286 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NEW JERSEY. 



with other leguminous plants, bacteroids, which reside in a 

 symbiotic state in tubercles on its roots, are able in some myste- 

 rious way to accumulate nitrogen. The litter, which is rich 

 but thin, quickly decays. Once established, the locust hurst 

 will never need renewal ; hundreds of stool-shoots and root- 

 suckers are present to take the places of felled trees on the 

 admission of light. Besides a tap-root the locust has an exten- 

 sive horizontal root system by which the soil is held in place. 

 It is for this reason used on railroad embankments and dry soils 

 subject to shifting. The wood is useful for posts and other pur- 

 poses, even when young, and is therefore of great value for 

 private planting. Both red cedar and black locust may be sown 

 in the same way that I have indicated for the pine. The seeds 

 of the locust, if planted in the spring, should be soaked in warm 

 water for three days before planting. 



The white-cedar (Cham&cyparis thyoides) is the choicest of 

 the soft woods of Eastern America. Not even inferior to the 

 famous pumpkin-white-pine. In fact, for boat and tank con- 

 struction it has no equal. The wood is light, soft, clean, easily 

 seasoned, and remarkable for its durability.* It neither warps 

 nor checks under the most trying circumstances. It is exten- 

 sively used for bridge-plank, shingles, weather-boards, interior 

 finish, and in the construction of fences either in the form of 

 rails or palings. It has a pleasant cedary aroma, and when 

 exposed to the weather becomes a beautiful steel or lichen-gray 

 color. 



The white-cedar should be grown in the form of a pure 

 crowded wood, on wet mucky or wet sandy soil. The canopy 

 should be uninterrupted, and the lower limbs should interlace. 

 If the forest is too thin, irregular, with all age classes and here 

 and there other species, the trees are easily uprooted by the 

 wind, owing to the slight hold which they have upon the soft 

 mucky soil. The stand should be so thick and the lower limbs 

 interlace to such an extent that the tree will free itself from 

 branches, produce clean boles and prevent the growth of under- 

 brush. Owing to its sharp, conical top it endures close plant- 



* The bark of the white-cedar is tough and fibrous and similar to coir in nature. Many trees of this 

 species in South Jersey have been ruined by the fishermen, who use strips of the tough bark on which to 

 string their fish. In Russia the manufacture of mats, rope, etc., from bark is an important industry, and 

 in New Jersey the white- cedar bark might be used for similar purposes. 



