A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 557 



Hemlock bark is the most important single item in American- 

 produced tanning material and is especially profitable in connection 

 with pulpwood and fiber-board production, for which latter purposes 

 peeled logs are preferred. Since under present conditions the price 

 of hemlock is decidedly low, the value of the species for tanning, in 

 addition to its use for paper pulp and fiber board is of distinct advan- 

 tage in lumbering operations. The eastern hemlock is confined (aside 

 from southeastern Canada) to New England, the Middle Atlantic 

 States, the Appalachian Mountains, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. 

 Latest available estimates of its stand in the United States are about 

 12 billion board feet, the greater part of which is privately owned. 

 The western hemlock, which occurs largely on Federal lands, ranges 

 from Alaska to western Montana and northern California, the latest 

 available estimates of its stand in the United States, exclusive of 

 Alaska, being about 85 billion board feet. Its bark is somewhat 

 richer in tannic acid per unit area than that of eastern hemlock but 

 is only about half as thick, so that it is inferior to its eastern relative 

 as a source of tanbark. 



The bark of cascara buckthorn, a tree occurring from British 

 Columbia and the southeastern borders of Alaska to western Montana 

 and northern California, is an important item in materia medica. 

 The tree is largely limited to areas along or near streams and to 

 swales and moist slopes, and usually occurs in admixture with other 

 species; probably more than half of the stand is privately owned. 

 In general the bark^is best handled as a forest byproduct, but the 

 specific use of certain specially favorable lands for growing cascara, 

 under private ownership, is a possibility worthy of future considera- 

 tion. Nearly all of the commercial stand of cascara buckthorn is 

 west of the Cascades, where it has been estimated that 75 percent 

 of the region, or about 15 million acres, will produce bark in paying 

 quantities. Full utilization of this resource would be ahead of present 

 consumption but hardly in excess of possible future demand. In 

 removing the bark care must be taken not to girdle the tree, injure 

 the roots, remove more than about a quarter (or at most a third) 

 of the bark, or to have the incised portions too close together. It 

 has been estimated that the average section of 640 acres within the 

 optimum belt of the species will, if properly managed, yield 0.7 ton 

 of medicinal bark annually, worth, according to quality and the 

 season price scale, $80 to $200. The cut of bark on six national 

 forests of Washington-Oregon over a period of 13 years has amounted 

 to about 316 tons valued at over $30,000. Vancouver is a chief port 

 of shipment for cascara, an average of over 30 tons, valued at over 

 $6,200, being exported therefrom annually. Munger (Journal of 

 Forestry 17(5) : 605-607. 1919) reports that in the Northwest cascara- 

 bark collection is essentially a home industry for spring, when the bark 

 peels readily, and that for many Coast Range settlers it is the chief 

 source of ready cash during the first years of land clearing. 



The forest lands of the United States produce an enormous wealth 

 of edible nuts and seeds. For example, the pecan crop of the United 

 States, according to the 1929 census figures, w^as derived from about 

 5% million wild and cultivated trees of bearing age, which produced 

 26,150,546 pounds of nuts whose value, at the conservative retail 

 figure of 20 cents a pound, was $5,230,109. Over half the bearing 



