I don't know how the different species of elm growing in america are, I only now witch (whych?) elm (ulmus glabra), but I've found elm one of the safest trees to dry/season. Beaten only by hazel, I think. That's a nice thing about it. I've never had an elm stave check or crack while drying. They can warp if you don't take notice of tension wood, but that's true with most trees, I figure. I usually put freshly cut staves indoors right away. Works great. Right now I'm performing some sort of drying experiment actually. I have an elm stave that I cut a week ago. It's been hanging by the ceiling over the fire stove – crackling dry, 23-25°C. I cut it about 2" thick. It lost about 10% weight in 3 days. No cracks, checks, warping, or movements of any kind. At this rate I'll have a completely dry stave in a couple of weeks or so. Not all woods can do that.
I figure this is because elm has a strong fiber-to-fiber strength. The fibers are interlocking to some extent so they don't separate from each other easily. For the same reason elm can be "thready" to split. But for the same reason I found it safe to ignore when a stave is a little bit twisted. A couple of years ago I made a 60# bow from a stave with a 90° twist. I simply ignored the twist and drew the bow out as if the stave had been straight grained. Fibres actually running diagonally through the bow. Worked fine.
Yeah, I like elm.
