timber tree, though it is by no means useless. It is known by
several names, among them being western walnut, dwarf walnut, little
walnut, and California walnut. The last name is applied in Arizona
through a misunderstanding of the tree’s identity. It is there
confused with the California walnut which is a different species.
The Mexican walnut’s range extends from central Texas, through New
Mexico to Arizona, and southward into Mexico. It prefers the
limestone banks of streams in Texas where it is usually shrubby,
seldom attaining a height above thirty feet. It reaches its largest
size in canyons among the mountains of New Mexico and Arizona where
it reaches a height of sixty feet. Trunks are sometimes five feet in
diameter. The wood weighs 40.85 pounds per cubic foot, is dark in
color, but the tone is not as regular as that of black walnut;
neither is it as strong and stiff. It polishes well, and is said to
be durable in contact with the soil. It finds its way in small
amounts to local mills, shops, and factories where it is made into
various commodities. It is particularly liked for the lathe, and is
suited better for turnery than for any other purpose. It is made
into gavels, cups, spindles, parts of grills; and it is also worked
into picture frames, handles, and small pieces of furniture. It does
not appear that lumber sawed from this walnut ever gets into the
general market, but the whole output, which is small, is consumed
locally. Trees do not occur in pure stands and the whole supply
consists of isolated trees or small groups, with few trunks large
enough for sawlogs. The nuts are dwarfs. All are not the same size,
but none are as large as a hickory nut. Many that grow on the
diminutive trees along the water courses in western Texas are not as
large, husks and all, as a nutmeg, and the nut itself is about half
the size of a nutmeg, and not dissimilar in appearance. The kernels
of such a nut are too small to have any commercial value, but they
are rare morsels for the native Mexicans and Indians who pick them
by pocketfuls. Trees in the stony canyon of Devil’s river, in Texas,
are in full bearing when so small that a man can stand on the ground
and pick walnuts from their highest branches. The Mexican walnut is
occasionally cultivated in the eastern part of the United States and
in Europe. It is hardy as far north as Massachusetts.
CALIFORNIA WALNUT (_Juglans californica_) is a small tree confined
to California, and pretty close to the coast, though it grows in
Eldorado county. It is most abundant within twenty or thirty miles
of tidewater. In the southern part of the state it ascends to an
elevation of 4,000 feet. It prefers the banks of streams and the
bottoms of canyons where the soil is moist, but it will grow in dry
situations. Trees occur singly or in small groups. Their average
size is fifteen or twenty feet high, and eight or ten inches in
diameter; but trees occasionally are sixty feet high and eighteen
inches through. The leaves are small, measuring from six to nine
inches in length, with from nine to seventeen leaflets. Nuts are
about half the size of eastern black walnuts. The kernel is edible.
The wood is heavier than black walnut, and somewhat lighter in
color. Otherwise the two woods are much alike, except in strength
and stiffness. In these the California wood is inferior. It has not
been reported for any use, but it is suitable for a number of
purposes, provided logs of sufficient size could be had. The trunk,
in addition to being small, is usually short. The tree is intolerant
of shade, and is not often found in forests. It grows rapidly and
will attain a diameter of fifteen inches in twenty years or less;
but it apparently does not live long. Its principal usefulness in
California is as a shade tree, and as a stock in nurseries on which
to graft English walnut.
[Illustration]
SHAGBARK HICKORY
[Illustration: SHAGBARK HICKORY]
SHAGBARK HICKORY
(_Hicoria Ovata_)
Twelve species of hickory grow in the United States, all east of the
Rocky Mountains. None grow anywhere else in the world, as far as known.
They were widely dispersed over the northern hemisphere in prehistoric
times. The records of geology, written by leaf prints in the rocks, tell
of forests of hickory in Europe, and even in Greenland, probably a
hundred thousand or more years ago, and certainly not in times that can
be called recent. No records there later than the ice age have been
found. This leads to the presumption that the sheet of ice which pushed
down from the North and covered the larger portions of Europe and North
America, overwhelmed the hickory forests, and all others, as far as the
southern limit of the ice’s advance.
