brittle. It lacks the toughness of hickory. The medullary rays are
numerous, but small and obscure. The color is brown, the sapwood much
lighter, often nearly white. It is not durable in contact with the soil.
Notwithstanding its name, the wood rates low in ash, and its fuel value
is under that of white oak. The states which produce the largest yearly
cut of this species are, ranging downward in the order named: Arkansas,
Ohio, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, and Tennessee.
The uses of white ash are so numerous that they can be presented only in
classes. It goes into almost every wood-using industry, but in different
sections of country certain uses lead. Thus in Illinois the makers of
butter tubs take more of it than any other industry; in Michigan
automobiles lead, and in Arkansas the handle factories are largest
buyers; in Louisiana boat oars consume most; in Alabama and Missouri car
construction is in the lead; in Texas boxes and crates; in North
Carolina wagons; in Kentucky handles; in Maryland musical instruments;
and in Massachusetts furniture. The utilization of ash in these states,
scattered over the eastern half of the United States, indicates fairly
well the wood’s most important lines of usefulness. A considerable
quantity is made into flooring and interior finish. It is classed among
sanitary woods, that is, it does not stain or taint food products by
contact.
The total quantity of merchantable white ash in the country is not
known, but there is still enough to meet demand, and the extent of the
tree’s range makes supplies convenient in nearly all manufacturing
states. The species grows rather rapidly, and trees a hundred or a
hundred and fifty years old yield logs of good size.
TEXAS ASH (_Fraxinus texensis_) has been regarded by some as a variety
of white ash, while others, including Sudworth and Sargent, consider it
a distinct species. It is often called mountain ash where it occurs
among the mountains of western Texas. Its range lies wholly in that
state, and extends from the vicinity of Dallas to the valley of Devil’s
river. The compound leaves are smaller than those of white ash, and are
usually composed of five leaflets. The winged seeds ripen in May, and
are an inch or less in length. The largest trees are fifty feet high and
two or three in diameter; but generally the trees are much smaller. The
wood is strong, heavy, and hard. The annual rings are marked by one or
more rows of open ducts, and the medullary rays are inconspicuous. The
heartwood is light brown, the sapwood lighter. This ash is employed
within its range for various purposes, but it is not of sufficient
abundance to constitute an important commodity. In market it is not
distinguished from white ash.
GREGG ASH (_Fraxinus greggii_) has some peculiarities which make it
worthy of mention as one of the minor species. Its range is in the dry
mountains of western Texas where a number of ashes seem to have put in
an appearance as members of the thinly-peopled vegetable kingdom of that
region. The compound leaves of Gregg ash are seldom three inches long,
and the leaflets are often half an inch long and less than a quarter of
an inch wide. The petioles are winged like the twigs of wing elm. The
undersides of the leaves have small black dots. The winged seeds are as
proportionately small as the leaves. The flowers have not been described
by botanists, for the species is not well known. The largest trees are
scarcely twenty-five feet high and eight inches in diameter. More
frequently they are shrubs from four to twelve feet tall. The wood is
heavy, hard, brown in color and of slow growth.
DWARF ASH (_Fraxinus anomala_) might be mistaken for some other species
were its telltale winged seeds missing. It has lost the leaflets from
its compound leaf, and a single one remains. Occasionally, however, a
stem bearing three leaflets is found. The seeds are equipped with wide,
oblong wings. It is a desert species, and the desolate surroundings of
its habitat explain why nature has dispensed with as much foliage as
possible. It is found in southwestern Colorado, in southern Utah, and on
the western slopes of the Charleston mountains in southern Nevada. Trees
are small and the wood is not of much use for other than fuel, but a few
small ranch timbers are made of it where other kinds are scarce. Trunks
are usually not more than six or seven inches in diameter. The wood is
heavy, hard, and light brown in color.
FRINGE ASH (_Fraxinus cuspidata_) has some difficulty in proving
that it is entitled to be called a tree in the United States, though
southward in Mexico its right to that title is unquestioned. It is
very small where its range extends over the dry ridges and rocky
slopes of southwestern Texas and southern New Mexico and Arizona.
