light, soft, not strong, brittle, very durable in contact with the
soil, of coarse texture. Used chiefly for railway ties, telegraph
poles, and fence posts, but well suited for a great variety of uses.
Lower basin of the Ohio River, locally common. Extensively planted,
and therefore promising to become of some importance.

CHERRY

=24. Cherry= (_Prunus serotina_) (Wild Cherry, Black Cherry, Rum
Cherry). Wood heavy, hard, strong, of fine texture. Sapwood yellowish
white, heartwood reddish to brown. The wood shrinks considerably in
drying, works well and stands well, has a fine satin-like luster, and
takes a fine polish which somewhat resembles mahogany, and is much
esteemed for its beauty. Cherry is chiefly used as a decorative
interior finishing lumber, for buildings, cars and boats, also for
furniture and in turnery, for musical instruments, walking sticks,
last blocks, and woodenware. It is becoming too costly for many
purposes for which it is naturally well suited. The lumber-furnishing
cherry of the United States, the wild black cherry, is a small to
medium-sized tree, scattered through many of the broad-leaved trees of
the western slope of the Alleghanies, but found from Michigan to
Florida, and west to Texas. Other species of this genus, as well as
the hawthornes (_Prunus cratoegus_) and wild apple (_Pyrus_), are not
commonly offered in the markets. Their wood is of the same character
as cherry, often finer, but in smaller dimensions.

=25. Red Cherry= (_Prunus Pennsylvanica_) (Wild Red Cherry, Bird
Cherry). Small-sized tree. Heartwood light brown, sapwood pale yellow.
Wood light, soft, and close-grained. Uses similiar to the preceding,
common throughout the Northern States, reaching its greatest size on
the mountains of Tennessee.

CHESTNUT

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_). Me