In Europe the hickory was utterly destroyed, and it never returned after
the close of the reign of ice; but America was more fortunate. The ice
sheet pushed little farther in its southward course than the Ohio and
Missouri rivers, and forests south of there held their ground, and they
slowly worked their way back north as the ice withdrew. Hickory
recovered part but not all of its lost ground in America, for it is now
found no farther north than southern Canada, which is more than a
thousand miles from its old range in Greenland.
The early settlers in New England and in the South at once came into
contact with hickory. It was one of the first woods named in this
country, and the name is of Indian origin, and is spelled in no fewer
than seventeen ways in early literature relating to the settlements. It
is probable that John Smith, a prominent man in early Virginia and New
England, was the first man who ever wrote the name. He spelled it as the
Indians pronounced it, “powcohiscora,” and it has been trimmed down to
our word hickory. The Indian word was the name of a salad or soup made
of pounded hickory nuts and water, and was only indirectly applied to
the tree itself.
The first settlers along the Atlantic coast nearly always called this
tree a walnut, and the name white walnut was common. They were
unacquainted with any similar nut-bearing tree in Europe, except the
walnut, and most people preferred applying a name with which they were
already familiar. Hickories and walnuts belong to the same family, and
have many points in common.
Although there are twelve hickories in the United States, and in many
respects they are similar, all are not of equal value. Some are very
scarce, and the wood of others is not up to standard. From a commercial
standpoint, four surpass the others. These are shagbark (_Hicoria
ovata_), shellbark (_Hicoria laciniosa_), pignut (_Hicoria glabra_), and
mockernut (_Hicoria alba_). The wood of some of the others is as good,
but is scarce; and still others, particularly the pecans, are abundant
enough, but the wood is inferior. It is impossible in business to
separate the hickories. Lumbermen do not do it; manufacturers cannot do
it. In some regions one is more abundant than the others, and
consequently is used in larger quantities, but in some other region a
different species may predominate in the forest and in the factory. It
cannot be truthfully asserted that one hickory is always as good as
another, or even that a certain species in one region is as good as the
same species in another region. All parts of the same tree do not
produce wood of equal value.
Along certain general lines, hickories have many properties in common.
The wood is ring-porous, that is, the inner edge of the yearly growth
ring has a row of large pores. Others are scattered toward the outer
part of the ring, generally decreasing in number and size outward. There
is no distinct division between spring and summerwood. The medullary
rays are thin and obscure. The unaided eye seldom notices them. The
sapwood is white in all species of hickory, and is usually very thick.
The heartwood is reddish. Common opinion has long held that sapwood is
tougher and more elastic than heartwood, and therefore to be preferred
for most purposes. Tests made a few years ago by the United States
Forest Service ran counter to the long-established opinion of users, by
showing that in most respects the redwood of the heart was as good as
the white sapwood. However, where resiliency is the chief requisite, as
in slender handles, many manufacturers still prefer sapwood.
Hickory is very strong, probably the strongest wood in common use in
this country. The statement that one wood is stronger than all others is
hardly justified because averages of strength should be taken, and not
isolated instances. Satisfactory averages have not yet been worked out
for a large number of our woods; but, as far as existing figures may be
accepted, hickory is at the head of the list for strength, toughness,
and resiliency. Choice samples of certain woods may exceed the average
of hickory in some of these particulars. Sugar maple, hornbeam, and
locust occasionally show greater strength than hickory, but they lack in
toughness and resiliency--the very properties which give hickory its
chief value for many purposes.
Considerable misunderstanding exists as to second growth hickory. Some
suppose it consists of trees of commercial size developed from sprouts
where old trees have been cut. That is not generally correct. When
small hickory trees are cut, the stumps often sprout, but hoop poles are
about the only commodity made from that kind of hickory. If sprouts are
left to grow large, the trees produced are generally defective. Good
hickory grows from the nut. The term “second growth” means little,
unless it is explained in each instance just what conditions are
included. In one sense, all young, vigorous trees are second growth, and
that is often the idea in the mind of the speaker. Some would restrict
it to trees which have come up in old fields or partial clearings, where
they have plenty of light, and have grown rapidly. Their trunks are
short, the wood is tough, and there is little red heartwood. The larger
a pine, oak, or poplar, provided it is sound, the better the wood; but
not so with hickory. Great age and large size add no desirable qualities
to this wood.