Its compound leaves are five or seven inches long, and the leaflets
which number from three to seven have long, slender tips. The
trowel-shaped fruit is about one inch long. The wood resembles white
ash, but trunks of considerable size are not found. The name refers
to the flowers, and they give this small tree its value for
ornamental purposes. The flowers appear in April and are extremely
fragrant.
[Illustration]
BLACK ASH
[Illustration: BLACK ASH]
BLACK ASH
(_Fraxinus Nigra_)
When George Washington was a surveyor locating land on the upper waters
of the Potomac river, and westward on the Kanawha and Ohio rivers, he
always spoke of this ash as “hoop tree” when he marked it with two or
with three “hacks,” depending upon whether it designated a “corner” or a
“line,” or a “pointer” in the system of surveying then in use. Trees
were used then as landmarks, and were duly recorded in the surveyor’s
field notes, and were described in the deeds when the title to the land
passed from one party to another. It was not unusual, if subsequent
litigation came up, to cut blocks from marked trees to prove that such a
corner was at such a place. The “hacks” or ax marks, were sometimes
healed over and invisible at the bark, but were found deep in the wood.
The rings of growth covering the ax marks afforded an admissible record
of the years that had passed since the survey was made. The selection of
the black ash as a landmark was one of the few instances in which
Washington showed poor judgment; because it is a tree of short life, and
might be expected to die before a great many years.
The name hoop ash is applied to this tree yet. It has always been good
material for barrel hoops, because it splits into thin pieces, and is
sufficiently tough. It is known as basket ash for the same reason. The
New England Indians were making fish baskets of it when the first white
people landed on those shores, and settlers speedily learned the art
from the children of the wilderness. Those untutored savages knew little
of wood technology, but they were able to take advantage of a
peculiarity in the structure of black ash wood, which the white man’s
microscope has revealed to him. The Indians doubtless discovered it
accidentally. The springwood in the annual ring of black ash is made up
of large pores, crowded so closely together that there is really very
little actual wood substance there. In other words, the springwood is
chiefly air spaces. The result is, that billets of black ash are easily
separated into thin strips, the cleavage following the weak lines of
springwood. A little beating and bending causes the annual rings to fall
apart. In some way the Indians found that out, and utilized their
knowledge in manufacturing baskets in which to carry fish, acorns,
hickory nuts, and other forest and water commodities.
The white people extended the scope of application to include chairs and
other furniture in which splits are manipulated. It is worthy of note
that Indians made a similar discovery with northern white cedar or
arborvitæ, which separates into thin pieces by beating and bending.
Barrel makers took advantage of the splitting properties of black ash to
make hoops of it, hence the name hoop ash, or hoop tree as Washington
called it. The name basket ash has a similar origin.
The names swamp ash and water ash refer to situations in which the tree
grows best. It is one of the thirstiest inhabitants of the forest. Its
aggressive roots ramify through the soil and drink up the moisture so
voraciously that if water is not abundant, neighboring trees and plants
may find their roots robbed, and the functions of healthy growth will be
interfered with. This has led to a general belief that black ash poisons
trees that it touches. It simply robs their roots. Carolina and Lombardy
poplars will sometimes do the same thing.
The name black ash by which this tree is now known in most regions where
it grows refers to the color of the large, prominent, shiny, blue-black
buds in late winter and early spring; to the very dark green leaves in
summer--which at a distance resemble the foliage of post oak--and, to
some extent, to the dark brown color of the heartwood, though the wood
is not always a safe means of identification if judged from superficial
appearance only. The form of the tree assists in identifying it; for it
is the slimmest of the ashes, in proportion to its height. Trunks three
feet through are heard of, but few persons have ever seen one much over
twenty inches, and many are about done growing when they are one foot in
diameter. Yet the trunks of such are very tall, perhaps seventy or
eighty feet. Their appearance has been likened to tall, slender columns
of dark gray granite. They often stand so straight that a plummet line
will not reveal a deviation from the perpendicular.
