SILVICULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS 33 



Hemlock wood is soft, light, stiff, but brittle, not strong, 

 splintery and commonly cross grained. The lumber is accord- 

 ingly of inferior quality, but with the growing scarcity of spruce 

 an increasing amount of hemlock is being used for pulp. The 

 bark has an additional value for tanning purposes. 



Altogether when its rather slow growth and low value are 

 taken into account, hemlock cannot be highly recommended in 

 forestry operations, and in future will be chiefly raised for 

 esthetic purposes. 



TAMARACK (Larix laricina). 



Tamarack is one of our most northerly trees, ranging from 

 Labrador and Newfoundland northwest to Alaska, and south to 

 Illinois and Pennsylvania. In New England it is not at all 

 common but is found in many restricted localities, usually on 

 the border of a swamp or the edge of a pond. It does not 

 extend into southern New England, the northern part of Con-, 

 necticut being its southern limit. 



It requires more light than most trees, but will live in watef 

 and on sour soils. Tamarack is occasionally found on hillsides 

 but very rarely. It is but seldom found on sand, preferring a 

 loam soil. It has a tendency to form pure stands but is often 

 mixed with balsam, birch, spruce, and cedar. The root system 

 is shallow but very compact. 



Tamarack grows rapidly on well-drained soils, but very 

 slowly on the average swampy site. It seeds abundantly and 

 is a good reproducer especially on abandoned fields. The seed 

 germinates well in pasture grass or on the moss-covered soils of 

 swamps. 



The tamarack is our only deciduous conifer. 



Many years ago the tamarack was practically destroyed by 

 the worm of the larch sawfly which eats the foliage. For this 

 reason it is seldom that one finds a large, live tamarack although 

 dead specimens two feet in diameter are common. Of late years, 

 however, the sawfly has not been abundant and the tamarack 



