American Forest Trees Part 48

Red alder is the largest of the alder group in this country. Mature trees are from forty to ninety feet high, and from one to three feet in diameter. The northern limit of its range crosses southern Alaska; its southern border is in southern California. It is a Pacific coast tree, with a north and south range of 2,000 miles. Trunks are straight, and branches are generally slender. The largest specimens grow in the vicinity of Puget Sound. The bark is thin, leaves are from three to ten inches long, cones from one-half to one inch in length, seeds have very narrow, thin wings, and are about the size of radish seeds. The cones remain green in color until the seeds are fully ripe, but they finally turn brown, and seeds are liberated during the fall and winter.

Red alder is given that name because the newly cut wood is liable to change quickly to a reddish-brown. This applies to the whitish sapwood only; but since the trunk is largely sapwood, it is an important matter.

It is not apparent whether the change in color is due to attack by fungi, or to some chemical change in the sap. It is not believed that the change in color weakens the wood, at least it does not appear to do so immediately. The heart is reddish, and when dressed and polished, it presents a fine appearance.

Red alder when thoroughly air dry weighs about thirty pounds per cubic foot, which is slightly above the weight of ba.s.swood. It is strong for its weight, rating only eight per cent below white oak, while in stiffness or elasticity it is about twelve per cent above white oak. It is not difficult to season, is soft, stands well when made up, and is one of the most important hardwoods of the northwest Pacific coast. More than 2,000,000 feet a year go to wood-using factories in Was.h.i.+ngton and Oregon.

The Indians of the Northwest, when they had only stone hatchets or the crudest kinds of metal tools, found red alder a wood which worked so easily that they specialized with it. They made canoes of the largest trunks, and all manner of troughs, trays, trenches, platters, and dugouts, some of no more than a pint in capacity, others holding three or four bushels. The Field Museum in Chicago has a collection of these Indian utensils made of alder. The workmans.h.i.+p shows considerable skill mixed with barbaric art. There are carvings of eagles and bears which are not entirely grotesque. The utensils were designed primarily to contain food at ceremonial feasts, or it was stored for times of scarcity. Among them are cooking vessels of alder in which meat was boiled by filling the troughs with water and dropping in hot stones.

Furniture manufacturers are the largest users of red alder. Carefully selected heartwood, finished in the proper color, looks much like cherry, though it lacks something of the characteristic cherry l.u.s.ter.

The sapwood in its natural color resembles the sapwood of yellow birch.

The annual rings are defined by narrow bands of dense summerwood. The pores are small and diffused through the entire ring, as with birch.

Medullary rays are very thin and do not show much figure; neither do the rings of growth, in tangential sawing, display much contrast. It is, therefore, a figureless wood, entering into practically all grades of furniture, in the region where alder is plentiful, but it shows to particularly good advantage in panels.

Reports on wood-utilization on the Pacific coast list this wood for archery bows but particulars as to amount used, and why it is used at all, are not given. The physical properties of the wood do not seem to fit it for that use. It is wanting in both strength and elasticity which are the prime, almost the only, factors considered in selecting bow wood. No account has been found of any employment of alder for bows by Indians of the region where it grows.

Broom handle turners in Was.h.i.+ngton use 350,000 feet of alder a year. The smooth finish which may be imparted to the wood const.i.tutes its chief value for broom handles. It is well liked for porch columns. When the center is bored out, the wood seldom checks. In that respect it resembles yellow poplar. It takes paint well and holds it a long time.

Comparatively large amounts are converted into interior finish. It is made into spindles, newel posts, railing, panels, molding, ornaments, and pedestals. Occasionally it is finished in the wood's natural color.

Many minor places are found for red alder. Frames of pack saddles are made of it; it forms parts of pulleys; is available for small turnery; and it is sometimes worked into bodies and compartments for business wagons, such as butchers and bakers use. The bark is rich in tannin and is said to be employed in local tanneries, but no statistics are available showing the annual supply.

