WHITE OAK IN THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS.

IMPORTANCE OF WHITE OAK.

White oak is one of the most widely distributed hardwoods in the United States. It is, moreover, the most widely used, and its annual cut of over 2,000,000,000 board feet is more than double that of either red oak or yellow poplar, its nearest competitors. Of the total annual cut of hardwoods in the Southern Appalachian region, excluding Kentucky, white oak forms 49 per cent. No other hardwood is manufactured into as many important commodities.

DISTRIBUTION AND PRESENT STAND.

Although the botanical range of white oak extends as far north as central Ontario and as far south as Tampa Bay in Florida and the Brazos River in Texas, it is most abundant and attains its best development on the western slopes of the Allegheny Mountains and in the central Mississippi and lower Ohio basins.

While logged more or less extensively in all parts of its range for cordwood, cross-ties, and various timber products, the principal bodies of merchantable white oak which have supplied the general lumber trade occupied originally the Ohio basin through western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana, the central Mississippi Valley as far south as the northern half of Arkansas and central Mississippi, and the long stretch of rolling upland and mountain land extending eastward through Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia to the eastern edge of the Piedmont plateau in Virginia and the Carolinas.

Lumbering in the central hardwood belt began in New York and Pennsylvania, moved westward through the northern Ohio basin, and then south along the Mississippi Valley. Thus the supplies of virgin white oak have largely been exhausted in western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri. With the central points of the hardwood trade now located at Nashville and Memphis, Tenn., the remaining bodies of white oak timber are found mainly in Arkansas and northern Louisiana, in the southern drainage a Includes cut of chestnut oak and post oak ties.

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of the Ohio River, covering Kentucky, West Virginia, and Tennessee, and in the Appalachian Mountains and the western portions of Virginia and the Carolinas. The Southern Appalachian region, as a whole, then, including the Allegheny ranges and the plateaus sloping westward to the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, is now the principal source of supply of white oak and the area of its greatest commercial importance.

The approximate remaining stand of white oak timber in the States comprising the region is given in the following table. These estimates include only timber merchantable for lumber or tight cooperage, and exclude cross-tie material.

TABLE 1.-Present stand of white oak in the Southern Appalachian region.

a Only the mountainous portions of the State were included to the upper edge of the Piedmont plateau.

The present stand of white oak varies in amount in different parts of the region, and the variations in character and quality are equally marked. In the mountain districts railroad development has been slow, and early logging, confined largely to rafting, took the more marketable poplar and black walnut and left the oak and chestnut in the woods. In the broad belt of rough and inaccessible mountain and plateau land extending through West Virginia and eastern Kentucky there are still large bodies of virgin white oak. The largest and best stands of white oak in the United States are now found in these two States, especially on the mountains of eastern Kentucky. In the higher, more rugged ranges of eastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia, and the western portion of the Carolinas there are still considerable stands of virgin white oak in the lower, broader mountain coves, though far more scattered and irregular than in Kentucky and West Virginia. East and west of the mountain belt, however, railroad development has been rapid; lumbering has been far more extensive and has been carried on much longer than in the mountains. In the valley districts white oak has been logged more heavily than any other hardwood except walnut and yellow poplar. In many instances accessible timberland has been cut over a second and even a third time for the smaller and rougher trees which were left in the earlier lumbering.

A broad belt through southern Kentucky still contains a fair amount of merchantable white oak, and in the Mississippi district of Tennessee the supply is still abundant. In many other sections, notably the blue-grass regions of Kentucky and Tennessee and the great valley of northwestern Virginia, white oak saw timber is almost exhausted, and the remaining stand is utilized chiefly for cross-ties and similar products. Throughout the plateau districts of Kentucky, Tennessee, and northern Alabama, however, there are still many bodies of virgin white oak varying from a few hundred to several thousand acres in extent.

