RED ASH (_Fraxinus pennsylvanica_) is neither a large tree nor very abundant, yet it has a wide range and is put to use wherever lumbermen find it convenient. The lumber generally passes in the market as white ash, and for most purposes it is as good, but is rated lower than that wood in elasticity. It is called brown ash in Maine, black ash in New Jersey, river ash in Rhode Island. The last name is bestowed because the tree prefers moist land near rivers and ponds, and largest specimens are found in such situations, where it is often an associate of black ash and is frequently mistaken for it, though it should not be difficult to tell the species apart. A slight reddish tinge sometimes shows on the outer bark; the inner layer of bark is reddish; the small twigs and the under sides of leaves are clothed with hairs which sometimes suggest redness; and the heartwood is reddish-brown. Persons who speak of the tree as red ash probably have one or more of those characteristics in mind. As a tree it has no striking peculiarities. Its usual height is forty or sixty feet; its diameter from fifteen to twenty inches; its compound leaves ten or twelve inches long, with seven or nine leaflets; its seeds one or two inches in length, narrow, and sharply pointed, with slender, graceful wing. The range of red ash is from New Brunswick to Dakota, and from Florida to Alabama, with all of the included region of a million square miles. It attains its best development in the north Atlantic states, while it is usually inferior west of the Alleghany mountains. It develops a broad crown in open ground, but even there its lower limbs die and drop, while in forests the trunk grows tall and the crown is reduced. It is planted for shade and ornament, but it seems to have no superiority over white ash for that purpose. Some of the Michigan manufacturers list red ash separately in their factories, and apparently this is not done elsewhere in the country. About three-quarters of a million feet a year are used in that state, and since uses there are doubtless typical of uses in the country generally, the list possesses importance: Automobile frames, boxes, butter tubs, crates, eveners, flooring, furniture, interior finish, neck yokes, singletrees, wagon poles. Farther east in early times red ash was occasionally split for fence rails, but that use is important now only as history.