some Spanish oak is mixed. It could not be otherwise, since this wood is
cut in the forest with other red oaks, is sawed and stocked with them,
and goes with them to market.
BLACK JACK OAK (_Quercus marilandica_) is one of the scrub trees of this
country, and few good words are ever heard for it; yet it has redeeming
qualities. Lumbermen have not paid much attention to it and never will,
for only when at its best is the trunk large enough for any kind of
sawlog, and there has been little inclination to use it for anything
else. It attains size fitting it for fence posts, and sometimes it
performs service along that line; but the small trunks are nearly all
sapwood, and decay strikes them quickly. The bark is black, hence the
name, and it is exceedingly rough, and is broken in squares. The leaves
are large and pear-shaped, with the broad end opposite the stem. Some
are slightly lobed. A vigorous black jack oak, standing in open ground,
presents a fine appearance. The crown is wide and is frequently conical,
the limbs small, and are set in the trunk on nearly horizontal lines.
The range of this unloved species covers 600,000 or more square miles,
beginning in New York, running west to central Nebraska, south through
Texas nearly to the Rio Grande, and in Florida to Tampa. It is not an
aggressive tree and has permitted itself to be crowded off the good land
until it has formed the habit of occupying geographical left-overs in
the form of sand banks and wornout fields. In the northeastern part of
its range it is often associated with scrub pine (_Pinus virginiana_),
because the two have similar habits and are content to live in perpetual
poverty on dry gravel or thin sand. Large trunks are not possible under
such circumstances, and first-class wood is unusual. Black jack oak at
its best may attain a height of fifty feet and a diameter of eighteen
inches, but it is oftener twenty feet high and six inches through. It
grows with moderate rapidity and does not live long.
The annual rings are often indistinct. The wood is hard, heavy, and
strong, and checks badly in seasoning. The medullary rays are broad and
conspicuous, the wood dark brown in color, the sapwood lighter. This oak
is very high in ash contents, more than one per cent of the dry weight
of wood going to ashes when burned. The tree reaches its best
development in the lower Mississippi valley, and in eastern Texas.
Comparatively few uses for it have been found. Cordwood cutters find it
valuable where it abounds in sufficient quantity, and it has been burned
for charcoal for iron foundries and blacksmith shops. Small amounts are
occasionally found in wood-using factories in Texas, but only when logs
with considerable heartwood can be procured. The sap is characterless
and seems to be utterly rejected at the factory. Sometimes the rich
brown of the heartwood is attractive, but more frequently the wood is
ringed and splotched with different colors, not distributed in a way to
give any artistic effect. When a satisfactory stick is found, it can be
worked into balusters and small spindles which show grain well. It is
also worked into broad panels made up of narrow, quarter-sawed strips,
which exhibit the dark flecks of the wood to good advantage.
TRIDENT OAK (_Quercus tridentata_) is remarkable for its extreme
scarcity, and is of no commercial importance. It was formerly found
in Missouri--a single tree--which was afterwards destroyed. It
occurs in Washtenaw county, Michigan. It appears that no report
showing the character of the wood has been made.
LEA OAK (_Quercus leana_), which is believed to be a hybrid between
yellow oak (_Quercus velutina_) and shingle oak (_Quercus
imbricaria_), is interesting but not important. Trees are apt to
stand alone, and far apart. They occur from District of Columbia to
Missouri, and south to North Carolina. The range is imperfectly
known.
[Illustration]
LAUREL OAK
[Illustration: LAUREL OAK]
LAUREL OAK
(_Quercus Laurifolia_)
This representative of the black oak group is found nowhere except in
the southeastern states, and only in their borders. It never ranges far
inland, but sticks to wet localities and the margins of swamps where its
associates are tupelo, southern white cedar, cypress, magnolias, and,
near its southern limit, myrtle and other semi-tropical trees and
shrubs. It is sometimes utilized as an ornament, but that is not its
usual function. It is not a successful competitor as a shade tree with
willow oak and water oak.
