Best to go back in time, back to when elms had just the usual afflictions, like other trees. To the time when early settlers chose house sites near elms, knowing that the soil there would be moist and fertile. Then they razed all the other trees, keeping just an elm or two. The shade of elm, from high above the roof, is perfect. Liquids seep out of barrels made from elm, but the wood is perfect for the slack barrels that were filled with flour, butter, sugar, and cheese.
Elm wood is easily steam bent and was used for the hoops for all kinds of barrels.
The wood is almost white and imparts no taste, so it was preferred for a variety of domestic utensils, boxes, baskets, crates, iceboxes, washboards, and for the white, scrubbed kitchen table found in almost every farm kitchen. For a time elm was the most sought-after tree on the market. Now elms rarely reach a merchantable size, but neither is the market for barrels and washboards what it used to be. Small elms are common along roadsides, because the two beetle species that carry Dutch elm disease from tree to tree don't find young elm bark suitable for egg laying. They only move in when the bark begins to form fissures.