American Forest Trees Part 34

The makers of sugar in the North call this tree sugar maple, but lumbermen and users of wood nearly always speak of it as hard maple. All maples--and there are nearly a dozen--are tolerably hard, and sugar may be obtained from most of them; but this species is hardest of all, and the most prolific sugar maker, hence the two names are appropriate. It is often called rock maple, which name refers to its hard wood. In some regions the name most heard is sugar tree.

Its range extends from Newfoundland through Canada to Lake of the Woods, southward through Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, and Arkansas to Texas. It is found in every state east of the Mississippi, but it is not abundant in the South. Its best development is found from New England across the northern states to Michigan. Some very fine sugar maple is found in fertile valleys and on slopes among the Appalachian ranges from Pennsylvania southward. The largest lumber cut of maple is in the following states, ranging in the order given: Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York, Ohio, Indiana, and Vermont. Since the different species of maple are not reported separately in statistics, there is no way of determining how much each of the maples supplies. It is well known that sugar maple greatly exceeds all others.

At its best this tree may exceed a height of 100 feet and a diameter of three; but the average for mature timber in the best part of its range is sixty or eighty feet in height, and two in diameter. The flowers appear with the leaves in early spring, but the seeds do not ripen until autumn, when they are bright red. They are winged, and usually two grow together, but they sometimes become detached, in which case each is capable of flight with its single wing. It is characteristic of maple seeds to whirl rapidly while falling, and if a moderate wind is blowing, they glide considerable distances. They usually fly farther than the seeds of ash although their wings are no larger. The immense numbers of seeds borne by the sugar maple insure abundant reproduction in the vicinity of parent trees. The seeds sprout readily, but often so closely crowded together that most of them die the first few weeks. Not one in ten thousand can even become a large tree, and yet large trees are exceedingly abundant in extensive regions. They often form nearly pure stands, crowding to death all rivals that try to obtain a foothold. On the other hand, this maple often contents itself with a place among other forest trees.

It is one of the most vigorous and dependable of trees. It does not grow fast, but it keeps steadily at it a long time, and enjoys unusually good health. Its worst enemy is coal smoke, but fortunately, most sugar maple forests are out of reach of that disturber, though shade trees near factory towns and in the vicinity of c.o.ke ovens often suffer. Woodlots of sugar maple, occupying corners of farms in the northern states from Minnesota to Maine, present pictures of health, vigor, cleanliness, and beauty which no forest tree surpa.s.ses. The intense green and the density of the crowns in summer make the trees conspicuous in any landscape where they occur, while their brilliant colors in autumn are the chief glory of the forest where they abound.

The wood of this tree is hard, strong, and dense. It is three pounds lighter per cubic foot than white oak, and theoretically it rates a little lower in fuel value, but those who use both woods as fuel consider maple worth more. It is thirty per cent stronger than white oak, and fifty-three per cent stiffer. The wood is diffuse-porous, that is, the pores are not arranged in bands or rows, as they usually are in oaks, but are scattered in all parts. They are too small to be seen with the naked eye, but under a magnifying gla.s.s they are visible in large numbers. The yearly ring is not very distinct, because of the slight contrast between spring and summerwood. The medullary rays are numerous but small. In wood sawed along radial lines, from heart to sap, small silvery flecks are numerous. These are the medullary rays. They add something to the appearance of quarter-sawed maple, but not enough to induce mills to turn out much of it.

Such figures as maple has are brought out best in tangential sawing--that is, cut like a slab off the side of the log. Three distinct figures are recognized in sugar maple, and to some extent they belong to other maples. These forms of wood are known as birdseye, curly, and blister maple. They are accidental forms and exist in certain trees only. Students of wood structure are not wholly agreed as to the cause of these forms, but one of them, the birdseye effect, is believed to be due to advent.i.tious buds which distort the wood in their vicinity. These buds start near the center of the tree when it is small, but never succeed in forcing their way out. They remain just beneath the bark during most or the whole of the tree's life. A pin-like core, resembling a fine thread, connects the birdseye with the tree's pith. This thread is the pith of the embryonic branch formed by the bud which never breaks through the bark. When the wood is sawed tangentially, small, dark-brown points or dots show the center of the buds, or the pith line connecting it with the tree's center. Curly maple and blister maple are not believed to be formed in the same way as birdseye.

