thoroughly dry. The wood of mature trees is reddish-brown; but young and
middle aged trunks are all sapwood, and are white from bark to center.
When sapwood is exposed to the air a considerable time it changes color
and becomes very dark brown. The medullary rays of this oak are broad,
fairly numerous, and are darker than the surrounding wood. When the log
is quarter-sawed, the exposed flecks of bright surface are the darkest
parts. To that extent, it resembles quarter-sawed sycamore, but the
woods do not look alike in any other particular. This oak is very
porous, and the pores--as is usual with live oaks--are arranged in rows
running from bark to center rather than parallel with the annual rings.
No clear line is distinguishable between spring and summerwood.
Cordwood constitutes the most important use for California live oak. It
rates high in fuel value, and the many large and crooked limbs make the
tree an ideal one, from the cordwood cutter’s viewpoint. By carefully
ricking the wood, with the crooks and elbows in every possible
direction--at which some cordwood cutters are very proficient--a cord of
wood may be constructed in the forest, which, when sold and delivered in
the buyer’s shed, contracts like an accordion.
CANYON LIVE OAK (_Quercus chrysolepis_). This splendid California
oak bears many names. It is an evergreen, and therefore is called
live oak. It is hard when thoroughly seasoned, and this has won for
it the name iron oak. Wagon makers often so designate it. It is
called Valparaiso oak, but for what reason is not apparent. Black
live oak doubtless refers to the dark color of the foliage. The most
shapely trees grow in the bottoms of canyons, and the name, canyon
live oak, refers to that circumstance. Hickory oak is not an
appropriate name, though it doubtless implies that the wood
possesses the toughness of hickory. It is about as tough as white
oak. The name golden cup oak is a translation of its botanical name
which, in Greek, means “golden scale,” a reference to a yellow
tomentum or wool which covers the cups of the acorns. The wood’s
hardness qualifies it to serve as mauls, hence the name maul oak.
The northern limit of its growth is in southern Oregon. It goes
south from there on the coast ranges of California and the western
slopes of the Sierra Nevadas to the highlands of southern
California. Its growth on the mountains of southern Arizona and New
Mexico is always shrubby. The lowest limit of its range is about
1,000 feet above sea level, the best specimens occurring at low
altitudes in the sheltered canyons of the coast ranges of
California. Gradually diminishing in size, it grows to the very tops
of many of the high mountains, sometimes reaching 9,000 feet, being
not more than a foot high at the upper limits of its range. In
appearance this tree resembles the eastern live oak (_Quercus
virginiana_), having the same majestic wide-spreading crown, except
in the high altitudes where it forms dense thickets covering large
areas.
When in its favorite habitat, the massive proportions and majestic
appearance of this tree are imposing, the crown sometimes being 150
feet across, the bole short and thick, and the great branches long
and horizontal. It is not clothed in the somber Spanish moss that is
often present on the great live oaks of the southeastern states, but
there is a similarity of appearance in the drooping slender twigs.
One hundred and fifty feet across is cited as an unusual width of
crown, one hundred feet being a good average size, and forty or
fifty feet the usual height, although it sometimes reaches 100. The
bole is vested in a gray-brown, reddish-tinged bark, about an inch
thick, and broken into numerous scales which in old age become flaky
and pliable and fall off.
The bark is light colored, and has the stringy character of white
oak. The tree would readily pass for a white oak were it not for its
two-year acorns which class it in the black oak group. The wood
resembles white oak, and weighs 52.93 pounds per cubic foot.
Few oaks, if any, retain their leaves a longer time than this. They
remain on the branches three or four years. Most evergreen oaks shed
theirs at the beginning of the second year. The leaves of this tree
are peculiar in another way. They assume various forms. That in
itself is not unusual and occurs with many species; but the canyon
live oak has one pattern of leaf for the young tree, another for the
old. One form has a margin with sharp, hooked teeth; another has
smooth-margined leaves, and there are various intermediate forms.
Sizes vary no less than shapes of both acorns and leaves. Some
acorns are half an inch in length, others two inches.
