Ken--our elms have all but disappeared here too, but the specie is fairly hardy, and new young trees are pushing up in fence rows, and it seems to me that some of them are resistant to the disease, because theyare inhabiting areas near where dead elms were, and seem healthy.
They were really majestic trees, we had 3 or 4 varieties around here, white elm, swamp elm, rock elm, and then there seemed to be ones that lived in the open areas, and had slightly different characteristics--really brushy, and well forget about splitting them--impossible--
You mentioned that the crucks were made from elm, in my books that is the strongest and toughest wood around, if you wanted a timber that would carry a heavy load--elm would have been your choice
At the entrance to UCV they planted a row of English Elm that seemed to do good for a few years but eventually succumed to an unusually cold winter and spring. One thing that I did notice was that they held their leaves all winter which seemed unusual, it was just like they didn't know what to do in that respect. They were quite curly in appearance and different than our native species
My dad used to say a place for everything and everyhing had its place
Our set of sleighs that we used for many years to haul out wood and logs, had oak runners, but the bunks were elm, the stakes were elm, and the reaches were rock elm, there was just no breaking them
I can remember quite well rounding the sleigh up high, and then heading for home through the gullies and ditches, over stones and large drifts, and as the sleigh twisted one way and then the other you could hear the sound of the bunks taking a beating, you would hold your breath as the sleighs tipped and dived deep into the snow, the team seemed to know what was up and they would lay into the harness, the snow flying from their shod hooves, actually they seemed to enjoy it after standing for so long in the cold waiting to hear the command from my uncle a slight tap on their flanks and we were away
When we reached the unloading area I am going to tell you, they would be well steamed up
My father when he built the barn in 1946, used all elm 3" by 6"'s for the joists, man would they bow down when the mow was loaded to capacity,