The uses of sugar maple are nearly universal, where a hard, white wood is wanted. Many large trees contain little colored heart, and trees are generally fifty years old before they have any. More maple is worked into flooring than into any other one commodity. Mills in Michigan alone, in 1910, made 185,611,662 feet of maple flooring. It was s.h.i.+pped to practically every civilized country in the world. Many builders consider it the best wooden floor that can be laid. In a test made in a large store in Philadelphia some years ago, a marble floor wore through sooner than maple, when the same wear was on both.

Nearly all kinds and cla.s.ses of furniture have places for maple, either as outside material or inside frames, drawer bottoms, or part.i.tions.

Vehicle manufacturers employ it for heavy axles, running gear, parts of automobiles, sleigh runners and frames, and hand sleds. It is made into handles from gimlet sizes to cant hooks. Gymnasium apparatus owes much to the whiteness, smoothness, and strength of maple. Woodenware from toothpicks to ironing boards; from butcher blocks to b.u.t.ter molds; from door k.n.o.bs to die blocks, is dependent on maple for some of its best material. It is largely used for boxes, in both solid and veneer form.

Only two woods are now employed in larger amounts for veneers in the United States than maple. They are red gum and yellow pine.

Maple is one of the three woods most largely employed in hardwood distillation in this country; beech and birch are the others. Maple sugar is a product of this tree almost exclusively, and the business is large. In some parts of New England it is claimed that a grove is worth more for sugar than the land is worth for agriculture.

SILVER MAPLE (_Acer saccharinum_) is generally called soft maple by lumbermen. It is known also as white maple, river maple, silver-leaved maple, swamp maple, and water maple. The sinuses of the leaves are very deep. The lighter color of its bark and the pale green of the leaves distinguish soft maple at a glance from sugar maple when both are in full leaf. The greenish-yellow flowers open in early spring, and the seeds are ripe in April or May, depending on the season and region. The seeds have large wings and fly well.

They germinate in a few days after they find suitable soil, and before the end of the summer the seedlings have grown several leaves. The vigor thus displayed continues until the tree is large.

It is a fast grower, and for that reason has been extensively planted as a street and park tree. The wisdom of doing so is doubtful, for this maple throws out long limbs which are often broken by wind. The trunk is subject to disease, and a row of old soft maples nearly always presents a ragged, unkempt, neglected appearance. As to beauty of form and crown, there is little comparison between it and the planted sugar maple. Soft maples in forests range from seventy-five to 120 feet in height, and two to four in diameter; that is, they attain about the same size as sugar maples. The species covers a million square miles, practically the whole country east of the Mississippi, some west of that river, and most of eastern Canada.

It is a useful wood for many purposes. The custom of mixing this with sugar maple makes it impossible to clearly separate the two woods afterwards. It is the opinion of some well-informed manufacturers that about five per cent of the total maple cut in the United States is soft maple. The ratio is less in the North and more in the South. The wood is hard, strong, rather brittle, easily worked, pale brown with thick, white sapwood. Some rather large trunks have no sapwood. It is in general use, but not for as many purposes as sugar maple. The largest places found for it are as flooring and woodenware, though furniture and boxes, particularly veneer boxes, consume much. Its weight is three-fourths that of sugar maple. The largest trees and the best wood grow in the lower Ohio valley.

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RED MAPLE

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RED MAPLE

(_Acer Rubrum_)

This tree's names describe it. Some refer to color of leaves, flowers, and fruit, others to situation where it grows best. It is known as red maple and swamp maple; also as water maple, white maple, scarlet maple, and shoepeg maple. New York Indians called it ah-we-hot-kwah, which meant red flower. Most trees looked alike to Indians, and when they gave a name, it was descriptive.

