AMERICAN FOREST TREES 189 



The wood of hemlock is light, soft, not strong, brittle, coarse and 

 crooked grained, difficult to work, liable to windshake, splinters badly, 

 not durable. The summerwood of the annual ring is conspicuous; and 

 the thin medullary rays are numerous. The color of hemlock heartwood 

 is light brown, tinged with red, often nearly white. The sapwood is 

 darker. Lumbermen recognize two varieties, red and white, but botan- 

 ists do not recognize them. 



The physical characters of hemlock are nearly all unfavorable, yet 

 it has become a useful and widely used wood. It is largely manufactured 

 into coarse lumber and used for outside work railway ties, joists, raf- 

 ters, sheathing, plank walks, laths, etc. It is rarely used for inside 

 finishing, owing to its brittle and splintery character. Clean boards 

 made into panels or similar work and finished in the natural color often 

 present a very handsome appearance, owing to the peculiar pinkish tint 

 of the wood, ripening and improving with age. 



With the growing scarcity of white and Norway pine, hemlock has 

 become the natural substitute for these woods for many purposes. It 

 has never been conceded that hemlock possesses the intrinsic merit of 

 either of the northern pines for structural purposes, but it has proven a 

 suitable substitute for a variety of uses, notably for framing and sheath- 

 ing of medium priced structures. 



In 1910 hemlock lumber was cut in twenty-one states, the total 

 output exceeding 2,500,000,000 feet. Only four species or groups of 

 species exceeded it in amount. They were southern yellow pines, 

 Douglas fir, the oaks, and white pine. The principal cut of hemlock 

 lumber was in the following states in the order named: Wisconsin, 

 Michigan, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York, Maine, Vermont, 

 Virginia, New Hampshire, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Ten other 

 states produced smaller amounts. 



Hemlock possesses remarkable holding power on nails and spikes, 

 and that is one reason for its large use for railroad ties. It does not easily 

 split, and there is no likelihood that spikes will work loose; but the wood 

 decays quickly in damp situations, and unless given preservative treat- 

 ment, hemlock ties do not last long. They are pretty soft anyway, and 

 where traffic is heavy, rails cut them badly. 



Manufacturers of boxes and crates use much hemlock. The annual 

 use for that purpose in Massachusetts is about 27,000,000 feet, in Mich- 

 igan practically the same quantity, in Illinois 34,000,000, and varying 

 quantities in many other states. Michigan converts nearly 100,000,000 

 feet a year into flooring and other planing mill products, and Wisconsin 

 and other hemlock states follow it in lesser amounts. The wood is 

 employed by car builders, slack coopers, manufacturers oi relrigerators, 



