Читать книгу Seasoning of Wood - J. B. Wagner - Страница 49

The chestnut is a long-lived tree, attaining an age of from 400 to 600 years, but trees over 100 years are usually hollow. It grows quickly, and sprouts from a chestnut stump (Coppice Chestnut) often attain a height of 8 feet in the first year. It has a fairly cylindrical stem, and often grows to a height of 100 feet and over. Coppice chestnut, that is, chestnut grown on an old stump, furnishes better timber for working than chestnut grown from the nut, it is heavier, less spongy, straighter in grain, easier to split, and stands exposure longer.

26. Chestnut (Castanea vulgaris var. Americana). Medium- to large-sized tree, never forming forests. Wood is light, moderately hard, stiff, elastic, not strong, but very durable when in contact with the soil, of coarse texture. Sapwood light, heartwood darker brown, and is readily distinguishable from the sapwood, which very early turns into heartwood. It shrinks and checks considerably in drying, works easily, stands well. The annual rings are very distinct, medullary rays very minute and not visible to the naked eye. Used in cooperage, for cabinetwork, agricultural implements, railway ties, telegraph poles, fence posts, sills, boxes, crates, coffins, furniture, fixtures, foundation for veneer, and locally in heavy construction. Very common in the Alleghanies. Occurs from Maine to Michigan and southward to Alabama.

27. Chestnut (Castanea dentata var. vesca). Medium-sized tree, never forming forests, not common. Heartwood brown color, sapwood lighter shade, coarse-grained. Wood and uses similar to the preceding. Occurs scattered along the St. Lawrence River, and even there is met with only in small quantities.

28. Chinquapin (Castanea pumila). Medium- to small-sized tree, with wood slightly heavier, but otherwise similiar to the preceding. Most common in Arkansas, but with nearly the same range as Castanea vulgaris.

29. Chinquapin (Castanea chrysophylla). A medium-sized tree of the western ranges of California and Oregon.