18 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



AMERICA]^ FOREST TREES. 



Balm of Gilead. 

 Populus halsamifera — Linn. 



The balm of Gilead is a name sometimes 

 applied not only to the tree with which this 

 sketch deals, but to one of the firs— the 

 Abies halsamea. However, the two need 

 not be confused, inasmuch as the latter is 

 one of the conifers — our well-known Christ- 

 mas tree in fact, while the true balm of 

 Gilead is a member of a great 

 family comprising the poplars 

 and willows, and is closely al- 

 lied to the former, as its botani- 

 cal name indicates. 



The tree is known as balsam 

 In New Hampshire, New York, 

 Wisconsin, Michigan, Minne- 

 sota, Nebraska, Montana, Ohio 

 and Ontario; as Cottonwood in 

 Idaho; as poplar in Wisconsin 

 and Minnesota; as balsam pop- 

 lar in New Hampshire, Ver- 

 mont, Nebraska and Minnesota; 

 as tacamahac in Minnesota; as 

 baumier in Quebec; as rough- 

 barked poplar in the Hudson 

 bay district; the name Gilead, 

 which is its most common and 

 should be its only designation, 

 is applied to it in Maine, New 

 Hampshire, Vermont, Massa- 

 chusetts, Rhode Island, Connec- 

 ticut, New York, Michigan, 

 Nebraska, Minnesota, North 

 Dakota and Ontario. 



In the northeastern parts of 

 Canada and this country one 

 variety of the balm of Gilead is 

 often cultivated as a shade-tree, 

 and from these artificial plant- 

 ings seedlings have sprung up 

 and spread, untU the tree has 

 become to some extent spon- 

 taneous. It is somewhat differ- 

 ent from the common form, 

 however, in that it has wider 

 spreading branches, and forms 

 a broader head, with larger, 

 coarser, gland-tipped teeth, ex- 

 tremely sticky and pubescent. 



The balm of GUead grows in 

 low river-bottoms and on the 

 borders of swamps, often on 

 land that is inundated. Its 

 range is from Labrador and 

 along the Mackenzie river west- 

 ward to the Alaskan coast; 

 south into northern Montana, 

 Idaho, Oregon, Nevada and Dakota, and 

 eastward through central Michigan and 

 Minnesota into New York and the New 

 England states. It seems to be the domi- 

 nant species along streams tributary to the 

 Mackenzie and through the prairie country 

 of British Columbia, in fact r-eaching its 

 greatest development— a height of a hun- 

 dred feet or more, and diameter of six or 

 seven feet — in the valleys of the Mackenzie 

 and Yukon rivers. It is the largest tree of 



SEVENTY-SEVENTH PAPER. 



northwestern America, and towards the 

 Arctic regions the most conspicuous type 

 of vegetation. 



Balm of Gilead may at once be recog- 

 nized by its odorous, resinous leaf buds, 

 which are particularly fragrant in the 

 early springtime. 



Says Rogers in The Tree Book: "The 

 fragrant wax that saturates the winter 



MATURE FOREST GROWTH BALM OF GILEAD. 



buds and coats the young leaves in spring 

 gives this tree its name. The bees find it 

 as soon as the sap stirs and the wax 

 softens. Quantities of it are collected and 

 stored in hives against a rainy day; for 

 this is what bees use to seal up weather 

 cracks in their hives. It is known to bee 

 keepers as propolis. The service this wax 

 renders the tree is to prevent the loss of 

 water from the buds, and not 'to keep the 

 buds from freezing,' as some people fondly 



imagine. The buds freeze solid, but it does 

 them no harm. They are adapted to it. 

 In the far North the Indian uses the balsam 

 of balm of Gilead trees to seal up the 

 seams of his birch-bark canoe, and of dishes 

 and other utensils made of the same ma- 

 terial. ' ' 



The leaves of the tree are sturdy-looking 

 and of a light-olive shade, heart-shaped and 

 sharply serrate. Their stems 

 are slightly pubescent, and 

 about an inch long. The 

 flowers appear before the 

 leaves, in March — the pistils 

 becoming four to five inches 

 long before their fruit ripens; 

 they are green in color, as are 

 also the stamens; they have 

 large red anthers. The fruit is 

 a small oblong seed, pointed at 

 the apex. 



The bark of balm of Gilead 

 is light brown tinged with red, 

 rough and becoming broken 

 into broad, deep plates on old 

 trees. 



Balm of Gilead is an excel- 

 lent tree to plant for shade or 

 ornament, and as a shelter belt. 

 It is hardy, compact and erect, 

 and of even, clean growth. It 

 is easily transplanted and a 

 quick grower; moreover it is a 

 handsome species, but has the 

 one fault of becoming decrepit 

 and somewhat unsightly early 

 in life, though possibly not so 

 soon as the Carolina poplar, 

 nearly all of whose good traits 

 it possesses. The tree was 

 planted on the borde'rs of the 

 famous lagoon at the World's 

 Fair in Chicago, and its rich 

 foliage and shape gave just the 

 shade and appearance desired. 

 The heart wood is light 

 brown, the sapwood nearly 

 white and very thick. A cubic 

 foot weighs about 26 pounds 

 when dry. The timber is easily 

 worked, but is suitable only for 

 inferior grades of work, such 

 as the manufacture of boxes, 

 pails, excelsior, etc. 



In all the range of growth of 

 balm of Gilead it has been 

 manufactured into lumber to no 

 considerable extent save during the last 

 year or two, and is now produced chiefly in 

 the northeastern portion of the lower penin- 

 sula of Michigan, in the northern peninsula, 

 and in northern Wisconsin, Altogether this 

 product will probably not aggregate from 

 twelve to fifteen million feet during the 

 year 1908. Thus fur it has been sold al- 

 most exclusively to box-makers, by whom 

 the lumber is used as a substitute for pop- 

 lar in making small packages. The average 



