128 HEMLOCK BARK. [Dec. 



HEMLOCK BARK. 



THE Tanner and Currier's Journal of September last has an 

 article on the subject of the decline in value of hemlock 

 bark in America. This is no doubt but of a temporary nature, 

 caused largely by the failure of the great tanners Shaw Brothers, 

 who had in the province of New Brunswick alone no less than three 

 large factories for the production of "Extract of Hemlock." 



While in some respects the decline in the price of bark may be 

 •a matter of regret, in others it may be looked upon as satisfactory, 

 insomuch that fewer hemlock trees will be cut down for their bark 

 alone, while their stumps are left in the woods to rot. 



The hemlock spruce is a tree which is easily killed by fire ; and 

 the most valualDle tracts of it which existed in the maritime provinces 

 of Canada have been burned and destroyed, largely througli the 

 carelessness of settlers who have been allowed to take up farms in 

 close proximity to or among the thick groves and ridges of these 

 trees. 



The soil on wliich the hemlock grows in greatest abundance is 

 usually poor and unfit for settlement. 



Unless the maritime pi-ovinces of Canada take this matter of the 

 destruction of hemlock trees, by peeling and from settlers' fires, into 

 consideration, and provide some remedy for such waste and destruc- 

 tion, their stock of this valuable wood will soon be all wasted and 

 burned. 



Would it not be well that they should have examinations made, 

 by a properlj'-appointed Commission, to ascertain the extent of the 

 hemlock forests now remaining within their limits, and to report 

 upon the best means of protecting them, and of arresting the absolute 

 waste of wood which is now taking place there ? This wood, which 

 can be delivered at a cheaper rate in Great Britain than spruce, 

 miglit be utilized for many purposes — the coarser kinds, in the 

 manufacture of boxes for heavy articles ; while the white hemlock, 

 some specimens of which were exhibited by New Brunswick at the 

 Forestry Exhibition, could be used in the manufacture of common 

 doors, interior finishing of houses, and for many other purposes. It 

 is a wood which does not shrink any more than, if as much as, the 

 ordinary spruce and pine, as was proved by the New Brunswick 

 specimens to which we have referred. This is a matter to which 

 also we would call the attention of the Canadian Colonies and mer- 

 chants, since if they can succeed in introducing this wood for the 

 above-named and other uses, they would make more work for their 

 lumbermen and mills, and also economize the cutting of their spruce 

 timber, which is disappearing so fast. 