The canyon live oak is believed to be long-lived, but further
information is desirable. The massive trunks represent centuries.
They usually occur in sheltered places which are measurably secure
from the ordinary perils which beset trees, notably the woodsman’s
ax and the periodic forest fire. The bottoms of canyons where this
oak makes choice of situation do not usually burn fiercely, and
trees sheltered there escape. Cordwood cutters are the most constant
peril to good fuel trees in California; but many a canyon is safe
from their invasions, because of lack of roads. There the most
magnificent oaks rear their crowns in security, while trees of
inferior size and character, which grow on exposed slopes and flats,
fall before the cordwood cutter, and go to the ricks in village
woodyards.
The wood of canyon live oak is superior to that of any other oak in
its range. It is of light brown color, and is tough, strong, stiff,
and heavy. The trunks are generally unsuitable for sawlogs, being
too short, but when a chance tree is found that may be cut into
lumber, it is considered a prize. Trunks are seldom good for more
than one sawlog. In that respect this oak may be compared with the
southern live oak. The scarcity of good hardwoods on the Pacific
coast adds to the value of what may be found there. If the canyon
live oak grew in the East, and developed a trunk of the same size
and shape as it has in its present home, it would attract no more
attention from the users of hardwoods than the live oak in the South
attracts now. But place makes great difference.
Factories in California do not report the use of much of this oak,
yet considerable quantities of it are in service. The most important
place found for it is in country and village blacksmith shops, where
wagons are repaired. Nearly every piece of wood which goes into a
wagon, except the bed, may be this oak. Many persons consider it the
best wagon timber on the Pacific coast, and it is particularly
valued for tongues, not only for wagons, but for heavy log trucks
which are operated by several yoke of oxen. The wood is likewise
made into singletrees. It has always been in use in California for
pack saddles. That article is small, but many saddles were formerly
made, and the pack saddle is still an important article in the
mountains. Trains of mules, horses, and burros thread the narrow
paths, where wheeled vehicles cannot go, and deliver supplies to
camps and mines in remote districts. The pack saddle’s strength is
frequently all that intervenes between the load and destruction; for
the snapping of a piece of wood may let the pack go over a precipice
beyond recovery. The pack trains are slowly passing out of use in
the West, as they long ago disappeared from the “bridle paths” of
eastern mountains and forests; but they are still to be seen among
the fastnesses of the Sierra Nevadas, as in the days when a western
poet burst into inspired song of the long pack trains going
“Up and down o’er the mountain trail
With one horse tied to another’s tail.”
HUCKLEBERRY OAK (_Quercus chrysolepis vaccinifolia_) is a variety of
canyon live oak, and is never large enough to supply wood for any
purpose, but is valuable as a covering to the ground on exposed
mountains. It is usually a shrub, and specimens no more than a foot
high are mature and bear acorns enormously out of proportion to the
size of the tree. If the canyon live oak of largest size in the low
hills bore acorns proportionately as large, they would be the size
of barrels. The huckleberry oak’s acorns are set in their golden
cups. The name huckleberry is applied because of a fancied
resemblance of the leaves to those of huckleberries. They are
generally less than one inch in length, sometimes not half an inch.
This unique variety of oak ranges on elevated slopes and ridges of
the Sierra Nevada mountains, and the traveler in climbing to the
peaks is often grateful for the privilege of pulling himself up the
steep slopes by grasping in his hands the tops of full grown trees.
PALMER OAK (_Quercus chrysolepis palmeri_) is considered a variety
of canyon live oak by some, but Sudworth believes it is a distinct
species, and draws his conclusion from forms of leaves, flowers, and
fruit. It forms large thickets on foothills and plateaus near the
southern boundary of California, eighty miles or more east of San
Diego. The trees do not attain sufficient size to give them
commercial importance.
