204 THE HEMLOCKS 



Oak (Quercus prinus^), and the Pacific Coast species con- 

 tains more than the Eastern ones do. 



EASTERN HEMLOCK 



THE two Eastern species are respectively named " Hem- 

 lock" (Tsuga canadensis) and "Carolina Hemlock" 

 (Tsuga caroliniana). In spite of the name of canadensis 

 for the northern one, it is no more common in Canada than 

 in the United States, nor as much so. Doubtless the states 

 of Maine and Pennsylvania once possessed as much as all 

 Canada, to say nothing of what grew in other states. 



There is little need of an elaborate or extended descrip- 

 tion of either of the Eastern species, they are substan- 

 tially alike or to designate the best methods of reproduction, 

 for as timber trees they are practically doomed to extinc- 

 tion. While the lumber produced from them is not of a 

 high grade when compared with the Spruces and Pines, 

 yet the growing scarcity of these has caused Hemlock to 

 become better and more favorably known, and for the last 

 thirty-five or forty years vast quantities of it have been 

 consumed for many purposes, latterly bringing high prices 

 Added to its use as a timber tree is the value of its bark, 

 for tanning, and the further use for the wood for pulp, 

 it ranking next to Spruce for that purpose, and all 

 conspire to hasten the day of its departure. They are slow 

 growers and the most difficult of all the coniferous timber 

 trees to transplant successfully. Like all others it must be 

 grown in dense stands to compel it to drop its limbs, and 

 where so grown it is very sensitive to any interference by 

 man. Old lumbermen well understand that fact. Even cut- 

 ting down a few trees among them will cause the death of 

 near neighbors. 



The wood of the Eastern Hemlocks is hard, much given 

 to " wind shakes," is generally cross-grained, splits easily, 

 warps when seasoning, and much of it is filled with large 

 knots which are so hard as to break any but the best of 



