material. The amount used is much less than of the true white oak, but
the exact quantity taken yearly by barrel makers is not known because
statistics do not list the different white oaks separately. Cow oak
rives well when a trunk is found clear of knots. The trees are usually
smaller and less perfect than true white oak in the North.
Railroads accept crossties of this species and they give as long service
as white oak, are as hard, and hold spikes as well. The wood is accepted
by car shops for use in repairs and in new work. Trunks are split or
sawed into fence posts and are used in probably larger numbers than any
other southern oak.
This tree’s future seems fairly well assured. It will further decline in
available supply, because it is cut faster than it is growing. That is
the status of all the timber oaks of this country. This one has
advantage over some of the others in that it occupies wet land which
will not soon be in demand for agricultural purposes, and young growth
will be left to develop.
ENGELMANN OAK (_Quercus engelmanni_) occupies a restricted range in
southwestern California where it is generally spoken of as a desert
tree; but its rate of growth appears to be much more rapid than is
usual with trees in arid situations. It occupies a narrow belt in
San Diego county and its range extends into Lower California. It
forms about one-third of the stand in Palomar mountains, and is much
scarcer in the Cuyamaca mountains. The tree seldom attains a height
greater than forty or fifty feet, or a diameter more than twenty or
thirty inches. The largest trees are of small value for lumber and
in rare instances only, if at all, do they go to sawmills. The
trunks fork and each branch forks, until a fairly large bole near
the ground is divided among numerous limbs. The tree’s chief value
is as fuel. It rates high as such. The leaves are bluish-green and
are thick with sharp points on their margins. The leaves vary
greatly in size, and are largest on young shoots. They remain a year
on the tree, and are classed as evergreen. The acorns ripen in one
year. This interesting species was named for Dr. George Engelmann,
whose name is borne also by Engelmann spruce. The wood is among the
heaviest of the oaks, exceeding white oak by more than twelve pounds
per cubic foot. It is brittle and weak, and very dark brown. The
green wood checks and warps badly in seasoning. The medullary rays
are numerous and large, but are so irregularly dispersed that
quarter-sawing promises no satisfactory results, even if logs of
suitable size could be found. The annual rings are indistinct, owing
to no clear line of separation between springwood and summerwood.
Pores are numerous, diffuse, and some of them large. The species is
entitled to recognition only because it is found in a region where
forests are scarce and scrubby, and every trunk has value as fuel,
if for nothing else. It affords a cover for hills which otherwise
would be barren, and it frequently occurs in fairly dense thickets.
[Illustration]
PACIFIC POST OAK
[Illustration: PACIFIC POST OAK]
PACIFIC POST OAK
(_Quercus Garryana_)
David Douglas named this tree the Garry oak, in honor of Nicholas Garry
of the Hudson Bay Company, who furnished valuable assistance to
botanists and other explorers of early times in the northwestern parts
of America. This tree is best developed in the neighborhood of Puget
Sound, the present state of Washington, and at the period of
explorations in that region by Douglas, who was a Scotchman, the country
was a sort of “no man’s land.” It was claimed by both England and the
United States, and Russia had cast covetous eyes on it as a southern
extension of her Alaska holdings. England at that time put a good deal
of dependence in the Hudson Bay Company to get possession of and to hold
as much country as possible, and Garry’s help given to explorers was
part of a well-laid plan to possess as much of the northwestern country
as possible. Douglas doubtless had that in mind when he named the oak in
honor of Garry. It was a witness and perpetual reminder that the Hudson
Bay Company’s strong arms had been stretched in that direction.
The people in California and Oregon often speak of the tree simply as
white oak, but it is sometimes called Oregon white oak, and more often
Oregon oak without a qualifying word. When it is spoken of as western
white oak, which frequently is the case, it is compared with the
well-known eastern white oak. It bears more resemblance to the eastern
post oak (_Quercus minor_) and for that reason it has been named Pacific
post oak. The leaves and twigs, particularly when they are young,
resemble post oak.
