168 FOREST TREES. 



the older class of settlers, is now a common case. I have known Cedar 

 rails cost thirty dollars per thousand ; and the buyer had not only to pay 

 this high price, but to cut down and draw home the logs a distance of 

 seven and even ten miles. 



When cleared, these Cedar Swamps make good meadow land — the 

 stumps and roots are easily burned or pulled out— and after a series of 

 years, if well drained, will produce root and grain crops, and good 

 pasturage for cattle. 



At one time it was a common practice with farmers, when making 

 fences about the homesteads, to reverse the Cedar posts, inserting the 

 upper end in the ground and the butt end uppermost, under the 

 impression that by so doing the wood was preserved from decaying. I 

 think the practice was objectionable, as, from the spiral growth of this 

 tree, the heaviest end of the post was uppermost, forming a lever, which 

 had the effect of heaving the fence out of the ground, when the soil was 

 softened by the action of the frost and thawing rains in the Spring of the 

 year : besides, the fences so constructed had an unsightly appearance. 

 If the preservation of the wood were the object in view, charring the end 

 of the post before inserting it in the post-hole would have been a far 

 more certain method of ensuring them from decay. 



Gray gives the average height of the White Cedar as from 20 to 

 50 feet, but it sometime exceeds that height. The stem is tall, straight 

 and tapering upwards to a narrow point. Instead of forming a 

 branching or bushy head, the branches curve downward, being wider 

 and more sweeping towards the lower part of the trunk ; very often they 

 are re-curved toward the extremities. The leaves are closely appressed, 

 or imbricated, lapping over each other in four rows on the sharply, two- 

 edged branchlets, which are flat and horizontally placed The scales of 

 the cones are soft and blunt ; the seeds winged all round ; the flowers 

 are of two kinds, borne on different branchlets. The Greek name for the 

 Cedar is derived from some resinous tree — possibly from the Cypress, to 

 which it bears a near affinity. In its early growth, within the shelter of 

 the forest or by the banks of lakes and creeks, the bark of the young 

 Cedar is smooth, and of a dark shining green ; but where it grows in 

 oi)en, exposed ground, it is hard, rough, and scaly, and of a greyish 

 colour ; the foliage is also of a lighter, more yellowish tint of green 

 than in the forest. When the tree attains to maturity, the bark 

 splits into long lozenge-like divisions, and peels off in ragged strips. 

 The long sweeping branches become rough and hoary in age, in the 

 crevices of which the grey tree-moss ( Usnea) fixes its long pendulous 

 tufts, and gives to the tree that venerable aspect that has obtained for it 

 the name of White Cedar, in conjunction with the whiteness of the wood 

 and outer bark. 