The tree has been called elder-leaved ash. The form of the foliage has
something to do with that name, but the odor more. Crush the leaves, and
they smell like elder. The compound leaves are from twelve to sixteen
inches long; the leaflets range from seven to eleven in number, and the
side leaflets have no stalks. The leaves appear late in spring, and they
fall early in autumn. They drop with the butternut leaves, and like
them, all at once. The seed is winged, and the wing forms a margin
entirely round the seed.
The wood of black ash is rather soft, moderately heavy, tough, but only
moderately strong, not durable in contact with the soil, dark brown in
color with sapwood whiter. The species ranges farther north than any
other ash, and grows in cold swamps and on the low banks of streams and
lakes from Newfoundland to Winnipeg, and southward to Virginia, southern
Illinois, southern Missouri, and Arkansas.
Black ash fills many important places in the country’s wood-using
industries, but the total quantity is not large. In 1910 Michigan
manufacturers reported the annual quantity in that state at 9,110,432
feet, and in Illinois the total was 9,936,000 feet. The uses for the
wood in Michigan may be regarded as typical of the whole country. The
reported uses were, auto seats, baskets, boat finish, butter tubs, candy
pails, carriage seats, crating, church pews, fish nets, office fixtures,
flooring, furniture, ice chests, interior finish, jelly buckets, kitchen
cabinets, lard tubs, piano frames, putty kegs, racked hoops, spice kegs,
tin plate boxes, veneer, washboards, and woven splint boxes.
Black ash burls are characteristic excrescences on the trunk. They begin
as small lumps or knobs under the bark, and never cease growing while
the tree lives. They may reach the dimensions of wash tubs, but most do
not exceed the size of a gallon measure. The grain of the wood is
exceedingly distorted and involved. The burls are sliced or sawed in
veneers which are much prized by cabinet makers. Early New Englanders
made bowls of them, which seldom checked or split during generations of
service. The burls are believed to be due to adventitious buds; that is,
buds which originate deep in the wood, but are never able to force their
way through the bark. The internal structure of the ash burl indicates
that the buried bud grows, branches, and sends shoots in various
directions, but all of them are hopelessly enmeshed in the wood
substance, and never are able to free themselves and burst through the
bark. A constantly enlarging excrescence is the result.
BLUE ASH (_Fraxinus quadrangulata_) is named from a blue dye procured
from the inner bark. The botanical name relates to the square shape of
the young twigs, particularly the twigs of young trees, and was given by
A. F. Michaux who found the species growing in the South. It reaches its
best development on the lower Wabash river in Indiana and Illinois and
on the Big Smoky mountains in Tennessee. Its northern limit reaches
southern Michigan, its western is in Missouri. It is not abundant, if
found at all, east of the Appalachian mountains. Trees may reach a
height of 100 feet and a diameter of three, but about seventy is the
average height, with a diameter of two feet or less. The leaves resemble
those of black ash in form, but the foliage when seen in mass is
yellow-green instead of dark green like that of black ash. The seeds
look like those of black ash. The tree bears perfect flowers, and in
that respect differs from most other species of ash.
The wood is heavier than that of any other member of the ash group,
except Texas ash. It weighs about the same as white oak, which is six
pounds per cubic foot more than white ash weighs. In general appearance
the wood resembles white ash, but it is usually considered stronger and
more springy. The trunks of young trees are largely or entirely sapwood.
Sometimes no heartwood is formed until an age of seventy or eighty
years is reached. Many manufacturers of ash tool handles prefer this
species to any other ash, because of its thick, white sapwood. It is
often made into handles for hoes, rakes, shovels, pitchforks, spades,
and snaths for scythes. Makers of vehicles draw liberally upon this wood
within its range, as do furniture makers and the manufacturers of
flooring. It is regarded as harder than white ash, and consequently
better flooring material.
