Trees Remembered and Remembering 



adapted for the wooden casings of 

 pencils, and the spicy odor added to 

 its desirability. But with these qualities 

 recognized, it was the durability of 

 the wood that permitted pencil makers 

 to use fence rails that had stood in 

 place for a generation or more. As a 

 result, many a Tennessee hill farmer 

 paid off the mortgage on his farm with 

 the cedar rails his father had cut. Small 

 wonder, then, that Tennessee citizens 

 voted to make eastern redcedar their 

 State tree. 



From southern New England to the 

 Gulf coast and west into the Missis- 

 sippi Valley grows a glossy-leafed giant 

 known variously as yellow-poplar and 

 whitewood, for its soft, even-grained 

 wood, and as tuliptree, for its orange 

 and yellow blossoms. The lumber is 

 sought by cabinetmakers as well as 

 carpenters, and it has contributed to 

 homes and barns in the Middle West, 

 as it now contributes to many wood- 

 working industries. So it is the natural 

 choice of Indiana and of Kentucky. 



Utility may have vied with romance 

 when Louisiana and Mississippi chose 

 southern magnolia. The lumber from 

 magnolia contributes to the need for 

 even-grained, soft, easily worked hard- 

 wood, but the white blossoms against 

 the shiny green leaves are a lasting 

 memory of all who have enjoyed life 

 in the South. 



Some of the same love of beauty and 

 romantic fervor attributed to the South 

 may have influenced the people of 

 Virginia and North Carolina in their 

 choice of the flowering dogwood as 

 their State tree. Similarly, the people 

 of Oklahoma singled out the eastern 

 redbud or Judas-tree, those of Missouri 

 selected the Engelmann hawthorn or 

 the red haw, and Delaware chose the 

 American holly. 



History records that the Southern 

 soldiers were influenced in their cam- 

 paign against Gettysburg by the hope 

 they would get shoes in that area. Few 

 may have realized that the shoemakers 

 had established themselves in Penn- 

 sylvania because of the seemingly in- 

 exhaustible forests of hemlock, whose 



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bark yielded tannin with which to make 

 leather tough for shoe soles. But Penn- 

 sylvania knew it and has since named 

 the eastern hemlock as her State tree. 

 Farther west, the bigger variety, west- 

 ern hemlock, has been selected by 

 Washington. 



Long before the movement for State 

 trees, Ohio was known as the Buckeye 

 State, but not all of her present citizens 

 have ever seen the Aesculus glabra, or 

 Ohio buckeye. 



Strangely enough, despite the wide 

 range of growth of our American black 

 walnut, it was left to Iowa to accept 

 this tree, whose lumber is the most 

 costly of all common American woods. 

 Perhaps Iowa's choice was partly for 

 lack of a wide choice of native trees. 

 It was still more likely that Kansas, 

 Nebraska, and South Dakota for the 

 same reason picked the cottonwood, 

 the tree which the early settlers cut 

 for wood for their homes and fuel 

 for their fires and the one they planted 

 to give solace to their souls. Likewise, 

 North Dakota looked to her water- 

 courses and shelterbelts to find the 

 green ash and claim it for her own. 



In the Southwest, two States chose 

 trees that furnish food as well as wood. 

 Texas chose the pecan, whose nut crop 

 fattens hogs and helps fill the candy 

 bars of the Nation and whose lumber 

 is increasingly chosen for furniture, 

 flooring, and a host of uses for which 

 a hard, resilient wood is needed. Far- 

 ther west, Arizona accepted the honey 

 mesquite, whose flowers are an impor- 

 tant source of honey, whose bean pods 

 are eaten by cattle, and whose wood 

 is now directed to other uses than to 

 feed a sheepherder's campfire. 



Utah and Colorado went into high 

 mountains and chose the blue spruce. 



The sea-faring side of New Jersey 

 may have influenced her acceptance of 

 Atlantic white-cedar whose light, dur- 

 able wood is prized by boat builders. 



New Hampshire accepted the aro- 

 matic yellow birch, but Michigan, with 

 a long list of beautiful native trees 

 whose lumber supported much of her 

 early economy, chose the apple. The 