Beginning at the border of the Dismal Swamp in Virginia as the northern
limit of growth, this interesting tree ranges southward along the coast
to Cape Romano in Florida and westward in the lower Gulf states to
southeastern Louisiana. It is seen at its best in eastern Florida. It
puts forth a vigorous growth on the hummock land in the southern part of
that state, where it develops a shapely trunk when in crowded stands. It
grows well in very rocky ground.
Although the common name laurel oak is prompted by its foliage, the tree
bears various other sectional names. It is known as laurel oak in North
Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, and Florida; Darlington oak in South
Carolina; willow oak in Florida and South Carolina; water oak in
Georgia. The latter name has a tendency to confuse it with another
species which is properly called water oak (_Quercus nigra_).
The ornamental qualities of this tree are due to the tall stately bole,
its shapely and symmetrical round-topped head and slender branches and
twigs. It sometimes attains the dignity of one hundred feet in height
with a proportionate diameter of three or four feet. The bark is firm,
of dark, reddish-brown color, and usually is not fissured but finely
broken into small close, scale-like plates. On old trees, especially at
the butt, deep fissures divide it into broad ridges. The buds are shiny
brown, and they narrow abruptly to an acute point. The acorns are either
sessile or have short stalks, and they usually grow alone. They are
short and broad, and are incased in shallow, thin cups. In the flowering
season hairy aments add to the attractiveness of the tree. The leaves
are dark green above and lighter on the lower surface and are grouped
rather closely on the twigs. They attain a length of four inches or
less, and fall gradually after turning yellow.
Laurel oak seems to be little used. It is occasionally referred to as
rather inferior to other members of the black oak group, but it is not
apparent why it bears that reputation. It may be on account of its poor
seasoning qualities. Like other southern oaks, it is very heavy when
green, and it is inclined to shrink and warp while in the process of
parting with its moisture. If this can be successfully overcome, the
wood ought to be valuable. Tests made on four samples cut on St. John’s
river, Florida, recorded in Sargent’s tables, show remarkable results.
The wood is 34 per cent stronger and 37 per cent stiffer than white oak,
and is only one pound heavier per cubic foot of dry wood. If these
values are fairly representative of the wood of laurel oak, it should be
exceptionally valuable in vehicle making. It would fall considerably
below hickory, but would stand very high among other woods, and could be
recommended for wagon axles, tongues, and other parts of heavy vehicles.
It should be borne in mind, however, that tests alone, and particularly
when the number of samples is small, are not sufficient to decide a
wood’s place as a manufacturing material. It must be tried in actual
practice, and that has not yet been done in the case of laurel oak as a
wagon wood. When tried out it may exhibit defects, or undesirable
qualities, which are not apparent in samples employed in laboratory
tests.
There is little exact information available in regard to the supply of
laurel oak in the South. It is not abundant in the sense that willow oak
and Texan red oak are. Neither are the trees generally of good form for
lumber. Little has ever been cut, because the land where it grows is not
demanded for agriculture. It occupies out-of-the-way places, and the
hunter and fisherman are better acquainted with it than the lumberman.
HIGHLAND OAK (_Quercus wislizeni_) is a California evergreen with leaves
commonly shaped like holly, but sometimes their edges are smooth with no
sign of teeth. The foliage remains longer on this tree than is usual
with evergreen oaks. Old leaves generally fall within a month after the
new crop appears; but those of highland oak remain several months
longer, gradually falling during the second summer. When the tree is at
its best it is a splendid representative of the vegetable kingdom. Its
form does not please lumbermen, for the trunk is short and rough; but
the crown rises seventy or eighty feet, is symmetrical, the foliage dark
green, and the general appearance is that of an enormous holly tree.
Trunks are sometimes five or six feet in diameter. The name highland oak
is somewhat misleading, though the species ascends to an altitude of
6,000 feet or more. It is described as a highland tree to distinguish it
from the California live oak (_Quercus agrifolia_) which grows in the
vicinity of the sea in California. The highland oak ranges from northern
California to the international boundary, following the foothills of the
mountain ranges. It occurs in dry river bottoms and washes and in
desert mountain canyons. It is not choice as to soil but will grow in
loam, sand, gravel, or among rocks. It is not abundant.
