V. 1. THE RED BIRCH. 209 



This tree is found growing abundantly on Spicket River and 

 in neighboring swamps in Methuen. It is there called the river 

 birch. As fuel, it is said to be nearly equal to hickory, and the 

 tree is of very rapid growth. The wood is close-grained and 

 very hard, and, when kept dry, very durable. It has not been 

 much used in the arts. Yokes have been made of it, which 

 are excellent, except that they are apt to crack from exposure 

 to the sun ; which defect may be obviated by water-seasoning. 



The trees are usually about a foot in diameter and fifty feet 

 high. One measured five feet two inches in circumference, and 

 appeared to be sixty feet high. 



The younger Michaux assumes the banks of a small river in 

 New Jersey, ten miles from New York, as the northern limit 

 of this birch. He found it abundant in Virginia and North 

 Carolina, but rarely more than two or three feet in diameter 

 and seventy feet high. It would probably flourish as well 

 in Massachusetts as in either of those States, as its growth 

 is very luxuriant in the limited region to which it seems to be 

 here confined. The seed-bearing cones are said to be ripe in 

 June. 



Michaux says that the wood is pretty compact and nearly 

 white, and presents the peculiarity, like that of the June berry, 

 of being longitudinally marked with red vessels, intersecting 

 each other in different directions. The negroes make bowls 

 and trays of the wood, and, of the young stocks and of branches 

 not exceeding an inch in diameter, hoops, particularly for rice 

 casks. In Philadelphia, its twigs are made into brooms for 

 streets and court-yards. A similar use is made of the twigs of 

 the gray birch in some parts of New England. 



The red birch might be easily propagated along the streams 

 of every part of New England, and would serve the same pur- 

 pose as the alders, in preventing the washing away of the 

 banks, while it would form a still more beautiful fringe, and 

 furnish a useful growth for fuel, and for the arts. 

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