CHESTNUT OAK
(Quercus Prinus)

This tree is known as rock oak in New York; as rock chestnut oak in Massachusetts and Rhode Island; as rock oak and rock chestnut oak in Pennsylvania and Delaware; as tanbark oak and swampy chestnut oak in North Carolina and as rock chestnut oak and mountain oak in Alabama.

There is a pretty general disposition to call this tree rock oak. The name refers to the hardness of the wood, and is not confined to this species. Other oaks are also given that name, and the adjective “rock” is applied to two or three species of elm which possess wood remarkable for its hardness. Cedar and pine are likewise in the class. In all of these classes “rock” is employed to denote hardness of wood. Iron as an adjective or ironwood as a noun is used in the same way for a number of trees. The name swampy chestnut oak as applied in some parts of the South to this tree, is hardly descriptive, for it is less a swamp tree than most of the oaks, though it does often grow along the banks of streams.

Its distribution ranges from the coast of southern Maine and the Blue Hills of eastern Massachusetts southward to Delaware and the District of Columbia; along the Appalachian mountains to northern Georgia and Alabama; westward to the shores of Lake Champlain and the valley of the Genesee river, New York; along the northern shores of Lake Erie and to central Kentucky and Tennessee. It is rare and local in New England and Ontario, but plentiful on the banks of the lower Hudson river and on the Appalachian mountains from southern New York to Alabama. It reaches its best development in the region from West Virginia to North Carolina, pretty high on the ridges flanking the mountain ranges.

Leaves are alternate, from five to nine inches long, with coarse teeth rounded at the top. At maturity, they are thick and firm, yellow-green and rather lustrous on the upper surface, paler and usually hairy beneath. In the autumn before falling, they turn a dull orange color or rusty-brown.

The flowers appear in May and are solitary or paired on short spurs. The fruit or acorn is solitary or in pairs, one or two and one-half inches long, very lustrous and of a bright chestnut-brown color. The acorn cup is thin, downy-lined and covered with small scales. The kernel is sweet and edible. The bark of the chestnut oak is thin, smooth, purplish-brown and often lustrous on young stems and small branches, becoming a thick, dark, reddish-brown, or nearly black on old trunks, and divided into broad rounded ridges, separating on the surface into small, closely appressed scales. The bark of the tree is so dark in color and so deeply furrowed that it has often been mistaken for one of the black oak group, although its wavy leaf margins and annual fruit clearly differentiate it from those species. The bark of the chestnut oak is thicker and rougher on old trunks than on any other oak.

The bark of chestnut oak has long been valuable for tanning. There is tannin in the bark of all oaks, and several of them contain it in paying quantities, but chestnut oak is more important to the leather industry than any other oak. In richness of tannin the tanbark oak of California occupies as high a place, but it is not supplying as much material as the eastern tree. Statistics showing the annual consumption of tanbark and tanning extracts in the United States, do not list the oaks separately, but it is well known that chestnut oak far surpasses all others in output. Hemlock bark is peeled in large quantities, but tanneries occasionally mix chestnut oak bark with it to lighten the deep red color imparted to leather when hemlock bark is the sole material employed.

Large quantities of chestnut oak timber have been destroyed to procure the bark. Fortunately, it is a practice not much indulged in at present, because the wood now has value, but it formerly had little. It was then abandoned in the forest after the bark was peeled and hauled away. The same practice obtained with hemlock years ago. Much chestnut oak is still cut primarily for the bark, but the logs are worth hauling to sawmills, unless in remote districts.

The chestnut oak is a vigorous tree and grows rapidly in dry soil, where it often forms a great part of the forest. It is not as large as the white oak or red oak, but is a splendid tree, its bole being very symmetrical and holding its size well. It grows usually to a height of from sixty to seventy feet and sometimes 100 feet, with a diameter of from two to five feet and occasionally as large as seven feet.

