8 
is a great satisfaction to know that it was averted. The only 
dangers to which the forest can now be exposed are vandalism or 
the thoughtless starting of fires, and these it is earnestly sought 
to prevent by frequent patrolling, but the number of people in the 
community bent on mischief would be a surprise to you all if it 
could be accurately estimated. To further ensure the safety of 
the forest, it will doubtless be necessary to adopt measures look- 
ing toward the restriction of travel through it to well defined 
lines, by indicating the existing paths and trails; the thin soil and 
the consequent proximity of the tree roots to the surface cause 
indiscriminate tramping over them by multitudes to be undesir- 
able. The parks and gardens of the Bronx are already visited 
by considerable numbers of people, but when these numbers are 
very largely increased, as they certainly will be, the policing prob- 
lem, already acute, will become far more serious. 
The hemlock: spruce is one of the most beautiful of American 
evergreen trees, the delicate graceful spread or slight droop of its 
twigs being quite characteristic of it as compared with its relatives 
the firs and true spruces, and the density of its shade is unexcelled. 
The trunk rises as a noble column, sometimes attaining a height 
of 110 feet with a diameter just above the base of four feet; 
growing undisturbed and not crowded by other trees, its lower 
branches clothe the trunk quite to the ground, but such magnifi- 
cent specimens are seldom seen, because it is typically a tree of 
groves and forests, and one half or two thirds of the trunk is 
usually bare of branches; the reddish bark, sometimes tinged with 
purple, becomes three fourths of an inch thick, that of old trees 
ridged and furrowed; the inner layers of the bark are astringent, 
and it is used in large amounts for tanning leather, sometimes 
mixed with oak bark; it is the most important economic pro uct 
or the plant, many thousands of trees being annually felled in the 
northern states and Canada for this purpose; a fluid extract of the 
bark is used in pharmacy as an astringent. The wood is light in 
weight, its specific gravity when entirely dry being only 0.42, 4 
cubic foot of it weighing but twenty-six pounds; it is light brow” 
or nearly white in color, soft, weak, coarse-grained, and not very 
durable. It furnishes a coarse and cheap lumber largely used as 
boards in building houses and other structures, and for some 
other special purposes ; it contains a resin known as Canada pitch, 
obtained by boiling the wood and bark especially taken from the 
round knots, which was formerly used in pharmacy as the basis of 
plasters, but it is not now utilized to any considerable extent. The 
leaves are small and narrow, averagiz¢ a little more than half an 
