RED CEDAR LORE 281 



tion that the best pencil wood is obtained. The 

 demand long ago outstripped the supply and the 

 great old trees that were peculiarly prized for the 

 work have in the main passed. These trees seem 

 to ripen and mellow after passing maturity and 

 the wood from their red hearts has a peculiar 

 texture which makes it highly desirable for pencil 

 wood. Only the higher priced pencils now cut 

 in that smooth, cheesy, delightful fashion when 

 being sharpened. The cheaper ones have the 

 knots and inequalities in the wood which show 

 them to have been taken from younger and im- 

 mature trees. Half a million cubic feet of the 

 best quality of red cedar was once used annually 

 from these wSouthern forests in this country, and 

 nearly a hundred thousand feet of it was ex- 

 ported. A generation ago one of the world's 

 great pencil manufacturers, L. von Faber, estab- 

 lished a red cedar forest in Germany to see what 

 could be done to artificially supply the demand 

 for the vanishing wood. In 1875 ^^ set young 

 trees a foot and a half in height over an extensive 

 ^rea. At the end of the century these trees had 

 attained a height of twelve feet and were grow- 

 ing thriftily. But as the trees have to be nearly 



