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HARDWOOD RECORD 



AMERICAN FOREST TREES. 



Tamarack. 



Larix laricina — Koch. 

 Larix Aincricana — Michs. 

 This tree thrives from Newfoundland and 

 Labrador to northern Pennsylvania, northern 

 Indiana, Illinois, central Minnesota ; it reaches 

 out northwestward to Hudson Bay, growing 

 freely along the Mackenzie river and Great 

 Bear Lake — even within the Arctic Circle. 



It is commonly known as tama- 

 rack in Maine, New Hampshire, Ver- 

 mont, Massachusetts, Ehode Island, | 

 New York, New Jersey, Pennsylva- 

 nia, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, 

 Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and On- 

 tario; as larch in Vermont, Massa- 

 chusetts, Ehode Island, Connecticut, 

 New York, New Jersey, Pennsylva- 

 nia, Delaware, Wisconsin, Minnesota, 

 Ohio, Ontario and Minnesota; it is 

 called hackmatack in Maine, New 

 Hampshire, Massachusetts, Ehode 

 Island, Delaware, Illinois, Minne- 

 sota and Ontario ; the nurserymen of 

 Vermont and Wisconsin call it the 

 American larch, to distinguish it 

 from other species of the same fam- 

 ily; in Maine, New Brunswick, and 

 along the shores of Hudson Bay it is 

 often referred to as juniper; as 

 black larch in Minnesota; as cpi- 

 nette rouge in Quebec; as red larch 

 in Michigan; as hacmack in litera- 

 ture; and the New Y'ork Indians 

 gave it the name ka-neh-tens, meuu- 

 ing "the leaves fall." The tam- 

 arack blooms in May ; its tiowers are 

 monoecious and sessils, forming on 

 short branchlets; the pistillate ones 

 are ovate, and of a rosy tint, while 

 the staminate are yellow. 



The fruit is a small cone, having 

 concave scales which bear winged 

 seeds; the cones are about a half 

 inch long and grow on short pedun- 

 cles at the ends of branches; in 

 color they are greenish when young, 

 turning brown at maturity. 



The leaves are simple and thread- 

 like; they grow in thick clusters on 

 short twigs, and have no sheaths. 

 They are delicate green, yellow in 

 autumn, when they fall. 



The bark of tamarack is thin, and 

 becomes broken into scales. 



The wood is heavy, hard, duraljle 

 and strong, resembling spruce in 

 some particulars. A cubic foot of seasoned 

 wood weighs thirty-eight pounds. The heart- 

 wood is light brown, the sapwood almost 

 white. The grain is coarse and the annual 

 layers conspicuous; the structure very com- 

 pact. Eepresentative uses for tamarack tim- 

 ber are for railway ties, fence-posts, sills, tele- 

 graph poles, flagstaffs, ship timbers, etc. 



Until within the last few years little tam- 

 arack has been cut into lumber. Now, how- 



SIXTIETH PAPER. 



ever, it is often made into two-inch dimension 

 matciial and is used as a substitute for Nor- 

 way pine and hemlock. It is being extensively 

 sawed into inch boards of late; from the fact 

 that it shows a considerable percentage of 

 clear and has rather, a handsome grain, even 

 the knotty pieces not being unsightly, owing 

 to their small, sound, red character, it is em- 

 ployed quite extensively in ceiling and wains- 



TAMAUACK SWAMf GKDWTII, N'OUTIIEIIN MICHIGAN 



coting for common house building purposes. 

 It finishes either naturally or under stain, as 

 attractively as white pine, yellow jiinc, Nor- 

 way pine or clear hemlock. 



In general appearance this tree is tall and 

 slender, pyramidal in shape, with horizontal 

 branches which become pendulous when loaded 

 with foliage. "The dainty, cool green coloring 

 of the tamarack in summer, and its ex- 

 tremely tall, slim figure, delicately outlined 



against the blue sky on a clear day, make it 

 an exceedingly ornamental and striking tree 

 for landscape gardening; in the winter, how- 

 ever, it has a sinister, gloomy aspect. The 

 tamarack reaches a height of from seventy to 

 ninety feet and is from one to three feet in 

 diameter. 



The members of the larch family are culti- 

 vated as timber trees in Europe and to some 

 extent in this country. They grow 

 rapidly and can be raised with 

 profit for ties and poles, as they are 

 reasonably straight and free from 

 knots ; when planted in close con- 

 tact with each other, in plantations, 

 tlicy are self-pruning. Along the 

 M;issachusetts coast and in the mid- 

 dle West they are planted for wind- 

 breaks or shelter belts, and are read- 

 ily grown from seed ; they can be 

 transplanted when quite large, pro- 

 vided it is done when they are dor- 

 mant. 



The wood is rich in resin, but does 

 not burn easily. It does not splin- 

 ter, so that in the days when steel 

 for battleships was unknown, larch 

 was used in their construction. In 

 some of the old French chateaux 

 timbers have been found to be per- 

 fectly sound, while the stones that 

 supported them were crumbling 

 away. Many of the famous artists 

 of the old world painted some of 

 their great works upon larch boards. 

 Old wood from the tops of the 

 Apennines and Alps presented a 

 beautiful appearance when highly 

 polished, and was made into rare 

 cabinets and tables which brought 

 fabulous prices. The wood of Larix 

 occidenialis, however, ranks much 

 higher than that of Larix lariciiM, 

 or tamarack, or in fact of any other 

 member of the larch family. 



' ' The tamarack loves the northern 

 mountain slopes and the cold swamjis 

 of Labrador and Canada and the 

 northern states," says Sogers. "It 

 is the bravest of all the conifers, 

 standing erect, a pitiful miniature 

 (it its true self, on the very edge of 

 the Arctic tundras, a line that no 

 tree dares overstep. Its compan- 

 ions, the black spruce, balm of Gil- 

 ead and an Arctic willow, are pros- 

 trate at its feet. Compared with 

 tlie European larch the tamarack is not a hor- 

 ticultural success. In rich soil and among 

 luxuriant oaks ami pines and tliick-leaved ma- 

 ples, the tamarack looks ragged and forlorn. 

 It is homesick for the cold, wet soil and the 

 bleak wind and the valiant company of its 

 kinsmen. Mountain bogs too deep to measure 

 are covered with tamarack. The fibrous roots 

 were the Indian 's thread ; tough and fine, it 

 sewed tlio canoo of birch, making a seam that 