The northern limit of the tree’s range crosses southern British
Columbia. It is found in the lower valley of Frazer river and on
Vancouver island. It is the only oak tree of British Columbia. Its range
extends southward to the Santa Cruz mountains in California, but near
the southern limit of its range it is found chiefly in valleys near the
coast. It is best developed in western Washington and Oregon. It occurs
of good size on dry gravelly slopes of low hills; and it ascends the
Cascade mountains to considerable elevations, but becomes stunted and
shrubby. It is abundant in northwestern California.
The tree has a height from sixty to a hundred feet; sometimes it attains
a diameter of three and one-half feet. It carries a broad and compact
crown, especially when the tree is surrounded by young coniferous growth
as is the case in its best habitat where natural pruning gets rid of the
lower limbs and causes an outward and later a pendulous growth of the
upper part. The limbs are strong and heavy as are the branches and
twigs. The bark is a grayish-brown with shallow fissures, the broad
ridges being sometimes broken across forming square plates which are
covered with the grayish flakes or scales. The buds are long and acute,
and are coated with a red fuzz. The leaves are from four to six inches
long and are bilaterally developed, having seven or nine coarse round
lobes; the sinuses being rounded or rather shallow. The color is a dark
lustrous green and the texture leathery.
The acorn is rather large being about an inch and a quarter in length
and usually about half as broad as long; has a shallow cup covered with
pointed sometimes elongated scales.
This oak is one of the most important hardwoods of the far Northwest. It
is often compared with the eastern white oak, but its physical
properties fall below that species in some important particulars. The
two woods weigh about the same, but the eastern species is stronger and
more elastic, and is of better color and figure. All oaks season
somewhat slowly, but the Pacific post oak is hardly up to the average.
It is a common saying that it must remain two years on the sticks to fit
it for the shop, but that time may be shortened in many instances.
Checking must be carefully guarded against.
Some of this oak is exceedingly tough, and when carefully sorted and
prepared it is excellent material for heavy wagons; but the best comes
from young and comparatively small trees. When they attain large size
they are apt to become brash. The tree usually grows rapidly, and is not
old in proportion to the size of its trunk. An examination of the wood
shows broad bands of summerwood and narrow, very porous springwood. The
medullary rays are broad and numerous, and ought to show well in
quarter-sawed stock; but it does not appear that much quarter-sawing has
been done.
Practically all of this species cut in the United States is credited to
Oregon in the census of sawmill output in 1910. The cut was 2,887,000
feet, and was produced by fourteen sawmills, while in Washington only
one mill reported any oak, and the quantity was only 4,000 feet. On the
northwest Pacific coast it comes in competition with eastern oak and
also with Siberian or Japanese oak.
Basket makers put this wood to considerable use. Young trees are
selected on account of their toughness. The wood is either split in
long, thin ribbons for basket weaving, or it is first made into veneer
and then cut in ribbons of required width. The largest users are
furniture makers, but boat yards find it convenient material and it
takes the place of imported oak for frames, keels, ribs, sills, and
interior finish. It is durable, and it may be depended upon for long
service in any part of boat construction. Its toughness fits it for ax,
hammer, and other handles. It is far inferior to hickory, but on the
Pacific coast it can be had much cheaper. Its strength and durability
make it one of the best western woods for insulator pins for telephone
and telegraph lines. It is worked into saddle trees and stirrups.
The scarcity of woods on the Pacific coast suitable for tight cooperage
gives this oak a rather important place, because barrels and casks made
of it hold alcoholic liquors. Available statistics do not show the
quantity of staves produced from this wood, but it is known to be used
for staves in Oregon.
Much Pacific post oak is employed as rough lumber for various purposes.
Railroads buy crossties, hewed or sawed from small trunks, and country
bridges are occasionally floored with thick planks which wear well and
offer great resistance to decay.
The quantity of this oak growing in the Northwest is not known. It falls
far below some of the softwoods of the same region, and the area on
which it is found in commercial amounts is not large. It is holding its
ground fairly well. Trees bear full crops of acorns frequently, and if
they fall on damp humus they germinate and grow. The seedlings imitate
the eastern white oak, and send tap roots deep into the ground, and are
then prepared for fortune or adversity. It happens, however, that trees
which bear the most bountiful crops of acorns do not stand in forests
where the ground is damp and humus abundant, but on more open ground on
grass covered slopes. Acorns which fall on sod seldom germinate, and
consequently few seedlings are to be seen in such situations. Open-grown
trees are poorly suited for lumber, on account of many limbs low on the
trunks, but they grow large amounts of cordwood.