WHITE ALDER (_Alnus rhombifolia_) is known simply as alder in the region where it grows. Where this tree and red alder occupy the same range they are commonly supposed to be the same. The range of white alder extends from northern Idaho to southern California. It is the common alder of central California where it attains its best development, and the only alder at low alt.i.tudes in southern California. Trees vary in height from thirty to eighty feet, and in diameter from one to three. A common size is fifty feet high and fifteen inches in diameter. Like most alders, it sticks close to water courses, and is usually found in the bottoms of gulches where water flows most of the year. The flowers begin to appear in midsummer as dark, olive-brown catkins less than an inch in length.

By midwinter they are fully developed, and the tree is loaded with catkins from four to six inches long and thick as lead pencils. In the gulches among the elevated foothills it is not unusual for trees to be bending beneath snow and flowers at the same time. That is about the period when the seeds of the preceding year complete their dispersal.

The cones hang closed nearly a whole twelve months, and when they give up their seeds, they often do it slowly. The seeds are the size of pin heads, and seem to have had wings once, but lost them. The remnants remain, but are of no use. If running water does not carry seeds to new grounds they lie beneath the parent tree. The wood of white alder is five pounds lighter per cubic foot than red alder. Its structure is less satisfactory. Medullary rays are irregular, some being thin as those of sweet birch, while others are as broad as rays of chestnut oak. Those of large size seem to be scattered at haphazard, and are so irregular and uncertain that no dependence can be placed in them for figure. Trees are largely sapwood, which is nearly white when freshly cut, but it quickly turns brown; heartwood is pale, yellowish-brown. This is said to be one of most quickly-decaying woods of the western forests when logs are left lying in damp woods. The white alder ought to be suitable for nearly every purpose for which red alder is used.

MOUNTAIN ALDER (_Alnus tenuifolia_) is too small to contribute much to the lumber supply of the country, though it may yield fuel in some localities where there is little else. Its range extends from Yukon territory to Lower California, a distance of 4,000 miles, and it nearly touches both the torrid and frigid zones. It is found from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific in the United States. Few trunks exceed twenty-five feet in height or six inches in diameter; but the form is generally brush, in tangled thickets along the courses of mountain streams, and on boggy slopes, up to 7,000 feet in alt.i.tude.

The wood is light brown, and there are no reports showing its use for any purpose except firewood.

SITKA ALDER (_Alnus sitchensis_) is one of the smallest of the arborescent species, and in most instances it is a shrub a few feet high. At its best it is thirty feet high and eight inches in diameter. It grows from Alaska to Oregon, and eastward to Alberta and Montana. It is found in mountain regions 4,000 feet above the sea. The wood is valuable for fuel only. This species was discovered about eighty years ago, but was practically lost sight of until recently. Many persons saw it but supposed it to be one of the other alders.

LANCELEAF ALDER (_Alnus ac.u.minata_) is a southwestern species, ranging through southern New Mexico and southern Arizona and south 4,000 miles to Peru. In the United States it ascends to alt.i.tudes of 4,000 or 6,000 feet where it fringes the banks of streams, and flourishes in the bottoms of canyons. The largest trees are thirty feet high and eight inches in diameter. Flowers open in February before the appearance of the leaves. The seeds have small wings which are of little or no use.

SEASIDE ALDER (_Alnus maritima_) grows in Maryland, Delaware, and Oklahoma, and the largest trunks are thirty feet high and five inches in diameter. It is found on the banks of ponds and streams.

The flowers appear in July, and the seeds of last year's crop ripen at the same time. The wood is light, soft, and brown, heart and sap being scarcely distinguishable. The wood is not used.

The European Alder (_Alnus glutinosa_) has been naturalized in a few places in the United States, and several varieties are distinguished in cultivation. A native shrubby species (_Alnus rugosa_) is common in many parts of the eastern states. It is not usually listed as a tree, being too small, but it is sometimes twenty-five feet high and three or four inches in diameter. In Europe the charcoal made from alder is considered excellent material for the manufacture of gun powder, and considerable areas of alder in England are held in reserve against an emergency. It is probable that the American alders would answer as well as the European species.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

HORNBEAM

[Ill.u.s.tration: HORNBEAM]

HORNBEAM

(_Ostrya Virginiana_)

This tree belongs to the birch family and is closely related to the alders and to blue beech. Four species of hornbeam are known in the world, and two of them are in the United States. One is well known to most persons who are familiar with eastern hardwood forests, but the other is seldom seen because of the limited extent of its range.

