Than the Northern?-By wilhelm Miller, ?:.: 



PACT, WITH A BETTER HEAD WHEN OLD. SOFTER AND 

 AGE, AND IS ABSOLUTELY HARDY IN NEW ENGLAND 



I 



Again, the Southern tree looks better 

 clothed, by which I mean that the branches 

 have leaves not merely at their tips, but 

 well back toward the trunk. Apparently 

 the old needles can stand denser shade. 

 For the Southern hemlock holds its 

 needles five years before dropping them, 

 while the Northern holds its needles only 

 three years. The longer an evergreen 

 holds its needles, the richer the mass 

 effect; witness the Oriental spruce which 

 holds its needles for seven years! 



For all these reasons I should like to 

 see one or more perfect specimens of 

 Carolina hemlock on every Northern 

 estate, and groups of them everywhere 



in the Southern Appalachians and the 

 Piedmont country. But I should not 

 like to see the Southern hemlock more 

 commonly planted in the North than the 

 Northern one, or vice versa. Let each 

 region multiply its own characteristic 

 trees until they dominate the landscape 

 and fill it with local color. 



Ard, mind you, I say nothing against 

 Northern hemlock. We ought to plant 

 millions of hemlocks for their beauty. 

 Nothing gives so deep a sense of comfort 

 to the Northern landscape in winter as 

 white pine and hemlock. White pine 

 is more virile and cheerful, but hemlock 

 has a certain feminine grace which we 





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The Northern hemlock (Tsuga Catiadcnsis) and the white pine are the two most precious native ever- 

 green trees for ornamental planting in the North. Hemlock often thrives where white pine fails 



215 



Northern hemlock 



cannot afford to miss. Moreover, the 

 insect and other enemies of white pine 

 are multiplying at an alarming rate, 

 while good old hemlock seems better able, 

 on the whole, to withstand the pests. 



Thousands of people believe that hem- 

 lock furnishes the best evergreen hedge 

 we can have for American gardens and 

 grounds. And it certainly has some- 

 thing of the spirit of an English yew hedge. 

 But I should never plant a herrtlock hedge 

 again, for I believe that Japanese yew 

 (Taxus cuspidata) is bound to displace 

 it eventually as a garden hedge. 



We need more hemlocks in this world! 

 We need them for the year round beauty 

 of their feathery sprays, for the shelter 

 and cheer they give in winter, for their 

 exquisite new growth in spring, for their 

 music and motion in the summer breezes, 

 for their warm red bark in winter, and for 

 the inspiration which every tree gives as 

 it assumes grander proportions. '' 



As to height the Northern hemlock has 

 the advantage, as it usually grows 60 to 

 70 feet high, while the Southern usually 

 grows 40 to 50 feet high. Occasionally a 

 Northern hemlock will attain 100 feet, 

 while the extreme height for a Southern 

 hemlock is about 70 feet. The trunk of 

 a Northern hemlock will sometimes be four 

 feet in diameter, while the maximum for the 

 Southern is about two feet. 



The chief reason why the hemlock has 

 occupied an important place in the land- 

 scape during the last half century is that 

 its wood was long considered too poor for 

 timber. Sargent says it is " light, soft, not 

 strong, brittle, coarse-grained, difficult to 

 work, liable to windshake and splinter, and 

 not durable when ex-posed to the air." But 

 even hemlock brings a high price now and 

 people are selling their finest specimens to 

 the lumbermen. 



