CHAPTER XII. 
THE AMERICAN ARBOR-VITZ. 
Its Northern Home.—Its Favorite Soil.—Its Attainable Height and 
Size.—Uses and Properties of its Wood.—Its Ornamental Advan- 
tages.—Manner of Planting Explained.—Its Varieties.—Important 
Varieties.—Its Medicinal Properties. 
Tuis tree is quite common in the northern section of 
the United States and the Dominion of Canada, but is 
only found in the more southern portions of the coun- 
try as a green-house tree, and then only in a very puny, 
sickly state. It grows best in swamps, on the rocky banks 
of streams, borders of rivers, ponds, etc. It usually reach- 
es to the height of from fifty to sixty feet, with a diam- 
eter of from eighteen to twenty inches. In the neigh- 
borhood of the Great Lakes it is called the white cedar, 
but the name arbor-vite being more appropriate, I pre- 
fer to use it. The wood of this tree is light, soft, and 
very elastic, and withstands the changes of weather for 
a great number of years ; it is frequently used for posts, 
rails, telegraph-poles, etc., many of which have been 
known to last for from sixty to seventy years. It isa 
very ornamental hedge-tree, and bears training and prun- 
ing to any extent, so much so that trees that have been 
trained and pruned with compact foliage keep a much 
more ornamental appearance than those of more open 
foliage. For hedge-planting, plant the trees eighteen or 
twenty inches apart in single rows; for a wind-break 
plant from thirty to forty inches apart in a double row, 
and plant in such a way that the trees of the back row 
fill the spaces between the trees of the front row. Al 