Two-thirds of the standing white oak of the Southern Appalachian region has been more or less heavily culled. This includes stands from which only the largest and best trees have been taken, as well as areas on which only small, rough timber is left, and extensive stretches of second growth on coaled-over furnace lands along the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers in Tennessee, the New River in Virginia, and portions of the iron district of Alabama. Marked variations in the quality of the white oak timber are seen in different parts of this region. The best occurs in the well-watered valleys of central Kentucky and eastern Tennessee.

THE WOOD AND ITS USES.

The wood of white oak is compact and close-grained, hard, tough, and strong, and heavy. It is durable in contact with the soil, although liable to check in the open air unless carefully seasoned. The average weight of a cubic foot of seasoned wood is 46 pounds.

The three chief uses of the white oak of the Southern Appalachian region are, in order of importance, sawed lumber, railroad cross-ties, and cooperage. Under sawed lumber are included car stock, switch ties, and large timbers for ship and bridge construction.

In the region as a whole, exclusive of Kentucky, about 43 per cent of the annual cut of white oak goes into sawed lumber, about 45 per cent into cross-ties," and about 10 per cent into cooperage stock. About 2 per cent is used for miscellaneous products, such as tool handles, wagon spokes, and furniture and basket veneer.

There is a marked tendency in the region, among the different industries which use white oak timber, to centralize in certain States or sections. Of the total annual production of white oak cross-ties, about 30 per cent is cut in the valleys of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers in Tennessee and northern Alabama, and form in this section over 90 per cent of the yearly cut of white oak. In Tennessee and northern Alabama as a whole cross-ties form 52 per cent of

a This includes also chestnut oak and post oak ties, which are classed with white oak. Chestnut oak and post oak contribute less than 25 per cent of the total.

the annual cut. The cooperage industries are also localized in the valley districts of central and eastern Tennessee and northern Alabama, which produce about 20 per cent of the total annual cut of white oak barrel staves and heading. In the more mountainous region extending through southwestern Virginia, eastern Tennessee, western North and South Carolina, and northern Georgia, tie cutting is largely precluded by the lack of river transportation. The cut of white oak in this section is almost exclusively for sawed lumber.

Sawed lumber now furnishes the chief market for the better grades of white oak timber. Fairly clear, long-bodied white oaks, down to 16 or 18 inches on the stump, are cut for sawlogs. White oak logs are usually sawed into 1 inch, or, when especially good, into 14 or 11⁄2 inch boards. Considerable 2 and 3 inch stuff is also cut for use in special industries.

The most important feature of recent years in the manufacture of white oak lumber has been the marked increase in quarter-sawing, a method of milling by which the boards are cut nearly parallel to the pith rays, so that the silver grain is shown. A large proportion of the total cut of white oak lumber is now quartered. Many producers quarter-saw only clear logs 24 or 26 inches and over in diameter at the small end. In this way only the best white oak timber, not more than 15 or 20 per cent of the total amount manufactured, is quartersawed, and a high grade of both quartered and plain-sawed stock is thus maintained. Many firms believe that the smaller and rougher logs can not be used as profitably for quartered as for plain-sawed lumber. Other mills quarter everything that is fairly clear, down to 16 or 18 inches at the small end, and claim that the much higher prices for quarter-sawed oak make this method more profitable, despite the waste in manufacture. Under the stimulus of the high prices of 1903 many mills quartered 75 per cent of their total cut of white oak. In Tennessee in that year fully 50 per cent of the output of white oak boards was quartered; the most of the clear logs above 20 inches in diameter at the small end were sawed in this way. As a result of this large output of quarter-sawed lumber from small logs the market was overstocked with narrow, low-grade quartered oak, which caused in part the decline in prices of 1904. In that year the demand for even the best grades of quartered oak fell off sharply, while that for plain-sawed oak remained unchanged. Since 1904 an increasing proportion of white oak has been plain sawed, and many mills now quarter only their best butt cuts. Many of the larger hardwood dealers think that the trend of lumber prices in the last three years indicates the wisdom of restricting the cut of quartered white oak to the better grades of timber.