Osage orange, or Bois D'Arc tree used for poles and pins

Forest Service Gives Properties of Osage Orange and Qualifications for Telephone Use.

Osage orange, or Bois D'Arc, is sometimes called bodock in Kansas, and is also known as mock orange, bow-wood, osage apple-tree, yellow-wood, hedge, hedge-plant and osage in different sections of the country. The wood has been employed to some extent in the manufacture of insulator pins, but not to the extent that locust, gum or maple is used. It is possible that your correspondent in Arkansas, whose inquiry you brought to our attention, can find a good local market for pins by getting into communication with the local telephone and telegraph supply depots. Of course, the large electrical houses buy large quantities of insulator pins.

Osage orange is heavy, exceedingly hard, very strong, flexible, close-grained, compact and very durable in contact with the ground. The trees are usually crooked and wide branching, and seldom attain size and shape fitting them for sawlogs. In 1909 the steam and electric roads of the United States purchased 21,000 osage orange poles. Usually the trunks of trees are made into posts, branches worked into stakes and the remnants used as fuel. The color of the wood, its hardness and susceptibility to polish are appreciated by cabinet makers, and the manufacturers of vehicles find it excellent raw material for felloes. Considerable use is also made of the wood for railroad ties, paving blocks, mallets and toothpicks. Franklin H. Smith, Acting in Charge of Wood Utilization,

U. S. Forest Service., Chicago, Ill.