CALIFORNIA SCRUB OAK (_Quercus dumosa_) has been a puzzle to
botanists, and a hopeless enigma to laymen. Some would split the
species into no fewer than three species and three varieties, basing
distinctions on forms of leaves and acorns and other botanical
differences; but Sudworth, after a prolonged study of this matter,
recognized only one species and one variety, but admitted that
“California scrub oak unquestionably varies more than all other oaks
in the form and size of its leaves and acorns.” He thought it might
possibly be equalled in that respect by _Quercus undulata_ of the
Rocky Mountains. Some of the leaves of California scrub oak are
three-fourths of an inch long and half an inch wide, while others
may be four inches long. The edges of some leaves are as briery as
the leaves of holly, others are comparatively smooth. The shapes and
sizes of acorns vary as much as the leaves. Some are long and
slender, others short and stocky. This peculiar oak is found only in
California, but it shows a disposition to advance as far as possible
into the sea, for it has gained a foothold on islands lying off the
California coast, and it there finds its most acceptable habitat. It
reaches its largest size in sheltered canyons on the islands, and
attains a height of twenty or twenty-five feet, and a diameter of a
foot or less. It is not large enough to win favor with lumbermen but
in its scrubby form it is abundant in many localities. It is
scattered over several thousand square miles, from nearly sea level
up to 7,000 feet in the mountains of southern California. It is
found scattered through the coast range and the Sierra Nevadas from
Mendocino county to Lower California, 700 miles or more. It grows
from sprouts and from acorns. The leaves adhere to the twigs
thirteen months, and fall after the new crop has appeared. The wood
is light brown, hard, and brittle. No use is made of it, except to a
small extent for fuel. On the mountains it grows in thickets
scarcely five feet high, but they cover the ground in dense jungles,
and the roots go deep in the ground. The species is valuable chiefly
for protection to steep slopes which would otherwise be without much
growth of any kind. Being low on the ground, forest fires are
particularly destructive to this oak; but its ability to send up
sprouts repairs the damage to some extent.
EMORY OAK (_Quercus emoryi_) grows among the mountains of western
Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, attains a height from thirty to
seventy feet, and a diameter from one to four. The largest size is
found only in sheltered canyons, while on high mountains and in
exposed situations the tree degenerates to a shrub. It always has a
crop of leaves. The old do not fall until the new appear. In shape,
the leaves somewhat resemble those of box elder. The acorns ripen
from June to September, the exact time depending upon the tree’s
situation. Trunks large enough for use are not scarce, but the wood
is not of high class. Stair railing and balusters have been made of
it in Texas, but the appearance is rather poor. The grain is coarse,
the figure common, the color unsatisfactory. The heart is very dark,
but the tones are not uniform, and flat surfaces, such as boards and
panels, show streaks which are not sufficiently attractive to be
taken for figure. Trunks are apt to be full of black knots which mar
the appearance of the lumber. The medullary rays are numerous and
broad, and in quarter-sawing, the size and arrangement of the
“mirrors” are all that could be desired, but they have a decidedly
pink color which does not contrast very well with the rest of the
wood. The weight of this oak exceeds per cubic foot white oak, by
more than ten pounds; but it has scarcely half the strength or half
the elasticity of white oak. The springwood is filled with large
pores, the summerwood with smaller ones. It rates high as fuel, and
that is its chief value. Large quantities are cut for cordwood.
Railroad ties are made of it, and more or less goes into mines as
props and lagging. Stock ranches make fences, sheds, and corrals of
this oak, and live stock eats the acorns. The human inhabitants
likewise find the Emory oak acorn crop a source of food. Mexicans
gather them in large quantities and sell what they can spare. The
market for the acorns is found in towns in northwestern Mexico.