Shagbark is largest of the true hickories. The pecans are not usually
regarded as true hickories from the wood-user’s viewpoint. Some
shagbarks are 120 feet high and four feet in diameter, but the average
size is about seventy-five tall, two in diameter. There is confusion of
names among all the hickories, and shagbark is misnamed and over-named
as often as any of the others. Many persons do not know shagbark and
shellbark apart, though the ranges of the two species lie only partly in
the same territory. Shagbark is known as shellbark hickory, shagbark
hickory, shellbark, upland hickory, hickory, scaly bark hickory, white
walnut, walnut, white hickory, and red heart hickory. Most of the names
refer to the bark, which separates into thin strips, often a foot or
more long, and six inches or more wide; and this remains more or less
closely attached to the trunk by the middle, giving the shaggy
appearance to which the tree owes its common name.
The leaf-buds are large and ovate, with yellowish-green and brown
scales. The leaves are compound and alternate; they have rough stalks
containing five or seven leaflets; they are sessile, tapering to a point
and having a rounded base. The lower pair of leaflets is markedly
different from the rest in shape; sharply serrate and thin; dark green
and glabrous above; lighter below. The flowers do not appear until the
leaves have fully matured. They grow in catkins; the staminate ones are
light green, slender, and grow in groups of three on long peduncles; the
pistillate ones grow in spikes of from two to five flowers. The fruit
grows within a dense, green husk, shiny and smooth on the outside,
opening in four parts. The nut is nearly white, four-angled, and
flattened at the sides. The kernel is sweet and of a strong flavor.
This tree’s range is not much short of 1,000,000 square miles, but it is
not equally abundant in all parts. It grows from southern Maine to
western Florida; is found in Minnesota and Nebraska, and southward
beyond the Mississippi. It is most common and of largest size on the
western slopes of the southern Appalachian mountains and in the basin of
the lower Ohio river. Its favorite habitat is on low hills, or near
streams and swamps, in rich and moderately well drained soil.
The hickories have long tap roots, and they do best in soils which the
tap roots can penetrate, going down like a radish. The root system makes
most hickories difficult trees to transplant. Early in life they do a
large part of their growing under ground, and when that growth is
interrupted, as it must be in transplanting, the young tree seldom
recovers. Those who would grow hickories for timber, nuts, or as
ornaments, should plant the seed where the tree is expected to remain.
Most of the planting of hickory in the forest is done by squirrels which
bury nuts, with the apparent expectation of digging them up later.
Occasionally one is missed, and a young tree starts.
The uses of this wood are typical of all the other hickories. Handles
and light vehicles consume most of it. The markets are in all parts of
this country, and in manufacturing centers in many foreign lands.
[Illustration]
BITTERNUT HICKORY
[Illustration: BITTERNUT HICKORY]
BITTERNUT HICKORY
(_Hicoria Minima_)
The tannin in the thin shelled nuts which grow abundantly on this tree
gives the name bitternut. The name is truly descriptive. Gall itself
scarcely exceeds the intense bitterness of the kernel, when crushed
between the teeth. The sense of taste does not immediately detect the
bitterness in its full intensity. A little time seems to be necessary to
dissolve the astringent principal and distribute it to the nerves of
taste. When this has been accomplished, the bitterness remains a long
time, seeming to persist after the last vestige of the cause has been
removed. In that respect it may be likened to the resin of the incense
cedar of California which is among tastes what musk is among odors,
nearly everlasting. The bitterness of this hickory nut has much to do
with the perpetuation of the species. No wild or tame animal will eat
the fruit unless forced by famine. Consequently, the nuts are left to
grow, provided they can get themselves planted. That is not always easy,
for small quadrupeds which bury edible nuts for food, and then
occasionally forget them, show no interest whatever in the unpalatable
bitternut. It is left where it falls, unless running water, or some
other method of locomotion, transports it to another locality. This
happens with sufficient frequency to plant the nuts as widely as those
of any other hickory. It is believed that this is the most abundant of
the hickories.
