Читать книгу American Forest Trees - Henry H. Gibson - Страница 29

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This widely distributed tree is called red cedar in New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Ontario; cedar in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, South Carolina, Kentucky, Illinois, Iowa, and Ohio; savin in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania and Minnesota; juniper in New York and Pennsylvania; juniper bush in Minnesota; cedre in Louisiana.

The names as given above indicate the tree’s commercial range. It appears as scattered growth and in doubtful forms outside of that range, particularly in the West where several cedars closely resemble the red cedar, yet differ sufficiently from it to give them places as separate species in the lists of some botanists. They are so listed by the United States Forest Service; and the following names are given: Western Juniper, Rocky Mountain Juniper, One Seed Juniper, Mountain Juniper, California Juniper, Utah Juniper, Drooping Juniper, Dwarf Juniper, and Alligator Juniper. These species are not of much importance from the lumberman’s viewpoint, yet they are highly interesting trees, and in this book will be treated individually.

The red cedar grows slowly, and thrives in almost any soil and situation except deep swamps. It is often classed as a poor-land species, yet it does not naturally seek poor land. That it is often found in such situations is because it has been crowded from better places by stronger trees, and has retreated to rocky ridges, dry slopes, and thin soils where competitors are unable to follow. The trees often stand wide apart or solitary, yet they can grow in thickets almost impenetrable, as they do in Texas and other southern states. It is an old-field tree in much of its range. Birds plant the seeds, particularly along fence rows. That is why long lines of cedars may often be seen extending across old fields or deserted plantations.

The extreme size attained by this cedar is four feet in diameter, and one hundred in height, but that size was never common, and at present the half of it is above the average. That which reaches market is more often under than over eighteen inches in diameter. The reddish-brown and fibrous bark may be peeled in long strips. Stringiness of bark is characteristic of all the cedars, and typical of red cedar.

The wood is medium light and is strong, considering that it is very brittle. Tests show it to be eighty per cent as strong as white oak. The grain is very fine, even, and homogeneous, except as interfered with by knots. The annual rings are narrow, the summerwood narrow and indistinct; medullary rays numerous but very obscure. The color is red, the thin sapwood nearly white. The heart and sap are sometimes intermingled, and this characteristic is prominent in the closely-related western species of red cedar. The wood is easily worked, gives little trouble because of warping and shrinking, and the heart is considered as durable as any other American wood. It has a delicate, agreeable fragrance, which is especially marked. This odor is disagreeable to insects, and for that reason chests and closets of cedar are highly appreciated as storage places for garments subject to the ravages of the moth and buffalo bug. An extract from the fruit and leaves is used in medicine, while oil of red cedar, distilled from the wood, is used in making perfume. Cedar has a sweet taste. It burns badly, scarcely being able to support a flame; it is exceedingly aromatic and noisy when burning and the embers glow long in still air. Some of the bungalow owners in Florida buy cedar fuel in preference to all others for burning in open fireplaces.

Its representative uses are for posts, railway ties, pails, sills, cigar boxes, interior finish and cabinet making, but its most general use is in the manufacture of lead pencils, for which its fine, straight grain and soft texture are peculiarly adapted. The farther south cedar is found, the softer and clearer it is. In the North, in ornamental trees, it is very hard, slow-growing, and knotty. It shows but a small percentage of clear lumber. In eastern Tennessee there were considerable quantities of red cedar brake that were for years considered of little value. About the only way the wood was employed a few years ago was in fence rails and posts, fuel, and charcoal. Of late people in localities where cedar grows in any abundance have awakened to its value, and cedar fences are rapidly disappearing, owing to the high prices now paid for the wood, and the excellent demand. On no other southern wood has such depredation been practiced. Because of its lightness and the ease with which it can be worked, it has been used for purposes for which other and less valuable woods were well adapted. On account of its slow growth, its complete exhaustion has often been predicted, but a second growth has appeared which, though much inferior to the virgin timber, can be used in many ways to excellent advantage. Instead of the huge piles of cedar flooring, chest boards, and smooth railings of the old days, one now sees at points of distribution great piles of knotty, rough poles, ten to forty feet long, which years ago would have been discarded. Today they represent bridge piling, the better and smoother among them being used for telephone and telegraph poles.

Middle Tennessee has produced more red cedar than any other part of the United States, but the bulk of production has been confined to a few counties, which produce a higher class and more aromatic variety of wood than that found elsewhere. A century ago these counties abounded in splendid forests of cedar. The early settlers built their cabins of cedar logs, sills, studding, and rafters; their smoke houses were built of them; their barns; even the roofs were shingled with cedar and the rooms and porches floored with the sweet-scented wood. Not many years ago trees three feet or more in diameter were often found, but the days are past when timber like that can be had anywhere.

Although the most general use at the present time is for lead pencils, few people who sharpen one and smell the fragrant wood, stop to wonder where it came from. One would smile were it suggested to him that perhaps his pencil was formerly part of some Tennessee farmer’s worm fence. The best timber obtained now is hewn into export logs and shipped to Europe, particularly Germany, where a great quantity is converted into pencils. The red wood is made into the higher grades and the sap or streaked wood is used for the cheaper varieties and for pen holders. The smaller and inferior logs are cut into slats, while odds and ends, cutoffs, etc., are collected and sold by the hundred pounds to pencil factories. There are many such factories in the United States now, as well as in Europe, and pencil men are scouring the cedar sections to buy all they can. The farmer who has a red cedar picket or worm fence can sell it to these companies at a round price. Pencil men are even going back over tracts from which the timber was cut twenty-five years ago, buying up the stumps. When the wood was plentiful lumbermen were not frugal, and usually cut down a tree about two feet above the ground, allowing the best part of it to be wasted.

The German and Austrian pencil makers foresaw a shortage in American red cedar, and many years ago planted large areas to provide for the time of scarcity. The planted timber is now large enough for use, but the wood has been a disappointment. It does not possess the softness and brittleness which give so high value to the forest cedar of this country. As far as can be seen, when present pencil cedar has been exhausted, there will be little more produced of like grade. It grows so slowly that owners will not wait for trees to become old, but sell them while young for posts and poles.

One of the earliest demands for red cedar was for woodenware made of staves, such as buckets, kegs, keelers, small tubs, and firkins. Material for the manufacture of such wares was among the exports to the West Indies before the Revolutionary war. The ware was no less popular in this country, and the home-made articles were in all neighborhoods in the red cedar’s range. Scarcity of suitable wood limits the manufacture of such wares now, but they are still in use.

Cedar was long one of the best woods for skiffs and other light boats, and it was occasionally employed in shipbuilding for the upper parts of vessels. A little of it is still used as trim and finish, particularly for canoes, motor boats, and yachts.

The early clothes chest makers selected clear lumber, because it could be had and was considered to be better; but modern chest manufacturers who cannot procure clear stock, make a merit of necessity, and use boards filled with knots. The wood is finished with oils, but the natural colors remain, and the knots give the chest a rustic and pleasing appearance.

Southern Red Juniper (Juniperus barbadensis) so closely resembles the red cedar with which it is associated that the two were formerly considered the same species, and most people familiar with both notice no difference. However, botanists clearly distinguish the two. The southern red cedar’s range is much smaller than the other’s. It grows from Georgia to the Indian river, Florida, in swamps. It is found in the vicinity of the Apalachicola river, forming dense thickets. Its average size is much under that of the red cedar, but its wood is not dissimilar. It has been used for the same purposes as far as it has been used at all. One of the largest demands upon it has been for lead pencils. Those who bought and sold it, generally supposed they were dealing in the common red cedar.