boats were stronger than
those made of canoe birch. Poplar wood is yellow in color and
soft in texture. The poplar is the largest broad-leaf tree in
this country and the trees are of great size and height. Some
specimens found in the mountains of the South have been over 200
feet high and 8 to 10 feet in diameter, while poplars 125 to 150
feet high are quite common.
Among our most useful and valuable trees are the white oak, and
its close kin, the red oak, which produce a brown-colored, hard
wood of remarkable durability. The white oak is the monarch of
the forest, as it lives very long and is larger and stronger than
the majority of its associates. The timber is used for railroad
ties, furniture, and in general construction work where tough,
durable lumber is needed. Many of our wooden ships have been
built of oak. The white oaks often grow as high as 100 feet and
attain massive dimensions. The seeds of the white oaks are light
brown acorns, which are highly relished by birds and animals.
Many southern farmers range their hogs in white oak forests so
that the porkers can live on the acorn crop.
Beech wood is strong and tough and is used in making boxes and
barrels and casks for the shipment of butter, sugar and other
foods. It makes axles and shafts for water-wheels that will last
for many years. The shoes worn by Dutch children are generally
made of beech. The wood is red in color. The beech tree is of
medium size growing to a height of about 75 feet above the
ground. There is only one common variety of beech tree in this
country.
Hickory trees are very popular because they produce sweet, edible
nuts. The hickory wood is exceedingly strong and tough and is
used wherever stout material is needed. For the spokes, wheels
and bodies of buggies and wagons, for agricultural implements,
for automobile wheels and for handles, hickory is unexcelled. The
shafts of golf clubs as well as some types of base-ball bats are
made of hickory. Most hickory trees are easy to identify on
account of their shaggy bark. The nuts of the hickory, which
ripen in the autumn, are sweet, delicious and much in demand.
Our native elm tree is stately, reaching a height of 100 feet and
a diameter of 5 to 6 feet or more. It is one of our best shade
trees. Elm wood is light brown in color and very heavy and
strong. It is the best available wood for making wagon wheel hubs
and is also used largely for baskets and barrels. The rims of
bicycle wheels generally are made of elm.
The canoe birch is a tree which was treasured by the early
Indians because it yielded bark for making canoes. Birch wood is
used in making shoe lasts and pegs because of its strength and
light weight, and the millions of spools on which cotton is wound
are made of birch wood. School desks and church furniture, also,
are made of birch. The orange-colored inner bark of the birch
tree is so fine and delicate that the early settlers could use it
as they would paper. No matter whether birch wood is green or
dry, it will burn readily. The birch was the most useful tree of
the forest to the Indians. Its bark was used not only for making
their canoes, but also for building their wigwams. They even
dried and ground the inner bark into a flour which they used as a
food.
The northern sugar maple is another tree which is a favorite in
all sections where it is grown. This tree yields a hard wood that
is the best and toughest timber grown in some localities. The
trees grow to heights of 75 to 100 feet and attain girths of 5 to
9 feet. Maple lumber is stout and heavy. It makes fine flooring
and is used in skating rinks and for bowling alleys. Many pianos
are made of maple. Wooden dishes and rolling pins are usually
made from maple wood. During the spring of the year when the sap
is flowing, the average mature maple tree will yield from fifteen
to twenty gallons of sap in a period of three to four weeks. This
sap is afterwards boiled down to maple syrup and sugar.
Hemlock trees, despite the fact that they rank among the most
beautiful trees of the forest, produce lumber which is suitable
only for rough building operations. The wood is brown and soft
and will not last long when exposed to the weather. It cracks and
splits easily because it is so brittle. Hemlock is now of
considerable importance as pulpwood for making paper. For many
years, a material important for tanning leather has been
extracted in large amounts from the bark of hemlock trees.
One of the most pleasing uses to which the balsam fir is put is
as Christmas trees. Sometimes it is used in making paper pulp.
The balsam fir seldom grows higher than 50 feet or thicker than
12 inches. The leaves of this tree have a very sweet odor and are
in demand at Christmas time. Foresters and woodsmen often use
balsam boughs to make their beds and pillows when camping in the
woods.
[Illustration: PINE WHICH YIELDS TURPENTINE AND TIMBER]
Our native supplies of hardwoods and softwoods are used for
general building purposes, for farm repairs, for railroad ties,
in the furniture and veneer industry, in the handle industry, and
in the vehicle and agricultural implement industries. On the
average each American farmer uses about 2,000 board feet of
lumber each year. New farm building decreased in the several
years following the World War, due to the high price of lumber
and labor. As a result of this lack of necessary building,
millions of dollars worth of farm machinery stood out in the
weather. Livestock lacked stables in some sections. Very little
building was done in that period in two hundred and fifty
prosperous agricultural counties in thirty-two different states.