The well-known hornbeam is found in the valley of the St. Lawrence river, throughout Nova Scotia and Ottawa, along the northern sh.o.r.e of Lake Huron to northern Minnesota, south through the northern states and along the Alleghany mountains to the Chattahoochee region of western Florida; through eastern Iowa, southeastern Missouri and Arkansas, eastern Kansas, Oklahoma and the Trinity river region of Texas. It is known as ironwood, hop-hornbeam, leverwood, and hardhack.

The Indians were small users of wood except for fuel, but they had places where they put wood to special uses. They chose hornbeam, when they could get it, for one of these places. It was a favorite material for the handles of their stone warclubs. The stone heads were chipped to various forms, but were usually egg-shaped with a groove round the middle for fixing the handle. This was made fast with thongs of rawhide, and was generally nearly or quite two feet long, and slender as a golf stick. Great strength and a high degree of elasticity were required to stand the strain when a warrior swung his club in battle. Hornbeam meets these requirements exactly, and doubtless the Indian found this out by experience. It is about thirty per cent stronger than white oak, and forty-six per cent more elastic. The demand for warclub handles made no great inroads on the hornbeam supply, but it affords proof that the Indians sometimes used good judgment.

The different names of this tree describe some characteristic of the wood or foliage. The fruit resembles hops, hence one of the names.

Hardness gives it the other names by which it is known. It is the custom nearly everywhere to call any wood ironwood if it is extra hard. No fewer than eleven species of the United States are known as ironwood in some parts of their ranges.

The leaves of hornbeam are simple and alternate; they taper to a sharp point at the end, while the base is rounded. They are doubly and sharply serrate. In color they are dark green above, and lighter below, tufted in places, resembling birch leaves in some respects, although they are quite different in texture, the leaves of birch being glossy, while those of ironwood are rough. They are joined to the twig with a short petiole, hardly a fourth of an inch in length.

The flowers grow in long catkins, staminate ones sometimes more than two inches long, covered with fringed scales. The pistillate catkins are usually shorter. Hornbeam blooms in April and May and its fruit ripens in August and September. The seed is a small nut equipped with balloon-like wings, intended for wind distribution. The seeds are often carried, rolled, and tumbled considerable distances. They keep on going until their wings are torn off or wear out, or until they become inextricably entangled among twigs or other obstacles. Comparatively few of the seeds ever find lodgment in situations suitable for germination.

Consequently, hornbeam is scarce.

It is not easy to state the average size of the hornbeam, though it is usually small and never very large. Sometimes it reaches a height of fifty or sixty feet and a diameter of two or more, but such sizes are unusual. Trees a foot in diameter and forty feet high are more common.

The foliage is thin, and the tree is satisfied to grow in shade, provided the shadows are not too dense. The leaves must have a little suns.h.i.+ne, and the flecks that fall through the open s.p.a.ces in the forest canopy high above, suffice. The hornbeam makes no effort to overtop its fellow trees; but when it grows in the open, as on a rocky bank or ridge, where it catches the full light, the crown puts on more leaves, and multiplies its branches, and it is no longer the lean tree which some of the Indians called it. Forest grown specimens produce clear trunks, but those in the open are limby almost to the ground.

Hornbeam has neither smell nor taste. It burns well, the embers glowing brightly in still air. The weight of a cubic foot of seasoned wood is fifty-one pounds. It is strong, hard, heavy, tough, and exceedingly durable when exposed to variable weather, or when in contact with the soil. It takes a beautiful polish. Trees more than a foot in diameter are often found to be hollow.

The wood is strong, hard, tough, durable in contact with the soil; heartwood light brown, tinged with red, or often nearly white; thick, pale sapwood which generally does not change to heart for forty or fifty years. The annual rings are not uniform in appearance. Some are easily distinguishable, while others are vague. This variation is due to the irregular development of the dark summerwood in the outer portion of the rings. It is at times distinct and again is hardly discernible.