The redness of this maple is so marked that it cannot escape notice. The flowers, fruit, twigs, and leaves all possess the property at one time or another during the season. The flower comes before the leaf, during the first warm days of spring. That is pretty early in the South, and later in the North. The flowers are bright scarlet, and very conspicuous, growing in umbel-like, drooping cl.u.s.ters. The staminate and pistillate ones frequently grow on different trees, and always in separate cl.u.s.ters.

The fruit ripens quickly, and is sometimes almost mature before the leaves appear. The date of ripening depends upon lat.i.tude. The tree's range north and south exceeds a thousand miles and that makes much difference in climate. In the South the fruit outstrips the leaves and has about reached maturity before the unfolding leaves are large enough to hide it; but in New England and New York the leaves are large before the fruit is mature. The seed is the characteristic maple key, with a wing to carry it. The fruit--and by that term the seed with its attached wing is meant--is bright red, and a tree loaded with the vivid cl.u.s.ters is a beautiful spectacle. Two seeds are generally fast together, and they make surprising flights in that condition, pa.s.sing with whirling motion through the air. Gravity spins them, but wind carries them forward, and the random of their flight depends on the strength of the wind, which happens to be blowing when they sever their connection with the tree.

The seeds germinate quickly when they light on damp soil. If they do not find such situations, they soon perish; because they do not retain their vitality long. By the middle of summer the young trees have several leaves, and from that time on the struggle is mainly among themselves for s.p.a.ce and moisture, because they stand so thick that it is a survival of the fittest.

The young twigs are generally red in spring, but they do not present as conspicuous a ma.s.s as the flowers and fruit do. The leaves are simple, with long reddish petioles. They have three or five lobes, the lower pair often entirely missing, and small if present. Each lobe has a pointed apex, and is irregularly serrate. The base of the leaf is rounded; also the sinuses, which extend far into the body of the leaf.

The upper surface of the leaf is bright green, the lower a silvery-white. In the fall this tree is ent.i.tled to the name scarlet; for then the brilliant hues of the leaves are remarkably fine.

The range of red maple covers more than a million square miles, and touches every state east of the Mississippi river, and west of that stream it extends from South Dakota to Texas. It prefers rather swampy ground, but wants fertile soil. It is frequently found on the banks of creeks and rivers, and rarely on hillsides. It is most abundant in the South, particularly in the lower Mississippi valley, while trees of larger size are found in the valley of the lower Ohio. In the North it takes more to low wet swamps where it sometimes grows in such thickets as almost to exclude other species.

The best red maple trees attain a height of 100 feet or more, and a diameter of four feet or less. The average size is seventy feet high and two in diameter. The form of the tree, like that of all other maples, depends much upon the situation in which it grows. Good saw timber is not often cut from this species near the outer borders of its range.

The wood is about three-fourths as strong as hard maple, and is five pounds lighter per cubic foot, but is about six pounds heavier than soft or silver maple. It may, therefore, be considered that in some important points red maple is midway between hard and soft maple. In color it is light brown, slightly tinged with red. The sapwood is thick and lighter in color than the heart. The tree is usually not of rapid growth. The contrast between the springwood and summerwood is not strong. The wood is very porous, but the pores are so small that the unaided eye cannot discern them. The medullary rays are numerous, but thin, and are seldom considered in working the lumber.

Mills which saw this maple do not separate the lumber from other maples.

The woodsman knows the difference, but the lumberman does not consider it worth while to pile the sawed stock separately. It sometimes goes to market as hard maple, sometimes as soft, but never under its own name.

Consequently, it has no uses which are not also common to other maples.

Lumbermen cut it when they find it mixed with other hardwoods where they are carrying on logging operations.

Red maple is made into flooring, interior finish, and veneer box material. Veneers are also made for furniture. These are the most important uses for the wood, but the manufacturers of woodenware employ it for numerous commodities, such as trays, bowls, ironing boards, grain scoops, snow shovels, clothes racks, garment hangers, and clothes pins.