The railroads consume about 15 per cent. of our total lumber cut.
They use between 100,000,000 and 125,000,000 railroad ties a
year. It used to be that most of the cross-ties were of white oak
cut close to the places where they were used. Now Douglas fir,
southern pine and other woods are being used largely throughout
the Middle Western and Eastern States. The supply of white oak
ties is small and the prices are high. Some years ago, when white
oak was abundant, the railroads that now are using other
cross-ties would not have even considered such material for use
in their roadbeds. The fact that other ties are now being used
emphasizes the fact that we are short on oak timber in the
sections where this hardwood formerly was common.
The furniture industry uses hardwoods of superior grade and
quality. The factories of this industry have moved from region to
region as the supply of hardwoods became depleted. Originally,
these factories were located in the Northeastern States. Then, as
the supplies of hardwood timber in those sections gave out, they
moved westward. They remained near the Corn Belt until the
virgin hardwood forests of the Middle West were practically
exhausted. The furniture industry is now largely dependent on
what hardwoods are left in the remote sections of the Southern
Appalachians and the lower Mississippi Valley. When these limited
supplies are used up, there will be very little more old-growth
timber in the country for them to use.
The furniture, veneer, handle, vehicle, automobile and
agricultural implement industries all are in competition for
hardwood timber. The furniture industry uses 1,250,000,000 feet
of high-grade hardwood lumber annually. Production of timber of
this type for furniture has decreased as much as 50 per cent.
during the past few years. It is now difficult for the furniture
factories and veneer plants to secure enough raw materials.
Facilities for drying the green lumber artificially are few. It
used to be that the hardwood lumber was seasoned for six to nine
months before being sold. Furniture dealers now have to buy the
material green from the sawmills. Competition has become so keen
that buyers pay high prices. They must have the material to keep
their plants running and to supply their trade.
The veneer industry provides furniture manufacturers, musical
instrument factories, box makers and the automobile industry with
high-grade material. The industry uses annually 780,000,000 board
feet of first quality hardwood cut from virgin stands of timber.
Red gum and white oak are the hardwoods most in demand. In the
Lake States, a branch of the veneer industry which uses maple,
birch and basswood is located. Oak formerly was the most
important wood used. Now red gum has replaced the oak, as the
supplies of the latter timber have dwindled. At present there is
less than one-fourth of a normal supply of veneer timber in
sight. Even the supplies in the farmers' woodlands are being
depleted. The industry is now largely dependent on the timber of
the southern Mississippi Valley. The veneer industry requires
best-grade material. Clear logs are demanded that are at least 16
inches in diameter at the small end. It is getting harder every
year to secure such logs. Like the furniture industry, the veneer
mills lack adequate supplies of good timber.
No satisfactory substitutes for the hickory and ash used in the
handle industry have yet been found. About the only stocks of
these timbers now left are in the Southern States. Even in those
parts the supplies are getting short and it is necessary to cut
timber in the more remote sections distant from the railroad. The
ash shortage is even more serious than that of hickory timber.
The supplies of ash in the Middle West States north of the Ohio
River are practically exhausted. The demand for ash and hickory
handles is larger even than before the World War. The entire
world depends on the United States for handles made from these
woods. Handle dealers are now willing to pay high prices for ash
and hickory timber. Some of them prepared for the shortage by
buying tracts of hardwood timber. When these reserves are cut
over, these dealers will be in the same position as the rest of
the trade.
Ash and hickory are in demand also by the vehicle and
agricultural implement industries. They also use considerable oak
and compete with the furniture industry to secure what they need
of this timber. Most of these plants are located in the Middle
West but they draw their timber chiefly from the South. Hickory
is a necessary wood to the vehicle industry for use in spokes and
wheels. The factories exert every effort to secure adequate
supplies of timber from the farm woodlands, sawmills and logging
camps. The automobile industry now uses considerable hickory in
the wheels and spokes of motor cars.
Most of the stock used by the vehicle industry is purchased
green. Neither the lumber nor vehicle industry is equipped with
enough kilns for curing this green material. The losses in
working and manufacturing are heavy, running as high as 40 per
cent. Many substitutes for ash, oak and hickory have been tried
but they have failed to prove satisfactory. On account of the
shortage and the high prices of hickory, vehicle factories are
using steel in place of hickory wherever possible. Steel is more
expensive but it can always be secured in quantity when needed.
Furthermore, it is durable and very strong.
Thus we see that our resources of useful soft woods and hard
woods have both been so diminished that prompt reforestation of
these species is an urgent necessity.