LEATHERLEAF ASH (_Fraxinus velutina_) changes its velvety leaves to
a leathery condition, hence the conflict in the meanings of its two
names. _Velutina_ means velvet-like. The compound leaves are seldom
six inches long, often not three, and they are made up of from three
to nine leaflets. The small seeds are equipped with wings. The tree
is small and would be without any commercial importance except that
it grows in an arid region where any wood is welcome. It is made
into ax, hammer, and pick handles, and wagon makers are often glad
to get it. It is found among the mountains and canyons of western
Texas, in New Mexico, Arizona, southern Nevada, and southeastern
California, near the shores of Owen’s lake. The largest trees are
scarcely forty feet high and eight inches in diameter. The wood is
not hard or strong, and is of slow growth. The largest trunks are
apt to be hollow. Sapwood is comparatively thick.
BERLANDIER ASH (_Fraxinus berlandieriana_) may not be entitled to a
place among native species, of the United States. Some suppose it
was introduced from Mexico by early Spanish settlers in western
Texas. It now grows wild there along Nueces and Blanco rivers where
specimens thirty feet high and a foot in diameter are found.
Southward in Mexico it is a popular street tree, and trunks reach
six or eight feet in diameter. The wood is soft and is used only
locally and in very small quantities.
[Illustration]
OREGON ASH
[Illustration: OREGON ASH]
OREGON ASH
(_Fraxinus Oregona_)
This tree is unusual in that it has only one common name, and that is a
translation of its botanical name which was given it by Nuttall who
visited the Pacific coast several years before the discovery of gold.
The moist bottom lands of southwestern Oregon are best suited to its
growth, and here the best individuals and most abundant stands are
found. Moist soil and climate are essential to proper development of
this tree, and in such environment it is found from Puget Sound
southward along the coast to San Francisco. A little further from the
coast it grows along the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, to
the low mountains in San Diego and San Bernardino counties, California,
in the southern extension of its range occupying a rather dry region.
The trunk grows to a height of eighty or 100 feet, and is often three
feet in diameter. It is covered with a gray-brown bark, exfoliating in
flaky scales. The leaves are from five to fourteen inches long, and have
five or seven firm, light-green leaflets, finely toothed and bluntly
pointed. The flowers appear in April and May and are in compact
panicles; the fruit in clusters, broadly winged and round pointed, and
from one to two inches long.
The scarcity of good hardwoods on the Pacific coast gives this ash more
importance than it otherwise would have, and the importance which it
possesses has been frequently overstated. It is not abundant of form and
size fitting it for lumber. It has long been cut in small quantities,
but never in large. The census returns for 1910 show that less than
400,000 feet per year are reported in its entire range. Three-fourths of
this is sawed in Oregon, the remainder in Washington. Though the species
has a range of 800 miles north and south through California, no sawmill
reported a foot of it. However, it is probable that census returns fail
to do this wood full justice; for it is well known that considerable
quantities are manufactured into articles without passing through
sawmills. Chief among such commodities is slack cooperage. Butter tubs
of Oregon ash are common. Much goes to wagon shops, and some of it
without aid of sawmills.
Little or none of this wood is shipped outside its range, and its use is
local. Boat builders work it into finish for cabins and upper parts, and
some serves as ribs. It is often seen as handles for picks, shovels,
spades, pitchforks, and rakes. A little finds place, combined with other
woods, in office and store fixtures. Its grain resembles that of white
ash. It is not as heavy, and it is not believed to be as strong. It is
hard, brittle, brown in color, with thick, lighter-colored sapwood.
Furniture makers list it as shop material, and such is its largest
reported use in Washington. A moderate amount is made into saddletrees
and stirrups, and much is used as fuel.
Oregon ash has been planted for shade and ornament in both this country
and Europe. It grows rapidly and develops a symmetrical crown. The habit
it has of coming into leaf late in the spring and throwing its foliage
down early in autumn is held by some as a serious objection to it as an
ornamental tree; but it has compensating habits. It is remarkably free
from disease, and, though leaves come late and go early, while its
foliage is on, it is healthy and vigorous. Reproduction is satisfactory
in the tree’s wild state, and there is no danger that the species will
disappear. No movement has yet been made to plant this ash for
commercial timber growing.
