434 ON THE FOREST-TREES OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 



give an idea of the extent of land that might be thus turned to account, it 

 may he stated that upwards of 8,000 square kilometres, now lying waste, 

 might he cultivated with cotton in the southern continental provinces 

 alone. Of these 8,000 square kilometres, or 800,000 hectares, if only one- 

 third were cultivated annually with cotton there would he a produce of 

 100,000 tons, or about 550,000 bales. 



South Carolina produces 500,000 bales of cotton, with a population of 

 715,000 inhabitants. In Italy there is no want either of inhabitants or land 

 to commence at once an extensive cultivation of cotton, which might, 

 perhaps, prevent the recurrence of one of the most fearful commercial 

 crises which could take place, and possibly not a little contribute to the 

 solution of that vital problem of modern civilization — the abolition of 

 slavery in the United States. 



THE FOREST-TREES OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 



BY D. R. MUNRO. 



Tamarac {Larix Americana). — Among the many trees found in the 

 forest of New Brunswick, there are none more valuable to the ship-builder 

 than the tamarac, otherwise known as larch, hacmatac, or juniper. 



Trees of this description are very numerous in all parts of the province, 

 and attain to an altitude of, and in many cases exceed, eighty feet, while it 

 is from eight to eleven feet in circumference at the base. 



At the present time there can be seen an immense number of very fine 

 tamarac trees stored by Messrs. Gass, Stewart, and Co., in their extensive 

 ship -building yard at the port of St. John, which square upwards of two 

 feet five inches, with sap-wood hewed off ; many of them exceed fifty-six 

 feet in length, and square two feet at the extreme end. 



The wood of the tamarac is of a dark cast, and is generally considerd to 

 be durable, easy to work, and soon seasoned. It is used in the foundations 

 of wharves, buildings, and other structures ; it is also very valuable for 

 railway sleepers, water pipes, or drains, planking for ships, treenail fastening, 

 keelsons, beams, knees, hooks, bitts, stem and stern posts, aprons, knight 

 heads, hawse timbers, foothooks, top timbers, also for rising floors in the 

 fore and after ends of ships, for which purpose the root of this tree is highly 

 prized, it being easily obtained of an acute or obtuse angle. It may be well 

 to remark that these roots meet with a ready sale in the United States and 

 other markets, and they should not fail to attract the attention of the naval 

 authorities in England, as they form, when properly converted, any desired 

 curve, for ships' bodies or bilges. 



Tamarac trees of the largest size are not now so plentiful as in former 

 years, except inland, where the forests are most dense ; thus the labour and 



