Part 15 (2/2)
Seeds often germinate in the moss on logs and stumps, but the roots strike for the ground, and generally reach it. In this habit the western hemlock resembles the yellow birch of the East whose seeds seem to germinate best on mossy logs and stumps.
Western hemlock has one of the bad habits of its eastern relative: it does not prune itself very well, even in dense forests, and the lumber is apt to be knotty, but the knots are usually sound, though dark in color.
The wood of western hemlock is moderately light, but twenty per cent heavier than eastern hemlock; stronger than the wood of other American hemlocks, and nearly twenty-five per cent stronger than the eastern commercial species, and nearly fifty per cent stiffer. It is tough and hard, but has little of the flinty texture of other hemlocks. Its color is pale brown, tinged with yellow, the thin sapwood nearly white. It is fairly durable in contact with the soil. Its growth is usually rapid, and trees live to a great age. Some of the largest are said to reach 800 years. The summerwood often const.i.tutes half of the yearly ring, and is dark yellow. The medullary rays are numerous and rather prominent. When cut radially, the appearance, size, and arrangement of the exposed medullary rays suggest those of sugar maple when exposed in the same way.
The annual sawmill output of western hemlock is about 170,000,000 feet.
The largest market for it is in the region where it grows, and it is used as rough lumber for ranch purposes and for buildings in towns; but a considerable quant.i.ty is further manufactured. About one-fourth of the entire sawmill output goes to the factories of Idaho, Was.h.i.+ngton, and Oregon. A list of the wood's princ.i.p.al uses in those states shows its intrinsic value. The largest quant.i.ty is demanded by box factories. The wood's nail-holding power commends it for that use, but of no less importance is its strength. Eighty-three per cent of all the wood used for boxes in Was.h.i.+ngton is western hemlock. Cooperage calls for much of this wood also. Fruit and vegetable barrels are made of it. Its place in furniture manufacture corresponds to that of the other hemlock in the East. The pulp business is not very extensive on the Pacific coast, but western hemlock is a respectable contributor. It is suitable for burial boxes, and probably ranks about third among the woods within its range, those used in larger amounts being Sitka spruce and western red cedar.
It is coming into use as interior finish, particularly as door and window frame material. Fixture manufacturers employ it for drawers and shelves. It is made into flooring, ceiling, molding, and wainscoting.
Door makers use a little of it as core material over which to glue veneers. It is made into veneer, but of the cheaper sorts, such as are suitable for crates and berry boxes.
The Pacific coast is so abundantly supplied with excellent softwoods that only those of good quality have any chance in the local markets.
The fact that western hemlock has won and is holding an important place in active compet.i.tion with such woods as western red cedar, yellow cedar, Sitka spruce, and Douglas fir, is proof that it is valuable material. It is winning its way in the central part of the United States also, but not as rapidly as it has won in the West.
The bark of western hemlock is rated high as a tanning material. The bark on young trees is thin, but as the trunks increase in size and age the bark thickens. It is richer in tannin than the bark of eastern hemlock, but is not so extensively used because the demand is less on the Pacific coast.
The future of the western hemlock is fairly well a.s.sured. Its range is extensive and varied, and lumbermen will be a long time in cutting the last of the present stand. Reproduction is satisfactory. It will be important in future forestry, when people will grow much of the timber they need; but this tree will stick pretty close to the range where nature planted it.
MOUNTAIN HEMLOCK (_Tsuga mertensiana_) is a near relative of western hemlock, and occupies the same geographical ranges but higher on the mountains. Near Sitka, Alaska, it occurs at sea level, but southward it rises higher until on the Sierra Nevada mountains in California it is 10,000 feet above sea level. It is one of the timber line trees in many parts of its range, though it is nowhere above all others. It is a difficult matter to state what its average size is. That depends upon the particular region considered. At its best it is 100 feet high or even more; at its poorest it sprawls on the rocks like a shrub.