GREEN ASH (_Fraxinus lanceolata_) has been given that name on account of
the bright color of its foliage. It has other names, however, which
indicate that its greenness is not always preëminently prominent. In
Iowa and Arkansas they call it blue ash; in Kansas and Nebraska white
ash; in some regions it is known as water ash, and elsewhere swamp ash.
Some botanists do not regard it as a separate species but call it a
variety of red ash, but the consensus of opinion is that it is a
distinct species, though there appear to be connecting forms grading
from red ash into green ash. Certain it is that the two are distinct
enough in certain parts of the country. The range of green ash is more
extensive than that of any other ash in this country. Beginning in
Vermont it passes southward to Florida; northwestward to the
Saskatchewan river several hundred miles north of the international
boundary line; along the base of the Rocky Mountains and over the ranges
to Arizona, and through Texas. This includes more than half of the area
of the United States. Notwithstanding a range so extensive, the total
quantity of green ash timber in the country is not large. No pure
forests or extensive stands exist. Trees are widely dispersed, and when
lumbermen cut them, the wood is sold as some other, usually as white
ash. The wood has the general characters of red ash. It weighs about
forty-four pounds per cubic foot of dry wood; is moderately strong,
fairly stiff and elastic, and, like other species of ash, it is not
durable in contact with the soil.
Green ash is more planted than any other in the cold and dry regions of
the West and Northwest. It is a prairie tree and is found along highways
and in door yards from Kansas northward into British America. It stands
drought better than any other ash, and resists cold fully as well, and
yet it endures the warm weather and the rains of the South and
flourishes there. It is not a large tree, but of sufficient size for use
as furniture, finish, and vehicle making. It is seldom listed in
statistics of woods which go to sawmills, yet it is known that a good
many logs find their way to mills, while wagon makers and slack coopers
employ it in producing their commodities. The tree is an abundant
seeder, and the seeds continue to fall during most of the winter.
RED ASH (_Fraxinus pennsylvanica_) is neither a large tree nor very
abundant, yet it has a wide range and is put to use wherever
lumbermen find it convenient. The lumber generally passes in the
market as white ash, and for most purposes it is as good, but is
rated lower than that wood in elasticity. It is called brown ash in
Maine, black ash in New Jersey, river ash in Rhode Island. The last
name is bestowed because the tree prefers moist land near rivers and
ponds, and largest specimens are found in such situations, where it
is often an associate of black ash and is frequently mistaken for
it, though it should not be difficult to tell the species apart. A
slight reddish tinge sometimes shows on the outer bark; the inner
layer of bark is reddish; the small twigs and the under sides of
leaves are clothed with hairs which sometimes suggest redness; and
the heartwood is reddish-brown. Persons who speak of the tree as red
ash probably have one or more of those characteristics in mind. As a
tree it has no striking peculiarities. Its usual height is forty or
sixty feet; its diameter from fifteen to twenty inches; its compound
leaves ten or twelve inches long, with seven or nine leaflets; its
seeds one or two inches in length, narrow, and sharply pointed, with
slender, graceful wing.
The range of red ash is from New Brunswick to Dakota, and from
Florida to Alabama, with all of the included region of a million
square miles. It attains its best development in the north Atlantic
states, while it is usually inferior west of the Alleghany
mountains. It develops a broad crown in open ground, but even there
its lower limbs die and drop, while in forests the trunk grows tall
and the crown is reduced. It is planted for shade and ornament, but
it seems to have no superiority over white ash for that purpose.
Some of the Michigan manufacturers list red ash separately in their
factories, and apparently this is not done elsewhere in the country.
About three-quarters of a million feet a year are used in that
state, and since uses there are doubtless typical of uses in the
country generally, the list possesses importance: Automobile frames,
boxes, butter tubs, crates, eveners, flooring, furniture, interior
finish, neck yokes, singletrees, wagon poles. Farther east in early
times red ash was occasionally split for fence rails, but that use
is important now only as history.