[Illustration]
CALIFORNIA TANBARK OAK
[Illustration: CALIFORNIA TANBARK OAK]
CALIFORNIA TANBARK OAK
(_Quercus Densiflora_)
Botanists dispute the right of this tree to the name of oak, and some of
them refuse to call it an oak. It is admitted that it possesses
characters not found in any other oak, but these are important to the
botanist only, while laymen have never considered the tree anything but
an oak. It has been variously called tanbark oak, chestnut oak,
California chestnut oak, live oak, and peach oak. The trunk, branches,
and foliage look much like chestnut. The leaf is like the chestnut’s,
but it is evergreen. There are three or four crops on the tree at one
time, and none fall until they are three or four years old. Young leaves
are remarkably woolly, but late in their first summer they get rid of
most of the fuzz, and become thick in texture.
Tanbark oaks are of all sizes, from mere shrubs on high mountains in the
northern Sierra Nevadas to fine and symmetrical timber in the damp
climate of the fog belt between San Francisco and the Oregon line. The
average height of mature trees is from seventy to 100 feet, with
diameters up to six feet in rare cases, though more trunks are under
than over two feet in diameter.
The range of this oak reaches southern Oregon on the north, and runs
southward three or four hundred miles along the Sierra Nevada mountains,
to Mariposa county, and six hundred miles through the Coast range to
Santa Barbara county. The tree is affected by climatic conditions, and
where surroundings do not suit, it is small and shrubby, often less than
ten feet high. It does best in the redwood belt where fogs from the
Pacific ocean keep the air moist and the ground damp. It sometimes
associates with Douglas fir, and at other times with California live
oak. If it grows in dense side shade it loses its lower branches and
develops a long, clean trunk; but in open ground it keeps its limbs
until late in life.
This is the most important source of tanbark on the Pacific coast, and
up to the present it has been procurable in large quantities. The annual
output is nearly 40,000 tons, and it commands a higher price than the
bark of any other oak or of hemlock. The absence of other adequate
tanning materials on the Pacific coast gives this tree much importance.
Its range covers several thousand square miles, and the stand is fairly
good on much of it. But on the other hand, the destruction of timber to
secure the bark has been excessive. What occurred with chestnut oak and
hemlock in the East, is occurring with tanbark oak in the West. Trees
are cut and peeled, and are left by thousands to rot in the woods, or
to feed fires and make them more destructive. The bark peelers do their
principal work in the California redwood region, because there the oak
is at its best. Economic conditions make the salvage of the trunks
impossible. The bark can be hauled to market, but the wood is unsalable
at living prices, after the long haul. It has, therefore, been usually
abandoned, and becomes a total loss. It cannot even be sold for fuel,
because the country within reach of it is thinly settled, and wood is
plentiful on every side.
Large oaks are felled, because the bark can not be stripped from the
trunks in any other way, and small trees are not spared. The peelers
often do not take the trouble to cut them down, but strip off the bark
as high as a man can reach, and leave them standing. A future tree is
thus destroyed for the sake of a strip of bark a few feet long. Such
trees live a year or two, sometimes several years, before yielding to
the inevitable. Usually, as a last expiring effort, they bear an
abnormally large crop of acorns. That performance, in the language of
the bark peelers, is “the last kick.” A tanbark slashing, when the
peelers are ready to abandon it, is a sorry spectacle. The barkless and
sun-cracked trunks strew the ground, the tops and limbs are piled in
windrows, the small peeled trees stand dying, and the last ricks of bark
have been sledded down the tote roads, marking the close of operations
in that district. A few months later, when fire runs through, the end of
the tanbark oak on that tract is accomplished.
Within recent years commendable efforts have been made to use the wood
as well as the bark. One of the first steps in that direction was to
overcome the prejudice against the wood. It was long considered to be
valueless. That belief was founded on the single fact that this oak is
difficult to season. Few woods in this country check as badly as this,
when it is left exposed to sun and wind after the bark has been removed.
It checks both radially and along the annual rings. The medullary rays
are broad and extend much of the distance from the center to the
outside. These are natural lines of cleavage when the log begins to
season and the internal stresses develop. It must be admitted that the
prospect of making anything out of timber of that character is
discouraging; but it has been accomplished, and tanbark oak is now a
material of considerable value.
