Birnam Wood

“ Foliage of the Ironwood is dense and evergreen, and the wood is very heavy and so hard that it cannot be worked with ordinary tools. When thoroughly dry, it makes high-quality firewood, and as a result it has been cut and removed over much of the desert, hence mature trees are becoming relatively scarce. Indians used the wood for arrow points and as tool handles. ”

“ The durability of the red timber of this tree was supposed by Brindley, the celebrated engineer, to be as great as that of the oak; and some of it, grown in the north Highlands, is reported to have been as fresh and full of resin after having been three hundred years in the roof of an old castle, as newly-imported timber from Memel.
The red wood timber of the Scottish forests, similar, in every respect, to the best Baltic Pine, is the produce of trees that have numbered from one to two or more centuries. ”

“ As a timber-tree the hornbeam is more esteemed on the Continent than in this country. It grows readily in stiff soils, particularly on the sides of hills; and is easily transplanted. The wood, which is white, hard, and tough, is used by turners; and is wrought into cogs for mill-wheels, screw-presses, the heads of beetles, handles of working tools, and other instruments and machinery in which great strength is required. As fuel it is preferred, on account of its readier inflammability, to most other kinds of wood. The inner bark is used, in some countries, for dyeing yellow. ”

“ We like the smell of this aromatic forest timber, and its clear flame. The birch is also a sweet wood for the hearth, with a sort of spiritual flame and an even temper,—no snappishness. Some prefer the elm, which holds fire so well; and I have a neighbor who uses nothing but apple-tree wood,—a solid, family sort of wood, fragrant also, and full of delightful suggestions. But few people can afford to burn up their fruit trees. ”

“ The beautiful dog-wood's sweeping sprays and broad leaves, the maiden-hairs glossy wreathes and pearly buds, and the soft emerald moss, clothing the old fallen trees with its velvet tapestry, and hiding their decay with its cool rich beauty, while the sun light falls in golden tracery down the birch trees silver trunk, and the sparkling water flashes in the rays, or sings on its sweet melody unseen amid the luxuriant vegetation that conceals it. ”

“ On the left was a birch wood, with a rare purple bloom upon its leafless boughs, like the purple of far hills at sunset. Here and there a dead birch stem glimmered white against the dark. And about the feet of the bare trees was a wealth of colour almost more marvellous still—the rich brown, lustrous velvet of mosses and dead leaves, the fiery red of withered brake fern, beaten down by wind and rain. Below the wood, on a little island in the river, was a group of old Scotch firs, with the water gleaming white between the ruddy branches. ”

“ Tuesday grazed a few yards away; the vale lay green and peaceful in the sunlight; and from the pine woods, where that hideous cry had lifted in the night, came now only the gentle murmur of the breeze in the massed foliage. By contrast with the chill horror of the night, the scene was positively exhilarating; and Marion rose to her work with hope throbbing through every vein, and courage singing along every nerve of her body.
First she fetched wood to renew the fire, now only a heap of smouldering embers. ”

“ The proper sap differs considerably in different trees; it is always less liquid, and contains a much greater proportion of vegetable matter than the common sap. It is very probable that trees of the same kind produce proper sap of different qualities in different climates.
Woody Fibre may be considered the storehouse of the perfected secretions. It is well known that as trees advance in life, the wood assumes a darker colour, and more particularly that lying near to the centre of the stem. ”

“ The development of the fruit industry in the elevated valleys of Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Oregon has called for shipping boxes in large numbers, and western white pine has been found an ideal wood for that use. It is light in weight and in color, strong enough to satisfy all ordinary requirements, and cheap enough to bring it within reach of orchardists. It meets with lively competition from a number of other woods which grow abundantly in the region, but it holds its ground and takes its share of the business. ”

“ The sugar pine is native to the upland regions of California, Southern Oregon and parts of Nevada. The Idaho white pine grows in the mountainous sections of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon and in parts of British Columbia. The white pine species 'still holds an exalted reputation among the consuming public' and 'in general esteem is the highest type of lumber as respects the excellences desired in soft wood material.' 'It is coming more and more to be a specialty wood, largely devoted to special purposes, as it becomes scarcer and higher in price. ”

“ So that the more knotted and gnarled a log of mahogany is, the better. It makes the more beautiful wood. But in pine, it is not beauty, but facility of working, which is the great object. So [Pg 75] they always want to get pine as smooth and straight-grained as possible. So that one of these trees that grow detached, in the fields, would not be of much value for lumber. It has so many branches, that the boards made from it would be full of knots."
"That is the reason, I suppose," said Marco, "why they don't cut them down, and make them into boards."
"Perhaps it is," replied Forester. ”

“ These soft-wooded trees, with some poplar and other ornamental trees, furnish a more or less light, soft, spongy wood, very inferior for timber, but yet capable of being put to various uses in turnery, internal work, &c., in which white wood is employed.
The Coniferæ (Cone-bearers) .—The Fir tribe may well form a subject even for a separate volume, for not only are some of them employed as timber trees, but many are grown for their curious and interesting structure.
The Pinetum has become to be a matter of amusement to many a country gentleman throughout the country ”

“ The rapid consumption of the large pine timber among us should be enough to teach a lesson of prudence and economy on this subject. It has been calculated that 60,000 acres of pine woods are cut every year in our own State alone; and at this rate, it is said that in twenty years, or about 1870, these trees will have disappeared from our part of the country! [1] But unaccountable as it may appear, few American farmers are aware of the full value and importance of wood. They seem to forget the relative value of the forests. ”

