irch, but can be distinguished from it through the fact that in
maple the rays are considerably more conspicuous than in birch.

The wood is used for slack cooperage, flooring, interior finish,
furniture, musical instruments, handles, and destructive
distillation.

3. Tulip-tree, yellow poplar or whitewood. Rays all fine but distinct.
Color yellow or brownish yellow; sapwood white. Wood light and soft,
straight-grained, easy to work.

The wood is used for boxes, woodenware, tops and bodies of vehicles,
interior finish, furniture, and pulp.

4. Red or sweet gum. Rays all fine but somewhat less distinct than in
tulip tree. Color reddish brown, often with irregular dark streaks
producing a "watered" effect on smooth boards; thick sapwood,
grayish white. Wood rather heavy, moderately hard, cross-grained,
difficult to work.

The best grades of figured red gum resemble Circassian walnut, but
the latter has much larger pores unevenly distributed and is less
cross-grained than red gum.

The wood is used for finishing, flooring, furniture, veneers, slack
cooperage, boxes, and gun stocks.

[Illustration: FIG. 152.--Maple. (Magnified 25 times.)]

5. Black or sweet birch, Fig. 151. Rays variable in size but all rather
indistinct. Color brown, tinged with red, often deep and handsome.
Wood heavy, hard, and strong, straight-grained, readily worked. Is
darker in color and has less prominent rays than maple.

The wood is used for furniture, cabinet work, finishing, and
distillation.

6. Cottonwood. Rays extremely fine and scarcely visible even under lens.
Color pale dull brown or grayish brown. Wood light, soft, not
strong, straight-grained, fairly easy to work. Cottonwood can be
separated from other light and soft woods by the fineness of its
rays, which is equaled only by willow, which it rather closely
resembles. The wood is largely used for boxes, general construction,
lumber, and pulp.

How to judge the quality of wood: To know the name of a piece of wood
means, in a general way, to know certain qualities that are common
to all other pieces of wood of that species, but it does not explain
the special peculiarities of the piece in question or why that
particular piece is more suitable or unsuitable for a particular
purpose than another piece of the same species. The mere
identific