The form of the tree shows great variation, depending upon the situation in which it grows. Trees in open ground often divide into forks or large limbs, and the trunks are short and of poor form. Open-grown trees show a decided tendency to develop crooked boles, and unduly large branches. No such objection can be urged against it when it grows under forest conditions. Trunks are straight and are otherwise of good form.

The wood of chestnut oak differs little from that of white oak in weight, strength, and stiffness. It is hard, rather tough, durable in contact with the soil, and is darker in color than white oak. It has few large, open pores, and requires less filler in finishing than most oaks. There are many pores, however, and those in the springwood are arranged in bands. The summerwood is broad and distinct, usually constituting three-fourths of the annual ring. The medullary rays are as broad and numerous as in the best furniture oaks. They are regularly arranged, and spaces between them do not vary much in width. The wood quarter-saws well.

The wood has the fault of checking badly in seasoning, unless carefully attended to. In recent years, these difficulties have been largely overcome, both in air seasoning and in the drykiln.

Chestnut oak has a wide range of uses. It is classed as white oak in many markets, but few users buy it believing it to be true white oak. It is coming year by year to stand more on its own merits. Some sawmills which formerly piled it and sold it with other oaks, now keep it separate, and some factories which once took it only because it came mixed with other oaks, now buy it for special uses, and make high-class commodities of it. One of these is mission furniture, which has become fashionable in recent years. Chestnut oak possesses good fuming properties, and this constitutes much of its value as furniture material.

The wood is found in factories where general furniture is made. It is largely frame material for furniture though some of it is for outside finish. It is employed as frames in Maryland in the construction of canal boats, and the annual demand for that purpose is about a quarter of a million feet in that state.

One of the most important places for chestnut oak is in the shop which makes vehicles. It goes into sills for both heavy and light bodies, bolsters, and wagon bottoms. It has become a favorite wagon wood in England and in continental Europe, and there passes as white oak, though dealers well know that it is not the true white oak. There is no indication that demand for it will lessen, for it possesses many characters which fit it for vehicle making.

In Michigan more chestnut oak is reported by car builders than by any other class of manufacturers, though wagon makers buy it. Car shops use about 220,000 feet a year, and work it into hand cars, push cars, track-laying cars, and cattle guards.

The large remaining area of timber growth in which chestnut oak appears is the Appalachian range through eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina, and the fact that it is comparatively plentiful in the forests of the Appalachian range will tend to bring it more and more into prominence as a factor in the making of wagons, cars, boats, staves, and furniture as the other oaks become scarcer.

The probable future of chestnut oak is an interesting problem for study. Few steps have yet been taken looking toward providing for generations to come. Chestnut oak has been left to take care of itself. The trees, produced in nature’s way, have been ample to supply all needs in the past, and they will be for the near future. Chestnut oak possesses some advantages over most of the other oaks. Large trees will grow on very poor soil, where most other oaks are little more than shrubs. Trees so grown are little more susceptible to disease than if produced in good soil, though they develop more slowly and are smaller. There are many poor flats and sterile ridges in the chestnut oak’s range, and they will produce timber of fairly good kind, if the chestnut oaks are permitted to have them. Nature gave this tree facilities for taking possession. Its acorns will grow without being buried. They do not depend on blue jays to carry them to sunny openings or squirrels to plant them; but they will sprout where they fall, whether on hard gravelly soil or dry leaves; and they at once set about getting the tap roots of the future trees into the ground. In many instances the chestnut oak’s acorns do not wait to fall from the tree before they sprout. Like the seed of the Florida mangrove, they are often ready to take root the day they touch the ground. The large acorn is stored with plantfood which sustains the growing germ for some time, and the ground must be very hard and exceedingly dry if a young chestnut oak is not soon firmly established, and good for two or three hundred years, if let alone.

The forester who may undertake to grow chestnut oaks must exercise great care in transplanting the seedlings, or the tap roots will be broken and the young trees will die. The best plan is to drop acorns on the ground where trees are expected to grow, and nature will do the rest, provided birds and beasts leave the acorns alone.