When it grows near the sea it is apt to lose its tree form and become a
shrub. It assumes that form on Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa islands off the
coast of southern California. It grows slowly and is tenacious of life.
When it has once secured a foothold it hangs on with determination,
though exposed to severe storms and inhospitable conditions. The acorns
do not mature until late in the autumn of their second year. They are
sometimes an inch and a half long, and scarcely a third of an inch
thick. The wood of this oak possesses some good qualities which are
locally appreciated by wagon makers who use it for repair work. It is
extensively cut for fuel, and it burns about like eastern white oak, but
leaves more ashes. The dry wood weighs 49 pounds per cubic foot. It is
considerably weaker than white oak and is less elastic. The summerwood
constitutes a large part of the annual growth ring. It is very porous,
the rows of pores running parallel with the medullary rays. This part of
the wood structure is midway between that of deciduous and the evergreen
oaks. The medullary rays are broad but short. When exposed on a
tangential surface, they are from one-fourth to one-half inch long, and
give the wood a flecked appearance. Exposed in cross section, they are
from one inch to four inches in length. This applies, of course, only to
large rays, easily seen with the naked eye. In quarter-sawed lumber, the
rays have a pinkish color and glossy luster which are not pleasing. This
tree belongs in the class with those which are in no danger of being
extirpated by human agencies. It occupies land which man does not need
and will never want.
MYRTLE OAK (_Quercus myrtifolia_) associates with the laurel oak in
some parts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, and closely
resembles it, though it is smaller, and gives little promise of ever
becoming important in a commercial way. It is clearly in the scrub
oak class, and does not approach the dignity of even a small tree in
most of its range. Few specimens can be found exceeding a height of
twenty feet and a diameter of five or six inches. Trees approaching
that size grow in western Florida in the region of the Apalachicola
river. Generally this oak covers dry, sandy ridges and islands, and
is shrubby. It forms thickets on some of the islands off the coast
of Alabama and Mississippi, and extends its range westward to the
low, southern parts of Louisiana where the dwarf trees are almost
hidden by tall reeds and grass. Its name refers to the leaf it
bears. It is impossible that man can ever make much use of this
tree.
MOREHUS OAK (_Quercus morehus_) can never be important in the lumber
industry, but it fills a few places in California where the ground
needs a cover. Its range is in the northern coast range and the
Sierra foothills, extending as far south as Kings river. The edges
of the leaves bear bent hooks like saw teeth. The foliage falls in
late winter. Trees are occasionally a foot or more in diameter. The
wood has not the appearance of possessing much value, and is too
scarce to be important. The most interesting thing connected with
this tree is that it is supposed to be a hybrid--a cross between
highland oak and California black oak. It was first found in 1863,
and a considerable range has since been established for it.
It is the opinion of some investigators that new tree species have
their origin in crosses between existing species. Of the countless
thousands of such crosses a few, at long intervals of time, may
develop characteristics which enable them to maintain their
existence and to spread into new territory. If that occurs, a new
kind of tree has appeared on earth and is ready to take its place
among the established forests of the region. Cross-fertilization
among trees and plants is very common, but so many adverse
conditions are encountered, that few hybrids ever amount to
anything.
[Illustration]
PIN OAK
[Illustration: PIN OAK]
PIN OAK
(_Quercus Palustris_)
Pin oak ranges from certain sections of Massachusetts, notably the
Connecticut river valley, and near Amherst, westward as far as the
southeastern part of Missouri; on the south it is found along the lower
Potomac river in Virginia, in Kentucky, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.
It is known as pin oak in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New
York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, Arkansas, Missouri,
Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Kansas; in Arkansas and Kansas it is
called swamp Spanish oak; in Rhode Island and Illinois it is often known
as water oak; in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kansas as swamp oak; in
Arkansas as water Spanish oak.
The name pin oak is said to belong to this tree because of a peculiarity
of its branches. They leave the trunk and the larger limbs at nearly
right angles, and criss-cross in all directions, resembling pins thrust
into the wood, and bristling outward at every angle. The crowding to
which they are subjected kills many of them as the tree reaches middle
age, but the stubs do not drop quickly, and as many of the
characteristic pins appear to be present as ever. Such is the usual
explanation given to account for the name, and the facts fit the theory;
but the fact that several other species are called pin oaks is not
accounted for. The habit of the branches of all of them is not the same.