The tree bears names other than bitternut. It is called swamp hickory,
though that name is more applicable to a different species, the water
hickory. Pig hickory or pignut are names used in several states, but
without good reason. Hogs may sometimes eat the nuts, but never when
anything better can be found. Besides, pignut is the accepted name of
another species (_Hicoria glabra_). In Louisiana they call it the bitter
pecan tree. Bitter hickory is a common name in many localities. In New
Hampshire it is known as pig walnut, in Vermont as bitter walnut, and in
Texas as white hickory. The names are so many, and so often apply as
well to other hickories as to this, that the name alone is seldom a safe
guide to identification. It has two or three characters which will help
to pick it out from among others. Its leaves and bark bear considerable
resemblance to ash. The leaves are the smallest among the hickories, and
the bark is never shaggy. The small branches always carry yellow buds,
no matter what the season of the year. The compound leaves are from six
to ten inches long, and consist of from five to nine leaflets, always an
odd number.
Bitternut hickory’s range covers pretty generally the eastern part of
the United States. It is one of the largest and commonest hickories of
New England, and is likewise the common hickory of Kansas, Nebraska, and
Iowa. It grows from Maine through southern Canada to Minnesota, follows
down the western side of the Mississippi valley to Texas, and extends
into western Florida.
Hickory is often lumbered in ways not common with other hardwoods. It is
not generally found in ordinary lumber yards, and is not cut into lumber
as most other woods are. It is in a class by itself. The person who
would consult statistics of lumber cut in the United States to ascertain
the quantity of hickory going to market, would utterly fail to obtain
the desired information. The statistics of lumber cut in the United
States for the year 1910 listed the total for hickory at 272,252,000
feet, distributed among 33 states, and cut by 6,349 mills. Reports by
users of this wood in a number of states show that probably twice as
much goes to factories to be manufactured into finished commodities, as
all the sawmills cut. This means that much hickory goes to factories
without having passed through sawmills to be first converted into
lumber. It goes as bolts and billets, and as logs of various lengths.
Some sawmills in the hickory region cut dimension stock and sell it to
factories to be further worked up; but that is a comparatively small
part of the hickory that finds its way to factories of various kinds.
Many sawmills refuse to cut hickory, claiming that it does not pay them
to specialize on a scarce wood. Scattered trees occur among other
timber, but these are left when the other logging is done. Special
operators go after the hickory, and distribute it among various
industries which are in the market for it. That method often results in
much waste, because the man who is specializing in one commodity, such
as wagon poles, ax handles, sucker-rods, wheel stock, or the like, is
apt to cut out only what meets his requirements, and abandon the rest.
Some of the hickory camps where such stock is roughed out are spectacles
of carelessness and waste, with heaps of rejected hickory which, though
not meeting requirements for the special articles in view, are valuable
for many other things. Few woods contribute to the trash heap more in
proportion to the total cut than hickory; but the waste nearly all
occurs before the factories which finally work up the products are
reached. These factories are often hundreds of miles from the forests
where the hickory grows.
Hickory was not a useful farm timber in early times, as oak and chestnut
were. It decayed quickly when exposed to weather, and was not suitable
for fence rails, posts, house logs, or general lumber. It was sometimes
used for barn floors, but when seasoned it was so hard to nail that it
was not well liked. The pioneers were not able to use this wood to
advantage, because it is a manufacturer’s material, not a farmer’s or a
villager’s standby. It can be said to the credit of the pioneers,
however, that they knew its value for certain purposes, and employed as
much of it as they needed.
