The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1910-08-02
Scarcity of Genuine White Oak
Timber.

Washington, D. c., August LIT
will surprise most persons who know
something about oak to be told that the
sO-called white oak timber of our mar
kets is often a mixture not only of
various species of the white oak group
but also of other species, such as the
red oak. This generally unknown fact
is reported by the U. S. Department
of Agriculture, which, as part of it's
forestry work, is frequently called
upon to pass judgment upon the
identity of market woods in dispute.
Forester divide all the oaks into two
distinct groups-the white oak group
and the black oak group. One way of
distinguishing the two is by the fact
that the black oaks require two years
to mature their acorns, while the
white oaks take but one. The woods
of the two groups of oaks were also
structurally different. The true white
oak. known to botanists as quercuS al
ba, is merely one of the species which
make up the white oak group. Red
oak on the other hand, belongs to the
black oak group. Red oak has num-
Der of other common names, among
them mountain oak, black oak, and
Spanish oak.
4 There is so much confusion in the or
binary use of names Of the oaks that
it is almost impossible to keep them
straight without res0rting to the
scientific names, but the marketing of
wood of the black oak group as white
oak is hardly fair to the consumer.
Red oak, for Nuisance, is now much
more abundant than white oak grows
faster, and is generally regarded as
inferior. The two species often grow
together and occupy the same general
region
In the ea,ly DAYS of its abundance.
maj ket wnite lax WIS derived almost
entirely, it is safe to say. from quer-
Gus alba, the true white oak. This
species, combines approximately the
most strength and toughness of any Of
the climber oaks, excepting possibly
the southern live oak. which in the
colonial days was so highly priced for
ship building that it was protected by
special laws The immense inroads
made upun the apparently inexhausti-
BILE white oak forests, which stretched
from ibe Atlantic seaboard to about
Missouri, gradually so reduced the
supply tnat the use OF other species
became inevitable.
At the pres Mt lime il is almost I'M
possible 10 obtain consignment OF
white oak that do, S not contain pieces
of some other species. Of the white
oak group those most used. in addi-
tion 70 the true white oak, are bur
oak, chestnut oak, chinquapin oak,
swamp white oak. COW oak and over
cup oak; of the black oak group, Tex
as red oak, req oak and spotted or
water oak.
Real white oak timber of mum Der
one quality is very largely cut into
quarter sawed boards, while a combi-
nation of one or more white oaks and
red oak may constitute ether cuts of
white oak. In many markets, the term
cabinet white oak" is now understood
to include mixture of white oak and
red oak. while it often signifies red
oak only.
The question, what is white osk?"
is now coming up among consumes s
and manufacture rs of commercial oak
timber. The above named white oaks
are dis: met but closely related species,
which together must be depended upon
for the future supply. For the ordi-
nary purposes for which true white
oak is used. practically all the tree of
this group yield woods that can oe in
terchanged and will serve equally
well.