[Illustration]
CHESTNUT OAK
[Illustration: CHESTNUT OAK]
CHESTNUT OAK
(_Quercus Prinus_)
This tree is known as rock oak in New York; as rock chestnut oak in
Massachusetts and Rhode Island; as rock oak and rock chestnut oak in
Pennsylvania and Delaware; as tanbark oak and swampy chestnut oak in
North Carolina and as rock chestnut oak and mountain oak in Alabama.
There is a pretty general disposition to call this tree rock oak. The
name refers to the hardness of the wood, and is not confined to this
species. Other oaks are also given that name, and the adjective “rock”
is applied to two or three species of elm which possess wood remarkable
for its hardness. Cedar and pine are likewise in the class. In all of
these classes “rock” is employed to denote hardness of wood. Iron as an
adjective or ironwood as a noun is used in the same way for a number of
trees. The name swampy chestnut oak as applied in some parts of the
South to this tree, is hardly descriptive, for it is less a swamp tree
than most of the oaks, though it does often grow along the banks of
streams.
Its distribution ranges from the coast of southern Maine and the Blue
Hills of eastern Massachusetts southward to Delaware and the District of
Columbia; along the Appalachian mountains to northern Georgia and
Alabama; westward to the shores of Lake Champlain and the valley of the
Genesee river, New York; along the northern shores of Lake Erie and to
central Kentucky and Tennessee. It is rare and local in New England and
Ontario, but plentiful on the banks of the lower Hudson river and on the
Appalachian mountains from southern New York to Alabama. It reaches its
best development in the region from West Virginia to North Carolina,
pretty high on the ridges flanking the mountain ranges.
Leaves are alternate, from five to nine inches long, with coarse teeth
rounded at the top. At maturity, they are thick and firm, yellow-green
and rather lustrous on the upper surface, paler and usually hairy
beneath. In the autumn before falling, they turn a dull orange color or
rusty-brown.
The flowers appear in May and are solitary or paired on short spurs. The
fruit or acorn is solitary or in pairs, one or two and one-half inches
long, very lustrous and of a bright chestnut-brown color. The acorn cup
is thin, downy-lined and covered with small scales. The kernel is sweet
and edible. The bark of the chestnut oak is thin, smooth, purplish-brown
and often lustrous on young stems and small branches, becoming a thick,
dark, reddish-brown, or nearly black on old trunks, and divided into
broad rounded ridges, separating on the surface into small, closely
appressed scales. The bark of the tree is so dark in color and so deeply
furrowed that it has often been mistaken for one of the black oak group,
although its wavy leaf margins and annual fruit clearly differentiate it
from those species. The bark of the chestnut oak is thicker and rougher
on old trunks than on any other oak.
The bark of chestnut oak has long been valuable for tanning. There is
tannin in the bark of all oaks, and several of them contain it in paying
quantities, but chestnut oak is more important to the leather industry
than any other oak. In richness of tannin the tanbark oak of California
occupies as high a place, but it is not supplying as much material as
the eastern tree. Statistics showing the annual consumption of tanbark
and tanning extracts in the United States, do not list the oaks
separately, but it is well known that chestnut oak far surpasses all
others in output. Hemlock bark is peeled in large quantities, but
tanneries occasionally mix chestnut oak bark with it to lighten the deep
red color imparted to leather when hemlock bark is the sole material
employed.
Large quantities of chestnut oak timber have been destroyed to procure
the bark. Fortunately, it is a practice not much indulged in at present,
because the wood now has value, but it formerly had little. It was then
abandoned in the forest after the bark was peeled and hauled away. The
same practice obtained with hemlock years ago. Much chestnut oak is
still cut primarily for the bark, but the logs are worth hauling to
sawmills, unless in remote districts.
The chestnut oak is a vigorous tree and grows rapidly in dry soil, where
it often forms a great part of the forest. It is not as large as the
white oak or red oak, but is a splendid tree, its bole being very
symmetrical and holding its size well. It grows usually to a height of
from sixty to seventy feet and sometimes 100 feet, with a diameter of
from two to five feet and occasionally as large as seven feet.
The form of the tree shows great variation, depending upon the situation
in which it grows. Trees in open ground often divide into forks or large
limbs, and the trunks are short and of poor form. Open-grown trees show
a decided tendency to develop crooked boles, and unduly large branches.