This species shows birdseye effect similar to that of sugar maple, but less of the stock goes to market. Logs with birdseye wood are generally reduced to veneer by the rotary process. Curly and wavy grains also occur in this maple. The wavy grain was much sought after by the early hunters who equipped their long rifles with stocks. Having found a piece of timber with the desired wavy grain, the hunter proceeded to shave and whittle until the stock was fitted to the barrel, and the gun was complete. Some of the stocks made with no tools but an ax, drawing knife, and a pocket knife, were works of art which are worthy of preservation in museums.

Occasionally some unknown rural Stradivari made a violin and selected the curly wood of red maple for the neck and sides. A few of these instruments are floating about the country, but an age of fifty or a hundred years has not yet imparted cla.s.sic value to them, but the wood is unsurpa.s.sed in delicacy of grain and figure.

Sugar may be manufactured from red maple, but in smaller quant.i.ty than from sugar maple. In the days when every frontier settlement did its own manufacturing, inks and dyes were made from the bark of this tree. The tannin boiled from the bark was treated with sulphate of iron, and it became ink; when alum was added it became black dye; when the sulphate of iron was omitted, and alum alone was put in, a cinnamon-colored dye resulted.

Red maple is one of the most desirable trees for planting in parks and by roadsides. Nurserymen complain that seedlings are more difficult to manage than silver maples; nor do they grow as rapidly, but the trees are worth much more when once established. They have shorter and stronger branches than silver maple; are less liable to be attacked by disease; are more handsome in every way; but they demand damper soil, and succeed poorly in any other. That drawback tends to restrict the artificial planting of this tree.

MOUNTAIN MAPLE (_Acer spicatum_) is known also as moose maple, low maple, and water maple. It is a small tree at its best, seldom more than twenty-five feet high and eight inches in diameter, while in most parts of its range it is only a shrub. Its best growth is on mountain slopes of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina. It likes moist, rich hillsides, and does not object to shade. The flowers come late, but within a month or six weeks after the bloom appears, the fruit is full grown, but it remains on the tree till autumn. The tree's bark is smooth and very thin. The absence of stripes distinguishes this tree from striped maple, which has nearly the same range. Mountain maple grows from Maine to Minnesota, southward to Michigan, and along the mountains to Georgia. The wood is light, soft, brown tinged with red. The small size of the trunk forbids its conversion into ordinary lumber. The only commercial use reported for it is in Pennsylvania where it is cut along with other hardwoods for destructive distillation.

FLORIDA MAPLE (_Acer floridanum_) is a species according to some, and according to others is a variety of the hard maple. Its range is limited, and the available quant.i.ty of the wood is small. It is found in the swamps of southern Georgia and western Florida, and westward to Texas, Louisiana, and southern Arkansas. Near the southwestern limits of its range in Texas and Mexico, it is often a shrub; but in the best part of its range it becomes a tree fifty or sixty feet high and two or three in diameter. The wood pa.s.ses for hard maple when sawed into lumber, but it is not often sent to sawmills. The makers of bent wood rustic furniture in some of the southern towns, particularly in Louisiana, have found the slender branches of Florida maple well suited to that purpose.

DRUMMOND MAPLE (_Acer rubrum drummondii_) is a variety of red maple, not a separate species. Its range lies in the coastal plain of Alabama and Georgia, western Louisiana, eastern Texas, southwestern Tennessee, and southern Arkansas. It grows in deep swamps, and has three-lobed leaves, and large-winged fruit, ripening in April and May. The wood is too scarce to be important in the lumber trade, but where it can be had it is used. Violin makers have procured some finely curled wood of this maple in Union Parish, Louisiana. Some of the wood from that district has been made into gunstocks also.

WHITEBARK MAPLE (_Acer leucoderme_) has been cla.s.sed as a variety of sugar maple, and also as a separate species. It is named from the light gray color of the bark of young stems; but the color turns dark with age. The tree is usually twenty or thirty feet high with a diameter of a foot or more. The wood is of good quality, but no uses, except fuel, have been reported. Trees are not abundant, but the range covers parts of North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas. It is occasionally planted as a shade tree along the streets of towns of Georgia and Alabama.

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OREGON MAPLE

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OREGON MAPLE

(_Acer Macrophyllum_)