The Uses of Wood 



The tanbark oak of California is exceptionally rich, and its ex- 

 termination by peelers is inevitable unless protective measures 

 are adopted soon. The same may be said of hemlock in many 

 regions, though hemlock has a much more extensive range. In 

 sections of Pennsylvania and New England hillsides are covered 

 with peeled hemlocks of all ages, the trees being destroyed for 

 their bark alone. 



There are many tropical trees and other plants that yield 

 tannin. Quebracho wood, a South American tree, is the source 

 of tannin extract that is imported by American tanneries to a 

 considerable extent. Our native black mangrove or blackwood, 

 on the Florida coast and neighbouring keys and in the delta of the 

 Mississipi, is a valuable source of tannin, though it grows in 

 inaccessible swamps, full of fever and other dangers. 



The method of getting out hemlock bark is described in the 

 chapter: "A Lumber Camp of To-day." 



Among the products of native trees the nuts are important. 

 Their food value is coming to be appreciated at home and abroad. 

 The hickories include the pecan and two shagbarks, both nuts 

 of commercial importance. Walnuts and chestnuts are secondary. 

 Beech and acorn mast fatten hogs and furnish a living to in- 

 numerable birds and wild game, as also do berries, plums and other 

 tree fruits. Flowers of locust and basswood, plum and cherry 

 pasture honey bees. So do many trees of less conspicuous 

 inflorescence. 



Gums of balsam fir and other conifers, sweet gum and wax 

 myrtle, berries of buckthorns, wild cherry and holly, roots of 

 sassafras, twigs of witch hazel, all yield drugs. Our Southern 

 silva furnishes valuable dyewoods. Sugar from the sap of maples 

 forms an important and delicious food product. 



In the Old World and in the tropics are trees whose great 

 value to the human race is suggested by the m.ere mention of their 

 names. The cinchona tree yields quinine from its b.ark. The 

 juice of certain trees hardens into rubber. Para, the Brazilian 

 seaport, is the great distributor of rubber to the world, and the 

 silvas of the Amazon the great producers. Lacquer varnish is the 

 juice of a sumach in Japan. Nutmeg and mace and cloves and 

 allspice grow on trees in tropical countries. The palms feed, 

 clothe and house people. 



It is an endless story the useful products of trees, cultivated 



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