BLACK ASH
(Fraxinus Nigra)

When George Washington was a surveyor locating land on the upper waters of the Potomac river, and westward on the Kanawha and Ohio rivers, he always spoke of this ash as “hoop tree” when he marked it with two or with three “hacks,” depending upon whether it designated a “corner” or a “line,” or a “pointer” in the system of surveying then in use. Trees were used then as landmarks, and were duly recorded in the surveyor’s field notes, and were described in the deeds when the title to the land passed from one party to another. It was not unusual, if subsequent litigation came up, to cut blocks from marked trees to prove that such a corner was at such a place. The “hacks” or ax marks, were sometimes healed over and invisible at the bark, but were found deep in the wood. The rings of growth covering the ax marks afforded an admissible record of the years that had passed since the survey was made. The selection of the black ash as a landmark was one of the few instances in which Washington showed poor judgment; because it is a tree of short life, and might be expected to die before a great many years.

The name hoop ash is applied to this tree yet. It has always been good material for barrel hoops, because it splits into thin pieces, and is sufficiently tough. It is known as basket ash for the same reason. The New England Indians were making fish baskets of it when the first white people landed on those shores, and settlers speedily learned the art from the children of the wilderness. Those untutored savages knew little of wood technology, but they were able to take advantage of a peculiarity in the structure of black ash wood, which the white man’s microscope has revealed to him. The Indians doubtless discovered it accidentally. The springwood in the annual ring of black ash is made up of large pores, crowded so closely together that there is really very little actual wood substance there. In other words, the springwood is chiefly air spaces. The result is, that billets of black ash are easily separated into thin strips, the cleavage following the weak lines of springwood. A little beating and bending causes the annual rings to fall apart. In some way the Indians found that out, and utilized their knowledge in manufacturing baskets in which to carry fish, acorns, hickory nuts, and other forest and water commodities.

The white people extended the scope of application to include chairs and other furniture in which splits are manipulated. It is worthy of note that Indians made a similar discovery with northern white cedar or arborvitÆ, which separates into thin pieces by beating and bending. Barrel makers took advantage of the splitting properties of black ash to make hoops of it, hence the name hoop ash, or hoop tree as Washington called it. The name basket ash has a similar origin.

The names swamp ash and water ash refer to situations in which the tree grows best. It is one of the thirstiest inhabitants of the forest. Its aggressive roots ramify through the soil and drink up the moisture so voraciously that if water is not abundant, neighboring trees and plants may find their roots robbed, and the functions of healthy growth will be interfered with. This has led to a general belief that black ash poisons trees that it touches. It simply robs their roots. Carolina and Lombardy poplars will sometimes do the same thing.

The name black ash by which this tree is now known in most regions where it grows refers to the color of the large, prominent, shiny, blue-black buds in late winter and early spring; to the very dark green leaves in summer—which at a distance resemble the foliage of post oak—and, to some extent, to the dark brown color of the heartwood, though the wood is not always a safe means of identification if judged from superficial appearance only. The form of the tree assists in identifying it; for it is the slimmest of the ashes, in proportion to its height. Trunks three feet through are heard of, but few persons have ever seen one much over twenty inches, and many are about done growing when they are one foot in diameter. Yet the trunks of such are very tall, perhaps seventy or eighty feet. Their appearance has been likened to tall, slender columns of dark gray granite. They often stand so straight that a plummet line will not reveal a deviation from the perpendicular.

The tree has been called elder-leaved ash. The form of the foliage has something to do with that name, but the odor more. Crush the leaves, and they smell like elder. The compound leaves are from twelve to sixteen inches long; the leaflets range from seven to eleven in number, and the side leaflets have no stalks. The leaves appear late in spring, and they fall early in autumn. They drop with the butternut leaves, and like them, all at once. The seed is winged, and the wing forms a margin entirely round the seed.

The wood of black ash is rather soft, moderately heavy, tough, but only moderately strong, not durable in contact with the soil, dark brown in color with sapwood whiter. The species ranges farther north than any other ash, and grows in cold swamps and on the low banks of streams and lakes from Newfoundland to Winnipeg, and southward to Virginia, southern Illinois, southern Missouri, and Arkansas.

Black ash fills many important places in the country’s wood-using industries, but the total quantity is not large. In 1910 Michigan manufacturers reported the annual quantity in that state at 9,110,432 feet, and in Illinois the total was 9,936,000 feet. The uses for the wood in Michigan may be regarded as typical of the whole country. The reported uses were, auto seats, baskets, boat finish, butter tubs, candy pails, carriage seats, crating, church pews, fish nets, office fixtures, flooring, furniture, ice chests, interior finish, jelly buckets, kitchen cabinets, lard tubs, piano frames, putty kegs, racked hoops, spice kegs, tin plate boxes, veneer, washboards, and woven splint boxes.

Black ash burls are characteristic excrescences on the trunk. They begin as small lumps or knobs under the bark, and never cease growing while the tree lives. They may reach the dimensions of wash tubs, but most do not exceed the size of a gallon measure. The grain of the wood is exceedingly distorted and involved. The burls are sliced or sawed in veneers which are much prized by cabinet makers. Early New Englanders made bowls of them, which seldom checked or split during generations of service. The burls are believed to be due to adventitious buds; that is, buds which originate deep in the wood, but are never able to force their way through the bark. The internal structure of the ash burl indicates that the buried bud grows, branches, and sends shoots in various directions, but all of them are hopelessly enmeshed in the wood substance, and never are able to free themselves and burst through the bark. A constantly enlarging excrescence is the result.

Blue Ash (Fraxinus quadrangulata) is named from a blue dye procured from the inner bark. The botanical name relates to the square shape of the young twigs, particularly the twigs of young trees, and was given by A. F. Michaux who found the species growing in the South. It reaches its best development on the lower Wabash river in Indiana and Illinois and on the Big Smoky mountains in Tennessee. Its northern limit reaches southern Michigan, its western is in Missouri. It is not abundant, if found at all, east of the Appalachian mountains. Trees may reach a height of 100 feet and a diameter of three, but about seventy is the average height, with a diameter of two feet or less. The leaves resemble those of black ash in form, but the foliage when seen in mass is yellow-green instead of dark green like that of black ash. The seeds look like those of black ash. The tree bears perfect flowers, and in that respect differs from most other species of ash.

The wood is heavier than that of any other member of the ash group, except Texas ash. It weighs about the same as white oak, which is six pounds per cubic foot more than white ash weighs. In general appearance the wood resembles white ash, but it is usually considered stronger and more springy. The trunks of young trees are largely or entirely sapwood. Sometimes no heartwood is formed until an age of seventy or eighty years is reached. Many manufacturers of ash tool handles prefer this species to any other ash, because of its thick, white sapwood. It is often made into handles for hoes, rakes, shovels, pitchforks, spades, and snaths for scythes. Makers of vehicles draw liberally upon this wood within its range, as do furniture makers and the manufacturers of flooring. It is regarded as harder than white ash, and consequently better flooring material.