Fuel was the most important place for hickory on the farm. All things
considered, it is probably the best firewood of the American forest. The
yawning fireplaces called for cords of wood every month of winter in the
northern states. Enough to make a modern buggy would go up the chimney
in a rich red blaze in an hour, and no one thought that it was waste;
and it was not waste then, because farms had to be cleared, and firewood
was the best use possible for the hickory at that time. Every cord
burned in the chimney was that much less to be rolled into logheaps and
consumed in the clearing for the new cornfield.
Hickory has always been considered the best material for smoking meat.
More than 30,000 cords a year are now used that way. It was so used in
early times, when every farmer smoked and packed his own meat. Hickory
smoke was supposed to give bacon a flavor equalled by no other wood; and
in addition to that it was believed to keep the skippers out.
The nuts were made into oil which was thought to be efficacious as a
liniment employed as a remedy against rheumatism to which pioneers were
susceptible because their moccasins were porous and their feet were
often wet. The oil was used also for illuminating purposes. It fed the
flame of a crude lamp.
No other wood equalled hickory for “split brooms,” the kind that swept
the cabins before broom corn was known or carpet sweepers and vacuum
cleaners were invented. The toughness, smoothness, and strength of
hickory made it the best oxbow wood, and the same property fitted it for
barrel hoops. Thousands of fish casks in New England and tobacco
hogsheads in Maryland and Virginia were hooped with hickory before
George Washington was born. The wood’s value for ax handles was learned
early. The Indians used it for the long, slender handles of their stone
hammers with which they barked trees in their clearings, and broke the
skulls of enemies in war.
Bitternut hickory has about ninety-two per cent of the strength of
shagbark, and seventy-three per cent of its stiffness. It yields
considerably more ash when burned, and is rated a little lower in fuel
value.
MOCKER NUT HICKORY (_Hicoria alba_) has many names. It is called
mocker nut in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey,
Delaware, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas,
Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas; white heart hickory, Rhode Island, New
York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, North Carolina, Texas, Illinois,
Ontario, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, and Nebraska; black hickory,
Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri; big bud and red hickory,
Florida; hardback hickory, Illinois; white hickory, Pennsylvania,
South Carolina; big hickory nut, West Virginia; hognut, Delaware.
The name mocker nut is supposed to refer to the thick shell and
disappointingly small kernel within. The range is not as extensive
as some of the other hickories. Beginning in southern Ontario, it
extends westward and southward to eastern Kansas and the eastern
half of Texas. The region of its most abundant growth is in the
basin of the lower Ohio and in Arkansas, the best specimens
appearing in fertile uplands. This is said to be the only hickory
that invades the southern maritime pinebelt, growing on the low
country along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts in abundance. The leaves
are fragrant with a powerful, resinous odor; they have five or seven
leaflets with hairy petioles or stems. The bark resembles that of
bitternut, and is not scaly like that of shagbark. The wood weighs
51.21 pounds per cubic foot. It is hard, strong, tough, flexible. It
has about ninety-four per cent of the strength of shagbark, and
eighty per cent of its stiffness. Certain selected specimens of this
species are probably as strong as any hickory; but, as is the case
with all woods, there is great difference between specimens, and
general averages only are to be relied upon. G. W. Letterman, who
collected woods for Sargent’s tests, procured a sample of this
hickory near Allenton, Missouri, which showed strength sufficient to
sustain 20,000 pounds per square inch, and its measure of stiffness
was the enormous figure of 2,208,000 pounds per square inch.
The uses of mocker nut hickory do not differ from those of other
hickories. The tree is frequently nearly all sapwood, to which the
name white hickory is due. Some persons suppose that the heartwood
is white, but that misconception is due to the fact that some pretty
large trees have no heartwood, but are sap clear through.
The term “black hickory” is sometimes applied to three species with
dark-colored bark which bears some resemblance to the bark of ash.
They are bitternut (_Hicoria minima_), pignut (_Hicoria glabra_),
and mocker nut (_Hicoria alba_). When the word black is thus used,
it refers to the bark and the general outward appearance of the
tree, and not to the wood, which is as white as that of any other
hickory.
[Illustration]
PIGNUT HICKORY
[Illustration: PIGNUT HICKORY]
PIGNUT HICKORY
(_Hicoria Glabra_)