AMERICAN FOREST TREES 123 



The bark is thin and exhibits cedar's characteristic stringiness. It 

 is shed in thin strips. 



The wood is moderately light, and is strong and stiff. It is prob- 

 ably the hardest of the cedars, and the grain is so regular that high polish 

 is possible. Under favorable circumstances trees grow with fair rapidity, 

 but when conditions are unfavorable, as on high mountains where 

 summers are short and winters severe, growth is remarkably slow, and 

 twenty years or more may be required for one inch increase in trunk 

 diameter. The wood of such trees is hard, dense, and strong. 



The grain of yellow cedar is usually straight. The bands of sum- 

 merwood are narrow, the annual rings are indistinct, and an attempt to 

 count them is often attended with considerable difficulty. The wood is 

 easily worked, satiny, susceptible of a beautiful polish, and possesses an 

 agreeable resinous odor. The heartwood is bright, clear yellow, and the 

 thin sapwood is a little lighter in color. In common with all other 

 cedars, yellow cedar resists decay many years. Logs which have lain in 

 damp woods half a century remain sound inside the sapwood. Some- 

 times fallen timber in that region is quickly buried under deep beds of 

 moss which preserves it from decay much longer than if the logs lie 

 exposed to alternate dampness and dryness. 



Statistics of sawmill operations in the Northwest do not distinguish 

 between the different cedars, and the cut of yellow cedar is unknown. 

 It is considerable, but of course not to be compared with the more 

 abundant western red cedar. Statistics of uses are as meager as of the 

 lumber output. In Washington the factories which use wood as raw 

 material report only 7,500 feet of yellow cedar a year. Doubtless much 

 more than that is used, but under other names. There is no occasion to 

 disguise this wood under other names. It has a striking individuality 

 and deserves a place of its own. In some respects it is one of the best 

 woods of the Pacific Northwest. In nearly every situation where it has 

 been tried, it has been found satisfactory. Its rich yellow presents a 

 fine appearance in furniture and interior finish, and the polish which it 

 takes surpasses that possible with any other cedar, with the probable 

 exception of some of the scarce, high mountain junipers. It has been 

 used for pyrography and patterns, two hard places to fill, and for which 

 few woods are suitable. Indians long ago in Alaska learned that it was 

 the best material for boat paddles which their forests afforded. It 

 possesses the requisite stiffness and strength, and it wears to a smooth- 

 ness almost like ebony. Boat factories have many uses for the wood, 

 decking, railing, and interior finish being among the most important. It 

 is said to be a satisfactory substitute for Spanish cedar in the manu- 

 facture of cigar boxes, but its use for that purpose is not yet large. 