The wood is diffuse-porous, and the pores are too small to be easily seen by the naked eye. The medullary rays are small and obscure. In quarter-sawed wood they show as a silvery gloss, but the appearance is too monotonous to be attractive. Neither is there striking figure when the wood is sawed tangentially, because of the small contrast in the different parts of the yearly ring. Hornbeam may, therefore, be listed among woods which have little or no figure. No one ever thinks of using it for the sake of its beauty. Because of the small size and limited quant.i.ty hornbeam will never come into commercial prominence. Its uses are almost entirely local and domestic. The lumberman or the farmer selects a hornbeam sapling as being the best material obtainable for making a wagon or sleigh tongue, a skid, or a lever. The farmer often laboriously works a section of the flint-like wood into minor agricultural implements.

The statistics of sawmill cut in the United States do not mention hornbeam even among such minor species as holly, Osage orange, alder, and apple. However, it is known that an occasional log goes to sawmills in the Lake States, and doubtless in other regions, and in some instances the wood is kept separate from others and is sold to fill special orders. Manufacturers of farm tools consider it the best wood for rake teeth. That use has come down from the time when farmers made their own rakes and pitchforks. They learned the wood's value by experience, and manufacturers cater to the trade.

It is sometimes called lever wood, and that name dates from long ago when the man who needed a lever went into the woods and cut one to suit his needs. The modern lever is usually somewhat different and partakes more of the nature of a handle. They are seen in sawmills where they manipulate the carriage machinery; on certain agricultural implements where their function is to throw clutches in and out of gear; sometimes they are used as the handle by which the rudder of a small boat is controlled; and occasionally the lever has a place as an adjunct of a wagon or log-car brake. In all of these uses strength and stiffness are required, and durability is duly considered.

Wagon makers and repairers find several uses for hornbeam. It would be more frequently employed if it were more plentiful. Nearly any blacksmith who runs a repair shop for vehicles will testify to that. It fulfills every requisite for axles; is made into felloes for heavy wagons; and is considered the best obtainable wood for the tongues of heavy logging wheels and stone wagons.

Among various occasional uses of this wood it is listed by the manufacturers of reels for garden hose; rungs for long ladders; stakes for sleds, and also for cross pieces and parts of runners of sleds; wedges for the makers of machinery; and hammer and hatchet handles. It is a pretty active compet.i.tor of dogwood for some of these uses, and it has been suggested for shuttles, but no report of its use in that capacity seems to have been made.

One of its most common uses is as fence posts. Few lines of fence are built exclusively of hornbeam posts, because not enough can be had in one place; but posts are cut singly or a few together from Maine to Arkansas, and the aggregate number is large. The wood is said to outlast the heartwood of white oak when in contact with the ground, and it is so strong that posts of small size stand the pull of wires or the weight of planks or pickets.

Hornbeam is of slow growth and there is little reason to believe that it will ever be seriously considered by timber growers; but it will doubtless win its way to favor as an ornamental tree. It has been planted in city parks in New England and elsewhere, and its form, foliage, and habits are much liked. The pale green pods or cones--they are not exactly the one or the other--remain a long time on the branches and are delicately ornamental until after the autumn frosts change their green into brown. Then comes the flying time of the balloon seeds, and that is an interesting period in parks and yards where the tree's habits may be closely studied.

KNOWLTON HORNBEAM (_Ostrya knowltoni_) is interesting chiefly on account of its extremely limited range, and its far removal from all its kin. It is an exile in a distant country. It has thus far been found only on the southern slope of the canyon of the Colorado river in Arizona, about seventy miles north of Flagstaff. It occurs at an elevation of 6,000 or 7,000 feet above the sea. Trees are twenty or thirty feet high and twelve or eighteen inches in diameter, and trunks usually divide a foot or two above the ground into three or more branches, which are often crooked and contorted. Such sizes and forms could not be of much value for anything but fuel, even if abundant. The heart is light reddish-brown, sapwood thin. The leaves are round instead of pointed at the apex, as with the other hornbeam; but the flowers and fruit are much the same. Botanists speculate in vain as to how this species happens to be so far removed from other members of its family.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

SILVERBELL

[Ill.u.s.tration: SILVERBELL]