V. 1. THE RED BIRCH. 209 
This tree is found growing abundantly on Spicket River and 
in neighboring swamps in Methuen. It is there called the river 
birch. As fuel, it is said to be nearly equal to hickory, and the 
tree is of very rapid growth. The wood is close-grained and 
very hard, and, when kept dry, very durable. It has not been 
much used in the arts. Yokes have been made of it, which 
are excellent, except that they are apt to crack from exposure 
to the sun; which defect may be obviated by water-seasoning. 
The trees are usually about a foot in diameter and fifty feet 
high. One measured five feet two inches in circumference, and 
appeared to be sixty feet high. 
The younger Michaux assumes the banks of a small river in 
New Jersey, ten miles from New York, as the northern limit 
of this birch. He found it abundant in Virginia and North 
Carolina, but rarely more than two or three feet in diameter 
and seventy feet high. It would probably flourish as well 
in Massachusetts as in either of those States, as its growth 
is very luxuriant in the limited region to which it seems to be 
here confined. ‘The seed-bearing cones are said to be ripe in 
June. 
Michaux says that the wood is pretty compact and nearly 
white, and presents the peculiarity, hke that of the June berry, 
of being longitudinally marked with red vessels, intersecting 
each other in different directions. The negroes make bowls 
and trays of the wood, and, of the young stocks and of branches 
not exceeding an inch in diameter, hoops, particularly for rice 
casks. In Philadelphia, its twigs are made into brooms for 
streets and court-yards. A similar use is made of the twigs of 
the gray birch in some parts of New England. 
The red birch might be easily propagated along the streams 
of every part of New England, and would serve the same pur- 
pose as the alders, in preventing the washing away of the 
banks, while it would form a still more beautiful fringe, and 
furnish a useful growth for fuel, and for the arts. 
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