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 no 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 product 

 oi 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. a 

 cubic foot of it weighing but twenty-six pounds ; it is light brown 

 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, averaging a little more than half an 



