190 AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



silos, and farm implements; but the largest demand comes from those 

 who use the rough lumber. 



Hemlock bark is the most important tanning material in this 

 country. It has long been used by leather makers who generally mix it 

 with some other bark or extract because leather tanned with hemlock 

 alone has a redder color than is desired. 



Large areas of hemlock forests have been cut for the bark alone. 

 Formerly the wood was of so little value that it was cheaper to leave it in 

 the forest than to take it out. The peelers worked in early summer, 

 cutting trees and removing the bark in four-foot lengths, which was 

 measured by the cord, though often sold by weight. Care was taken 

 that the bark be removed from the slashings before the dry weather of 

 autumn, for fire was to be expected then, and anything combustible in 

 the woods at that time was likely to be lost. The tracts on which bark 

 peelers worked were called "slashings," and they were fire traps of the 

 worst kind with their tangled masses of tops and branches. 



Large quantities of hemlock bark are still peeled every summer, 

 but the practice is less destructive than formerly. The trunks are worth 

 taking out, and when the fire comes late in the season it consumes little 

 valuable hemlock. A permanent decline in the annual production of this 

 wood has not yet begun, but it must soon set in, for the demand cannot be 

 indefinitely met. 