No such objection can be urged against it when it grows under forest
conditions. Trunks are straight and are otherwise of good form.
The wood of chestnut oak differs little from that of white oak in
weight, strength, and stiffness. It is hard, rather tough, durable in
contact with the soil, and is darker in color than white oak. It has
few large, open pores, and requires less filler in finishing than most
oaks. There are many pores, however, and those in the springwood are
arranged in bands. The summerwood is broad and distinct, usually
constituting three-fourths of the annual ring. The medullary rays are as
broad and numerous as in the best furniture oaks. They are regularly
arranged, and spaces between them do not vary much in width. The wood
quarter-saws well.
The wood has the fault of checking badly in seasoning, unless carefully
attended to. In recent years, these difficulties have been largely
overcome, both in air seasoning and in the drykiln.
Chestnut oak has a wide range of uses. It is classed as white oak in
many markets, but few users buy it believing it to be true white oak. It
is coming year by year to stand more on its own merits. Some sawmills
which formerly piled it and sold it with other oaks, now keep it
separate, and some factories which once took it only because it came
mixed with other oaks, now buy it for special uses, and make high-class
commodities of it. One of these is mission furniture, which has become
fashionable in recent years. Chestnut oak possesses good fuming
properties, and this constitutes much of its value as furniture
material.
The wood is found in factories where general furniture is made. It is
largely frame material for furniture though some of it is for outside
finish. It is employed as frames in Maryland in the construction of
canal boats, and the annual demand for that purpose is about a quarter
of a million feet in that state.
One of the most important places for chestnut oak is in the shop which
makes vehicles. It goes into sills for both heavy and light bodies,
bolsters, and wagon bottoms. It has become a favorite wagon wood in
England and in continental Europe, and there passes as white oak, though
dealers well know that it is not the true white oak. There is no
indication that demand for it will lessen, for it possesses many
characters which fit it for vehicle making.
In Michigan more chestnut oak is reported by car builders than by any
other class of manufacturers, though wagon makers buy it. Car shops use
about 220,000 feet a year, and work it into hand cars, push cars,
track-laying cars, and cattle guards.
The large remaining area of timber growth in which chestnut oak appears
is the Appalachian range through eastern Tennessee and western North
Carolina, and the fact that it is comparatively plentiful in the forests
of the Appalachian range will tend to bring it more and more into
prominence as a factor in the making of wagons, cars, boats, staves, and
furniture as the other oaks become scarcer.
The probable future of chestnut oak is an interesting problem for
study. Few steps have yet been taken looking toward providing for
generations to come. Chestnut oak has been left to take care of itself.
The trees, produced in nature’s way, have been ample to supply all needs
in the past, and they will be for the near future. Chestnut oak
possesses some advantages over most of the other oaks. Large trees will
grow on very poor soil, where most other oaks are little more than
shrubs. Trees so grown are little more susceptible to disease than if
produced in good soil, though they develop more slowly and are smaller.
There are many poor flats and sterile ridges in the chestnut oak’s
range, and they will produce timber of fairly good kind, if the chestnut
oaks are permitted to have them. Nature gave this tree facilities for
taking possession. Its acorns will grow without being buried. They do
not depend on blue jays to carry them to sunny openings or squirrels to
plant them; but they will sprout where they fall, whether on hard
gravelly soil or dry leaves; and they at once set about getting the tap
roots of the future trees into the ground. In many instances the
chestnut oak’s acorns do not wait to fall from the tree before they
sprout. Like the seed of the Florida mangrove, they are often ready to
take root the day they touch the ground. The large acorn is stored with
plantfood which sustains the growing germ for some time, and the ground
must be very hard and exceedingly dry if a young chestnut oak is not
soon firmly established, and good for two or three hundred years, if let
alone.
The forester who may undertake to grow chestnut oaks must exercise great
care in transplanting the seedlings, or the tap roots will be broken and
the young trees will die. The best plan is to drop acorns on the ground
where trees are expected to grow, and nature will do the rest, provided
birds and beasts leave the acorns alone.
[Illustration]
CHINQUAPIN OAK
[Illustration: CHINQUAPIN OAK]
CHINQUAPIN OAK
(_Quercus Acuminata_)