“ The pines of the United States include many species, most of which are valuable for their timber. The White Pine, which attains a great height and favors sandy soil, heads the list. Its bark is smoother than any other pine and its cones are long and slender. Its wood is soft, compact, and valuable. The wood of the Yellow Pine is hard and heavy, darker in tone, and much favored for flooring. It does not grow to such a height as the white pine; it is found throughout the Southern states. The Red Pine, or Norway Pine, favors Canada more than our country. ”

“ The only lofty trees found on the mountains are the pine and the cedar which is either white or red. The latter is chiefly used for furniture, as it is the most resistible wood of the West. There are several species of the pine: the Norwegian, the resinous, the white, and the elastic, so called because the Indians use it to make bows.
So great is the violence of the winds in the vicinity of the Black Hills, that the cotton wood, which is almost [Pg 258] the only tree that grows there, displays the most fantastic shapes. ”

“ The difference in the strength of timber between the south and the north side is attributable to the grain being closer on the north side, as the sap does not rise in the same proportion as upon the south. In forest-grown wood the difference is almost imperceptible, as the sun [12] cannot act upon the trunk of the tree; in open-grown timber, the difference is really perceptible. It is well known that all woods do not lose strength by being open grown, or, in other words, that the south side is not always weaker than the north; that theory only applies to the coniferæ species. ”

“ Their woods are now the principal ones in carpentry and construction, and are more used than any others. They are to the soft woods what the oaks are to the hard woods, and they stand at present with reference to all woods much as iron does to all metals. Pine is prized because of a combination of strength, elasticity, light weight, working qualities, and availability, such as fits it for those constructions requiring the largest quantities of wood. ”

“ From the same cause we find the external layers of matured pine timber comparatively superior to the quality of the inner layers: in hard wood the exterior layers are generally much inferior to the inner. Boards of sap-wood of fast grown Scots fir, particularly of the outside layers are much better suited—stronger and more lasting, for boxes used as carriage packages, or for machinery or cart lining much exposed to blows and friction; than boards of the best matured red wood of Memel, Swedish, or Norway pine. ”

“ Maturity is the period when the sap-wood bears a small proportion, and the heart-wood has become uniform and compact. Sir John Evelyn writes, “It should be in the vigour and perfection of trees, that a felling should be celebrated.” It must be obvious, however, that it is a worse fault to fell wood before it has acquired thorough firmness, than when it is just in the wane, and its heart may exhibit but the first symptoms of decay; for in the former there is no perfect enduring timber to be got, while in the latter the greater part is in the zenith of its strength. ”

“ An exuded resin is also used for chewing gum. Trees are sometimes sixty feet high and two in diameter, and a considerable number of logs go to hardwood mills, where they lose their name, and possibly appear as ash lumber, or occasionally as maple. The wood is white, tinged with yellow, and is manufactured into agricultural implements. A scarce and smaller species, known as buckthorn bumelia and ironwood (Bumelia lycioides) covers nearly the same range. From a tree of the same family in southern Asia the gutta percha of commerce is obtained. ”

“ The Gordon River pine is the most valuable of the enormous growth of timber in proximity to its banks; a beautiful, soft, red wood, not unlike the cedar of Australia. It can be split into excellent palings and will, fortunately, burn well, either in a wet or dry state. The dense undergrowth, closely intertwined with climbers, renders it impossible even for a man to get through, unless with an axe to clear his way before him. And the locally named “horizontal scrub” is a study in forestry. ”

“ But notwithstanding the splendid qualities which distinguish the White Pine as a forest tree its wood has never been looked upon with favor in Europe. Many of those who are cultivating the White Pine for business seem to expect that they will raise a heavy and durable wood. These are the qualities prized in their own timber trees, and they seem to think that the White Pine must be so highly prized at home for the same qualities, when in fact it is the lightness and softness of the wood which are considered in America. ”

“ Bigelow," Ballard admitted on this, the third day out, when the student of natural conditions had called attention to the recklessness of the contractors in cutting down an entire forest of slope-protecting young pines to make trestle-bents for a gulch flume. "I am afraid I should have done precisely what Richards has done here: taken the first and most convenient timber I could lay hands on."
"That is the point of view the Forestry Service is trying to modify," rejoined Bigelow, mildly. "To the average American, educated or ignorant, wood seems the cheapest material in a world of plenty. ”

“ The wood on the other side of the road to Bury Wood, called in the map Woodman’s Glade, has not suffered from felling, and stands as an object lesson to show how unnecessary such felling is. It is one of the thickest parts of the forest, and looks in all respects like such woods were forty years ago, the growth of the heads of the hornbeams being but slow; but there is no difficulty in getting through it in all directions, and it has a peculiar charm of its own not to be found in any other forest ”

“ In previous years I had often gone prospecting over some bare hillside, where a pitch pine wood had formerly stood, and got out the fat pine roots. They are almost indestructible. Stumps thirty or forty years old, at least, will still be sound at the core, though the sapwood has all become vegetable mould, as appears by the scales of the thick bark forming a ring level with the earth four or five inches distant from the heart. ”

“ The hardest, and heaviest woods come from the hotter climates; the only exception is the pine, which thrives considerably better, and furnishes heavier timber, when it has grown in colder regions, or upon high mountains.
Trees grown on northern slopes furnish lighter timber than if grown on southern or western. The soil has great influence upon the width of the yearly rings, and from this we are able to come to a conclusion in regard to the specific weight. In the fir and larch trees the wood is heaviest when their rings are smallest. ”

“ This plan of baring the roots might be extended to oak trees for knees, baring and pruning about a foot out from the bulb annually. By exposure to the air, the timber of the root would mature and become red wood of sufficient durability. When covered with earth, the root of the oak remains white or sap wood, and soon decays after being dug up, the matured wood of the stem scarcely extending at all underneath the surface of the ground. ”