The Hemlocks 



adapt it for railroad ties and the large beams used in the frames 

 of houses and barns. Hemlock timbers are stiff, and the wood 

 has a firm grip on nails and spikes. The wood never loosens its 

 hold upon the nail, nor does it split in nailing. Hemlock is used 

 for the outside of cheap buildings, but it finds its greatest useful- 

 ness as the unseen props of a house, its faults covered up by woods 

 of more uniform and attractive appearance. 



The bark of hemlock abounds in tannin, which makes it a 

 standard tan bark. It is not uncommon to see young hemlock 

 woods felled and stripped for the bark alone. The waste of the 

 wood is very bad forestry, but as hemlock is poor fuel, and ugly to 

 saw and split, sometimes cordwood costs more to cut and haul 

 than it brings in market. If the trees were left to attain proper 

 age for mill stufl', the lumber would be salable, and there would be 

 a much larger crop of bark. 



The logs are cut for tan bark only in the summer. The bark 

 "slips" from May until August. After that, peeling is impos- 

 sible. The logs are girdled every four feet from the butt well 

 up into the tops. Two or three cuts are made at equal distances r ^ j 



apart, lengthwise of the trunk. This makes of each four-foot S ,-X*- 

 cylinder of bark two or three rectangular sheets, easily removed 

 with a special bark-peeling tool. The sheets are stacked on end 

 to dry, and are later laid in solid four-foot piles to be measured 

 by the cord. The hemlock bark is usually mixed with some oak 

 bark at the tanneries. A side of sole leather tanned with hemlock 

 alone is a brighter red than is desired. The oak darkens it. Dye / 

 works consume some hemlock bark in making certain shades of 

 brown. -i 1 



I Oil of hemlock is distilled from the leaves. "Canada pitch^l^ 

 formerly much used as a drug, is extracted frord leaves and knots. 

 In the practice of the Indians, the bark of young hemlocks, boiled 

 and pounded to a paste, made a poultice for sores and wounds. 

 Josselyn noted also: "The turpentine thereof is singularly good to 

 heal wounds and to draw out the malice of any Ach, rubbing the 

 place therewith." The antiseptic action of the oil and resin was 

 recognised then as now. 



The Carolina Hemlock {Tsuga Caroliniana, Engelm.) 

 occurs most abundantly about the headwaters of the Savannah 

 River in South Carolina. It grows on the mountains from Vir- 

 ginia into Georgia, and was long confused with the common 



75 





