22 
FORESTS OF WISCONSIN. 
HEMLOCK. 
Hemlock is confined to the gravelly loam and clay lands of 
the more humid half of North Wisconsin and shares some of 
the peculiarities of the white pine growing within these limits. 
It is generally old timber with little indication of active repro¬ 
duction. Over wide areas only large old trees occur, and in 
many localities even these are gradually dying out. Wherever 
the forest is partly cleared, where considerable pine is removed, 
the hardwoods cut out, clearings and roads opened, and also 
where fire has run, the hemlock with its shallow system of roots 
at once shows its great sensitiveness to any interference in the 
moisture of the soil, and all or at least most of the trees succumb. 
In this way a large proportion of the hemlock on the lighter 
gravelly loams of Price, Sawyer, Chippewa, and other counties 
has been killed. Much of the timber on heavier lands in the 
vicinity of pine slashings, etc., has also died and now furnishes 
great quantities of dead and fallen material for future fires, 
which in turn will decrease the supply of the much underesti¬ 
mated material. 
There is apparently no lack of seed, for like pine the hem¬ 
lock in 1897 was full of cones, and yet there is but very little 
reproduction of this tree. For miles no young growth of any 
size is seen, and the small trees, often mistaken for saplings, gen¬ 
erally prove to be runts,—suppressed individuals, often 150 and 
more years old. The only places where this tree still seems to 
hold its own are some of the wet “half-swamps” of the eastern 
part of this area. The young hemlock stands a great deal of 
shading and close crowding, but grows slowly both in height and 
thickness. The tree does not clean itself well of its branches, 
rarely forks, forms a more tapering trunk than the pines and 
does not attain their dimensions. In the southern part of its 
area and on the heavier soils it grows to a height of 85 to 100 
feet, with a diameter of 24 to 30 inches; in the northern counties 
and on the lighter gravels it is usually both shorter and smaller, 
frequently not over 60 feet high and under 20 inches in diameter. 