The Gambel oak in its Arizona range has that name. So has the chinquapin
oak in Arkansas and Texas, but that is apparently a shortening of its
true name, the last syllable only being used. They call the Durand oak
pin oak in Texas, but without any known reason.
The botanical name _palustris_, belonging to this species, refers to the
tree’s habit of growing in swamps and damp land along river bottoms. It
is not a swamp tree as cypress is, but is more like swamp white oak, and
finds its most congenial surroundings on the borders of streams and on
fairly well drained lowland where roots readily reach water.
The leaves are three or five inches long, are simple, and alternate.
They are broad, and have from five to nine lobes which are toothed, and
bristle-tipped on the ends. The sinuses are broad and rounded, and
extend well toward the midrib, which is stout, and from which the veins
branch off conspicuously. In color the leaves are bright green above and
lighter below when young, becoming thin, firm and darker green at
maturity; late in autumn they turn a rich, deep scarlet. They are coated
below with pubescence, and have large tufts of pale hairs in the axils
of the veins.
The fruit of pin oak is a small acorn which grows either sessile or on a
very short stem; sometimes in clusters, and sometimes singly. In shape
the acorns are nearly hemispherical, and measure about a half inch in
diameter; they are enclosed only at the base, in a thin, saucer-shaped
cup, dark brown, and scaly.
The bark of a mature tree is dark gray or brownish-green; it is rough,
being full of small furrows, and frequently cracks open and shows the
reddish inner layer of bark. On small branches and young trunks, it is
smoother, lighter, and more lustrous.
Pin oak is smaller than red oak. Average trees are seventy or eighty
feet high and two or three in diameter. Specimens 120 feet high and four
feet in diameter are heard of but are seldom seen. Near the northern
limit of pin oak’s range large trees are not found, nor are small trees
plentiful. This holds true in all parts of New England and northern New
York where the species is found growing naturally. South of
Pennsylvania, along the flood plains of rivers which flow to Chesapeake
bay, a better class of timber is found. The best development of the
species is in the lower Ohio valley.
It grows rapidly, but falls a little short of the red oak. When young
growth is cut, sprouts will rise from the stumps and flourish for a
time, but merchantable trees are seldom or never produced that way. The
acorn must be depended on. It has been remarked that pin oak does not
prune itself well, but it does better in dense stands than in open
ground. In the latter case the limbs are late in dying and falling.
Pin oak has proved to be a valuable street and park tree. It possesses
several characteristics which recommend it for that use. It grows
rapidly, and it quickly attains a size which lessens its liability to
injury by accidents. Its shade is tolerably dense; the crown is shapely
and attractive; the leaves fall late; and it seems to stand the smoke
and dust of cities better than many other trees. It is easily and
successfully transplanted if taken when small. Many towns and cities
from Long Island to Washington, D. C., have planted the pin oak along
streets, avenues, and in parks. Several thoroughfares in Washington are
shaded by them.
Considerable planting of pin oak has been done by railroads which expect
to grow ties. Trees of this species when cut in forests and made into
crossties do not all show similar resistance to decay. Some ties are
perishable in a short time, while others give satisfactory service. The
best endure well without preservative treatment, but all are benefited
by it. If the experimental plantings turn out well, it may be expected
that pin oak will fill an important place in the crosstie business.
Because of numerous limbs, lumber cut from pin oak is apt to be knotty,
and the percentage of good grades small. The annual rings are wide, and
are about evenly divided between spring and summerwood, though the
latter often exceeds the former. Its general appearance suggests red
oak, but it is more porous in trunks of thrifty growth. The springwood
is largely made up of pores. The medullary rays are hardly as prominent
as those of red oak, but in other ways resemble them. The wood weighs
43.24 pounds per cubic foot, which is a little above red oak. It is hard
and strong, dark brown with thin sapwood of darker color. The lumber
checks and warps badly in seasoning.