Specimens of fair size are from twenty-five to sixty feet high, and ten to twenty inches in diameter. Cones vary in size fully as much as the trunks. Some are one-half inch in length, others are three inches. The leaves vary no less, some being a one-twelfth inch long, others one inch. The leaves stand out on all sides of the twig, and fall during the third and fourth years. They are bluish-green. The seeds fall in September and October, and are provided with large wings. The wood is light in weight, soft, and pale reddish-brown. The mountain hemlock is nearly always spoken of as spruce by persons who are not botanists. The arrangement of the leaves on the twigs gives the impression that it is a spruce, and among the names by which it is known in its native region are Williamson's spruce, weeping spruce, alpine spruce, hemlock spruce, Patton's spruce, and alpine western spruce. There is little prospect that this tree will ever become important as a source of lumber. It is nowhere very abundant, and what timber there is generally stands so remote from mills that little of it will ever be taken out. Botanists and mountain travelers who have made the acquaintance of the mountain hemlock in the wildness of its natural surroundings have spoken and written much in its praise. It has been called the loveliest cone-bearing tree of the American forest. That praise, however, applies only when the tree is at its best, with its broad, pyramidal crown, balanced and proportioned with geometrical accuracy, outlined against a background of rocks, peaks, snow, or sky. Its other form, prostrate and angular where the tree occurs on cold, bleak mountains, has never inspired praise from anybody, though its defiance of the elements and its persistence in spite of adversity, cannot but challenge the admiration of all who like a fair and square fighter. There are many intermediate forms. On mountains facing the Pacific, and at alt.i.tudes of 6,000 or 7,000 feet, the young hemlocks are buried under deep snow weeks or months at a time. They are pressed down by the weight of tons, and it might be supposed that not a whole branch would be left on them, and that the main stems would be deformed the rest of their lives. But when the early summer sun melts the snow, the young trees spring back to their former faultless forms, without a twig missing or a twisted branch.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
WESTERN YEW
[Ill.u.s.tration: WESTERN YEW]
WESTERN YEW
(_Taxus Brevifolia_)
The Pacific yew is an interesting tree, useful for many minor purposes, but it is not procurable in large quant.i.ties. Its north and south range covers more than 1,000 miles, from Alaska to central California; while the species occurs from the Pacific coast eastward to Montana. It approaches sea level on some of the Alaskan islands, and toward the southern part of its range it reaches an alt.i.tude of 8,000 feet.
In Idaho it is called mountain mahogany, but apparently without good reason. Its color may bear some resemblance to that wood, but it is different in so many particulars that the name is not appropriate. The names western yew and Pacific yew are used interchangeably. Sometimes it bears the simple name yew; but since there is a yew in Florida, and another in Europe, it is well to give the western species a name which will distinguish it from others. The northwestern Indians called it ”fighting wood,” which was the best description possible for them to give. They made bows of it, and it was superior to any other wood within their reach for that purpose. In fact, if they could have picked from all the woods of the United States they could scarcely have found its equal. It is very strong, though in elasticity its rating is under many other woods. It is of interest to note that five hundred or more years ago, the European yew (a closely related but different species) had nearly the same name in England that the northwestern Indians gave the western yew. It was called ”the shooter yew,” because it was the bow wood of that time, and ”bow staves,” which were rough pieces to be worked out by the bow makers, were articles of commerce. The search for it was so great, and so long-continued, that yew trees were well-nigh exterminated in the British Isles. It was, next to oak, and possibly above oak, the most indispensable wood in England at that time. It is instructive to observe that Indians who used the bow found the western yew as indispensable in their life as the English armies found the European yew at a time when the bow was the best weapon.
The northwestern Indians put this remarkable wood to other uses. They made spears of it, and sometimes employed them as weapons of war, but generally as implements of the chase, particularly in harpooning salmon which in summer ascend the northwestern rivers from the Pacific ocean in immense schools. The Indians whittled fishhooks of yew before they were able to buy steel hooks from traders. Some of those unique hooks are still in existence, and speak well of the inventive genius of the wild fisherman of the wilderness. A proper crook was selected where a branch joined the trunk, and serviceable fish hooks were made without any cross grain. They were strong enough to hold the largest fish that ascended the rivers. Sometimes a bone barb was skillfully inserted. The Indians found a further use for this wood as material for canoe paddles. It is so strong that handles can be made small and blades thin without pa.s.sing the limit of safety. The manufacture of boat paddles from yew continues.
More is used for fence posts than for any other one purpose. It is one of the most durable woods known where it must resist conditions conducive to decay. The name yew is said to be derived from a word in a north Europe language meaning everlasting. Yew fence posts are not named in statistics, and it is impossible to quote numbers. Their use is confined to the districts where they grow.
The manufacturers of small cabinets draw supplies from this wood, but the fact is not mentioned in Pacific states wood-using statistics. It is particularly liked for turnery, such as small spindles used in furniture and in grill work. It takes an exceptionally fine polish, and the wood's great strength makes the use of slender pieces practicable. Experiments have shown that this wood may be stained with success, but its natural color is so attractive that there is little need of staining unless the purpose is to imitate some more costly wood. If stained black it is an excellent subst.i.tute for ebony.
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