Chinese Elm or ?

[1project2many]

I've lived in an area where the only wood you could find was Cottonwood or a species of Pine. You could always tell where the old homesteads were by where the huge Cottonwood were. Some of those trees looked like they were 150+ years old by New England tree standards but they were only a bit more than half that age. With nothing else around, I'd certainly burn that wood. But I'd have to have 2X to 3X the wood supply that I'm used to if I wanted to rely on Cottonwood as primary heat.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Having lived in New England for nearly 10 years back in the '70s, I seldom saw a cottonwood tree, even though they refer to it as eastern cottonwood. Around here, they multiply like bunnies. On the other hand we often ran into elm trees in CT that were virtually impossible to split with a maul. Nowadays I could probably do it if I had the strength, only because I've learned to let elm rounds dry until the bark starts falling off. Once the checkup on the ends is obvious, you can get the split started. If you then discover that you are working with red elm, you can shout, "Hooray!"