120 
WHITE CEDAR. 
27 inches long, from 4 to 6 inches broad, and 3 lines thick at the larger 
end : in the advertisements of Baltimore they are called Juniper shingles. 
At Philadelphia and Baltimore, they are generally preferred to those of 
Cypress, as they are larger and are free from the defects of splitting when 
nailed upon the rafters. The houses in those cities, as well as in New 
York and the smaller circumjacent towns, are covered with them; they 
usually last thirty or thirty-five years. The domestic consumption is great, 
and the exportation to the West Indies is estimated at several millions. 
The White Cedar has long since ceased to be employed for the frames 
of houses ; stocks of sufficient dimensions are rare, and are more profitably 
reserved for shingles and for other works of joinery, for which this species 
is superior to the White Pine, being still more durable and more secure 
from worms. It continues to be used in building only near the great 
swamps in which it abounds, as about Great-egg Harbor and Indian river, 
in New Jersey, and near the Dismal Swamp in Virginia. 
The superior fitness of this wood for various household utensils has given 
rise, in Philadelphia, to a distinct class of mechanics called Cedar coopers, 
and a great number of workmen are employed for the domestic and foreign 
market. They fabricate principally pails, wash-tubs and churns of different 
forms. This ware is cheap, light and neatly made ; and instead of becoming 
dull, like that of other wood, it grows whiter and smoother by use. The 
hoops are made of young Cedars stripped of the bark and split into two 
parts. The saplings are appropriated exclusively to this object, and vary 
in price, according to their length : the largest are 2 inches thick at the 
base and 11 or 12 feet long. 
At the mouth of the river Cape Fear, the pilots and fishermen cover 
the sides of their boats with clap-boards of White Cedar, which they 
prefer to those of Cypress, as being lighter, more durable, and less liable 
to split. 
I have been assured that this wood, selected with care, makes excellent 
sound-boards for forte-pianos The merchants of Philadelphia find it the 
best for preserving oils. Charcoal highly esteemed in the manufacture of 
gun-powder is made of young stocks about an inch and a half in diameter, 
deprived of their bark; and the seasoned wood affords beautiful lamp- 
black, lighter and more intensely colored, though less abundant, than that 
obtained from the Pine. 
In New Jersey, not far from Philadelphia, the farmers on the borders of 
the Cedar swamps employ this tree, for field-fence ; the rails, formed of 
young stocks entire or split in the middle, last from fifty to sixty years 
when deprived of the bark. 
Swamps which produce the White Cedar are a valuable species of 
property, and might be rendered more profitable by more judicious man- 
agement. 