The wood has about the strength and stiffness of white oak, while it is
four pounds lighter per cubic foot. The structure is similar to that of
California live oak, but the pores of tanbark oak are smaller. They run
in rows from center to circumference. The medullary rays are broad
enough to show well in quarter-sawing, but the wood’s appearance when so
worked is not wholly satisfactory. The exposed flat surfaces of the
rays show a faint purplish or violet tinge which is considered
objectionable. But when the wood is worked plain it is dependable and
substantial. It makes good flooring, fairly good furniture, finish,
vehicles, and agricultural implements. It is perishable when placed in
damp situations, and this detracts somewhat from its value as railway
ties; but the wood’s porous nature indicates that it will readily yield
to preservative treatment.
Since the value of the wood is coming to be understood it is to be
expected that less of it will be destroyed than formerly, and that
second growth will be given opportunity to hold the ground when old
stands are cut. The tree is a prolific seeder, but not every year, and
seedlings come up abundantly in sheltered places. Sprouts rise from
stumps and grow to vigorous trees. It would seem, therefore, that the
tanbark oak will hold at least part of the ground where nature planted
it.
TOUMEY OAK (_Quercus toumeyi_). No oak in this country has smaller
leaves than this. They are usually less than three-fourths of an inch
long and half an inch wide, and they hang on petioles one-sixteenth inch
long. The leaves have no lobes or notches. They remain all winter and
fall in the spring in time to make room for the new crop. The acorns are
nearly as long as the leaves and ripen in June of the first year. Few
persons ever see this oak, for its known range is restricted to Mule
mountain, in Cochise county, southeastern Arizona. It attains a height
of twenty-five or thirty feet, and a diameter of six or eight inches.
The trunk is not only small, but is of form so poor that it can never be
of value for anything but fuel. It divides near the ground into crooked
branches. The heart of the tree is light brown, the thick sapwood is
lighter.
WOOLLY OAK (_Quercus tomentella_) has apparently been crowded off
the American continent and has taken refuge on islands off the
southern California coast. As far as known, not a single tree stands
on the mainland, but several groves, with a few isolated specimens,
are found on Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, and Catalina islands, where
they are huddled together in the bottoms of sheltered canyons. The
leaves are thick, leathery, and are toothed like holly. The trees
are evergreen. The acorns do not mature until the second season.
They are generally more than an inch long. The scarcity of this oak
relegates it to an unimportant place among commercial woods. This
seems unfortunate, for the appearance of the wood indicates that it
possesses excellent properties. No other oak looks like this wood.
It is decidedly yellow, and is dense and firm. The medullary rays
are different from those of any other oak. When seen in cross
section they are arranged in short, wavy lines, broadest in the
middle and tapering toward both ends. The pores are arranged between
the rays, and follow wavy lines also. Trees grow with fair rapidity,
and the largest on the islands are seventy-five feet high and two in
diameter.
BARREN OAK (_Quercus pumila_) is called dwarf black oak, or simply
scrub oak. Its habit of growing on barren land is responsible for
its common name which some people shorten to “bear” oak. It is one
of the poorest oaks of the East, and it seldom grows more than
twenty-five feet high and a few inches in diameter. Its range
follows the Atlantic coast southward from Mount Desert Island,
Maine, to North Carolina. It is probably more abundant on the pine
barrens of New Jersey than elsewhere. The trunks are too small to be
of use for anything but fuel.
PRICE OAK (_Quercus pricei_) is a California tree, supposed to be
very local in its range, since it has not been found outside the
drainage basin of a small stream in Monterey county. That locality
on the coast of California appears to be the starting place or
principal abiding place of several tree species, among which are
Monterey cypress and Monterey pine. The Price oak attains a height
of twenty-five or thirty feet, and a diameter of twelve inches or
less; consequently it is too small to be of value to lumbermen, even
if it were abundant. The leaves resemble those of California live
oak, and are believed to remain two summers on the tree. The acorns
mature the second season.
