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other purposes. All the wharves in Halifax are built of this wood, and 

 the top or covering of the wharves is made of hemlock plank. Boards of 

 white hemlock for many purposes are esteemed equal to white pine 

 shingles made of the same wood are equal to cedar. It grows upon a 

 better quality of soil than white pine, sometimes upon a clayey, which is 

 very good. The trunk of the hemlock is covered by a reddish grey bark, 

 somewhat rough, with long furrows when old. The bark contains a large 

 quantity of tannin combined with coloring matter, which makes it 

 objectionable for the best kinds of leather. By a simple process the 

 colouring matter may be removed, and the leather is then quite equal to 

 leather prepared with oak bark. 



The foliage is much and justly admired for its graceful appearance. In 

 the beginning of summer each twig is terminated with a tuft of yellowish 

 green leaves, surmounted by the darker green of the former year ; the 

 effect is an object of beauty it would be difficult to surpass. Of late 

 years this has become a favorite ornamental tree for lawns, and is much 

 admired in Britain. 



MOUNTAIN PINE. This tree is only found on the tops of high hills of 

 comparatively bare rock ; its leaves are not more than half the length of 

 those of the white pine. It differs from other pines in several particu- 

 lars, it is short and scrubbed, the cones which contain the seeds are 

 nearly as hard as bone and mature the third year from the flower. It 

 is too stunted to be of value. 



BALSAM OR SILVER FIR. This is not a large tree, being seldom more 

 than fifteen inches diameter ; it is straight and tall and forms with its 

 branches a cone. It is slightly different from, but a nobler tree than, the 

 Silver Fir of Europe, and is commonly known in this Province by the 

 name of Fir. It is not a valuable wood, but is much used for making 

 butter tubs, firkins, etc. The wood is light and does not impart any dis- 

 agreeable taste to butter. This tree is hardy, easily transplanted, grows 

 rapidly with great vigor its beautiful green bark and deep green foliage 

 regular pyramidical form large upright cones with which the upper 

 branches are often loaded, render it one of the most beautiful of the 

 evergreens. It is short lived, and becomes stiff and ragged in appear- 

 ance when old ; this is its great defect The balsam forms in tubercles in 

 the bark. It is collected in large quantities, and sold in all drug stores 

 under the name of Canada Balsam or Balsam of Gilead. It is also used 

 for making varnish for indoor work. 



BLACK or RED SPRUCE. We have two species of spruce the black and 

 the white, or, as they are sometimes termed, the double and the single. 

 They are distinct from the fir and hemlock both in che appearance of the 

 bark, the leaves and cones. The trunk of the spruce is perfectly straight, 

 and regularly tapering from the ground to the top, often 70 to 80 feet 

 high, and two feet at the ground ; the bark is inclined to be smooth, " 

 covered with small scales ; the branches are in whorls of six or eight, and 

 -as the tree becomes old the scales of the outer bark become more round. 



