AMERICAN FOREST TREES 663 



cordwood; and tanbark peelers cut the trees for the thin, papery bark. 

 In that case the trunks are left to decay, unless they happen to be con- 

 venient to a cordwood market. 



One of the most extensive uses for the wood of madrona is for 

 charcoal burning. Blacksmiths buy it because it is cheaper than coal, 

 and some is used in shops where soldering and welding are done ; but the 

 most exacting demand comes from gunpowder manufacturers. They 

 find this wood almost equal to alder and willow as a source of charcoal 

 suitable for powder. 



MEXICAN MADRONA (Arbutus xalapensis) might properly be called 

 Texas madrona as it occurs in that state and probably in no other, but 

 its range extends southward into Mexico. It produces a poorly shaped 

 trunk seldom much more than twenty feet high and one foot in diameter, 

 and usually divided into several branches near the ground. It blooms 

 in March and ripens its fruit in midsummer. The tree is found on dry 

 limestone hills, and in the valley of the Rio Blanco, and among the Eagle 

 mountains. Cabinet makers in Texas put the wood to rather exacting 

 uses after they have carefully seasoned it to overcome its natural ten- 

 dency to check. It is very hard ; its color is a little lighter than apple- 

 wood which it resembles; annual rings are scarcely visible, so regular and 

 even is the year's growth. In Texas the wood is made into plane stocks, 

 tool handles, and mathematical instruments. 



ARIZONA MADRONA (Arbutus arizonica) has a restricted range on 

 the Santa Catalina and Santa Rita mountains of southern Arizona, where 

 it ascends to an altitude of 8,000 feet The species extends southward 

 into Mexico. The largest trees attain a height of fifty feet and a 

 diameter of two. Trunks are usually straight and shapely, and show 

 the thin, red bark common to the genus. The wood resembles that of 

 the species in Texas, and doubtless is suited to the same purposes, but no 

 utilization of it has been reported, except for fuel, and for fences and 

 sheds on mountain ranches. When the region becomes more thickly 

 settled, the value of the wood will be appreciated. 



MANZANITA (Arctostaphylos manzaniia) is not generally welcomed by botanists 

 into the tree class. They say it is too small; but it is as large as some of the laurels 

 which go as trees without question, and is shaped much like them. There are several 

 species of manzanita. The word is Spanish and means "little apple." The name 

 is natural, for one of the most noticeable things about manzanita is the fruit, the size 

 of well-grown huckleberries. It is shaped like an apple, and its tart taste suggests 

 that fruit. The Digger Indians along the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains in 

 California gather the berries by the sack, dry them, and keep them for winter if 

 they can. It is often impossible to keep them because, like other fruit, they are apt 

 to become wormy. When the Indians discover them in that condition they display 

 rare thrift and economy for savages, by soaking the fruit and pressing out the juke, 

 which is said to pass for a pretty fair quality of cider, but it must be quickly coo- 