[Illustration]
SHINGLE OAK
[Illustration: SHINGLE OAK]
SHINGLE OAK
(_Quercus Imbricaria_)
The origin of this tree’s name has been the subject of considerable
controversy. According to one account the name was first used by the
French colonists at Kaskaskia, Illinois, nearly 150 years ago. They
found that the wood rived well and it was abundant in the vicinity of
their settlement. They split it for shingles and covered their cabins.
It was the best wood obtainable for the purpose in that region, and they
designated the tree shingle oak, a name translated into Latin by the
botanist Michaux and still retained as the tree’s botanical name. The
story of the name appears to be well authenticated, but the fact cannot
be denied that as much reason exists for another theory. A person who
sees a shingle oak tree in full leaf, particularly if it stands in open
ground where its foliage has had opportunity to develop along natural
lines, will at once notice the peculiar and characteristic overlapping
of the leaves. They suggest the courses of shingles nailed on a roof. No
other oak has that arrangement. The similitude is so striking that it
would be surprising if the name shingle oak were not applied.
It is not a one-name tree, but following the fashion, it carries several
names. It is called laurel oak in some regions. The form and appearance
of the leaf give the name. The oak looks like a mammoth laurel tree more
than like its own species. The shingle oak is known as jack oak in some
parts of Illinois. That is a name liable to be applied to any tree when
its real name is not known. In North Carolina they call the tree water
oak, which name, like jack oak, is often used to conceal ignorance of
the true name. Another southern species (_Quercus nigra_) is properly
named water oak.
Shingle oak requires good soil for growth but is not partial either to
uplands or bottoms. It is found at its best in the lower Ohio river
basin and in Missouri, but is comparatively rare in the East. From
middle Pennsylvania its range extends southward along the Alleghanies to
northern Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and west Arkansas. It is found in
Michigan, Wisconsin, and westward to Kansas.
It manifests a strong tendency to hybridize with other oaks, and it
readily crosses with black jack oak, pin oak, and yellow oak. It is
believed that a cross between yellow oak and shingle oak produced the
species known as lea oak.
A mature tree may be one hundred feet high and three or four feet in
diameter. It has a round or pyramidal attractive crown composed of many
slender branches and twigs. The foliage is distinctively grouped at the
ends of the twigs in star-like clusters. The leaves are four or six
inches long, with wedge-shaped or rounded bases, and are deep green and
shiny on the upper side, but lighter below. The acorns are short,
stubby, and rounded, covered one-third of the way with thin shallow
cups.
Shingle oak grows rapidly, and it is often sold by nurseries which deal
in ornamental forest trees. It is hardy as far north as Massachusetts.
Although it bears great abundance of leaves, they are so arranged that
the crown seems open. One may see through the branches of a large
shingle oak, and it suggests an airiness not common with oaks.
Differences of opinion exist concerning the value of shingle oak for
commercial purposes. It belongs in the black oak group, and its wood
goes to market as red oak, and apparently is never listed as anything
else. It is never named in market reports; shops and factories never
report it, and it has been pronounced inferior to red oak in strength
and seasoning properties. Tests have been made of some of its physical
properties, and the results do not indicate that the wood belongs with
inferior timbers. Its breaking strength is given at 39 per cent greater
than white oak, and its stiffness at 28 per cent greater. However, these
values, which are calculated from Sargent’s tables, are based on tests
of only a few specimens of the wood, and fuller investigation might make
revision necessary.
The wood is heavy, hard, and is said to check badly in drying. The pores
are large and are arranged in rows; medullary rays are broad and
conspicuous. The wood is light brown, tinged with red, the sapwood much
lighter. The broad medullary rays, running radially, give the wood its
good splitting qualities.
The tree is fairly abundant in different parts of its range, and is cut
and manufactured with other oaks and hardwoods. Slack coopers use it for
barrels; box makers employ it for crates; chair mills saw dimension
stock and ship it to factories to be finished; some goes to furniture
factories; some is turned for spindles for grills, and for balusters for
stairs; other fills various places as interior finish and molding. But
it all goes to market and passes through factories under names other
than its own.