s-j AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



tamarack ties a year, which reduced to board measure amount to over 

 150,000,000 feet. Fence posts and telegraph poles come in large num- 

 bers from tamarack forests. 



The wood is stiff and strong, its stiffness being eighty-four per cent 

 of that of long leaf pine, and its strength about eighty per cent. Unusual 

 variations in both strength and stiffness are found. One stick of tama- 

 rack may rate twice as high as another. 



The wood-using factories of Michigan consume nearly 20,000,000 

 feet of this wood yearly. It is made into boxes, excelsior, pails, tanks, 

 tubs, house finish, refrigerators, windmills, and wooden pipes for water- 

 works and for draining mines. 



There is little likelihood that the supply of tamarack will run short 

 in the near future. While it is not in the first rank of the important 

 trees in this country, it is useful, and it is fortunate that it promises to 

 hold its ground against fires which do grave injury to northern forests. 

 In the swamps where the most of it is found the ground litter is too 

 damp to burn. The tree does not grow rapidly, but it usually occupies 

 lands which cannot be profitably devoted to agriculture, and it will, 

 therefore, be let alone until it reaches maturity. 



Tamarack is a familiar tree in parks, and it grows farther south than 

 its natural range extends. It is not as desirable a park tree as hemlock, 

 spruce, fir, the cedars, and some of the pines, because its foliage is thin in 

 summer and wanting in winter. It is in a class with cypress. In the 

 early spring, however, while its soft green needles are beginning to show 

 themselves in clusters along the twigs, its delicate and unusual appear- 

 ance attracts more attention than its companion trees which are always 

 in full leaf and for that reason are somewhat monotonous. 