The uses to which pin oak is put must be considered in a general way
because of the absence of exact statistics. The wood is not listed by
the lumber trade under its own name, but goes along with others of the
black oak group. Its uses, however, are known along a number of lines.
Lumbermen cut it wherever it is found mixed with other hardwoods.
Sometimes vehicle manufacturers make a point of securing a supply of
this wood. That occurs oftener with small concerns than large. It is
made into felloes, reaches, and bolsters. Furniture makers use it, and
well selected, quarter-sawed stock is occasionally reduced to veneer.
The articles produced pass for red oak, and it would be very difficult
to detect the difference between pin oak and true red oak when finished
as veneer. Some highly attractive mission furniture is said to be of pin
oak.
More goes to chair stock mills than to factories which produce higher
classes of furniture. Chairs utilize very small pieces, and that gives
the stock cutter a chance to trim out the knots and produce the maximum
amount of clear stuff. Chair makers in Michigan reported the use of
60,000 feet of pin oak in 1910. Slack coopers work in much the same way
as chair mills, and pin oak is acceptable material for many classes of
barrels and other containers. Small tight knots are frequently not
defects sufficient to cause the rejection of staves. Tight coopers do
not find pin oak suitable, because the wood is too porous to hold
liquids, particularly liquors containing alcohol. The wood is mixed at
mills with red oak and other similar species and is manufactured into
picture frames, boxes, crates, interior finish for houses, and many
other commodities requiring strength or handsome finish. In early years
when the people manufactured by hand what they needed, and obtained
their timber from the nearest forest or woodlot, they split fence rails,
pickets, clapboards, and shingles of pin oak.
Oak-apples or galls are the round excrescences formed on the limbs by
gallflies and their eggs. They seem particularly fond of this species
and specimens are often seen which are literally covered with them. The
worms which live inside seem to flourish particularly well on the food
they imbibe from pin oak. The primitive school teachers three or four
generations ago turned these oak galls to account. They are rich in
tannin, and were employed in manufacturing the local ink supply. The
teachers were the ink makers as well as the pen cutters when the pens
were whittled from quills. The process of making the ink was simple. The
galls were soaked in a kettle of water and nails. The iron acted on the
tannin and produced the desired blackness, but if special luster was
desired, it was furnished by adding the fruit of the wild greenbrier
(_Smilax rotundifolia_), which grew abundantly in the woods. It was well
that steel pens were not then in use, for the schoolmaster’s oak ink
would have eaten up such a pen in a single day.
[Illustration]
CALIFORNIA LIVE OAK
[Illustration: CALIFORNIA LIVE OAK]
CALIFORNIA LIVE OAK
(_Quercus Agrifolia_)
This fine western tree belongs to the black oak group, yet its acorns
mature in one year, like those of white oaks. It is the only known black
oak with that habit. It is properly classed with canyon live oak which
has many characteristics of white oak, yet matures its acorns the second
year. The two oaks with freakish fruit belong in California, and to some
extent occupy the same range. California live oak is apparently making
an effort to conform to the habit of other black oaks by producing two
year acorns. It has not yet succeeded in doing so, but flowers
occasionally appear in the fall, and young acorns set on the twigs. They
drop during the winter, and it is not believed that any of them hang
till the second season.
The range of this tree covers most of the California coast region but
does not reach the great interior valleys. The tree is very common in
the southwestern part of the state. It is called an evergreen, and some
individuals deserve that reputation, but the leaves never remain long
after the new crop appears. Frequently the old leaves do not wait for
the new, and when they drop, the branches remain bare for a few weeks.
The form of the leaf is not constant. Some have smooth margins, but the
typical leaf is toothed like holly. One of the early names by which the
tree was known was holly-leaved oak. The bark looks much like the bark
of chestnut oak. It is bought for tanning purposes, but its principal
use is to adulterate the bark of another oak (_Quercus densiflora_).
Trees range in height from twenty-five to seventy-five feet, and from
one foot to four in diameter. The trunks are very short, and seldom
afford clear lengths exceeding eight feet, and often not more than four.
Trees generally grow in the open, but when in thickets, the boles
lengthen somewhat. They are of slow growth and live to old age.