Red Cedar

“ They are bandits, at the head of whom is a monster with a human face, called Red Cedar."
At this name the Indian started slightly, his eye flashed fire, and a deep wrinkle hollowed his forehead.
"Red Cedar is a ferocious jaguar," he said with concentrated passion. "He has made himself the scourge of the Indians, whose scalps he desires. This man has no pity either for women or children, but he possesses no courage: he only attacks his enemies in the dark, twenty against one, and when he is sure of meeting with no resistance." ”

“ Red Cedar walked along with that light and springy step peculiar to men accustomed to cover long distances on foot, looking neither to the right nor left, and apparently following a direction he was perfectly acquainted with. ”

“ Red Cedar, though aged, is still possessed of all the vigour of youth; his steps are firm and perfectly regular; like all men accustomed to forest life, he walks cautiously, that is to say, first putting down the point of his foot, like every man who is not certain that he may not have to go back. In the footsteps we saw, as I told you, the heel was put down first, and is much deeper buried than the rest of the foot; that is quite impossible, unless a person has walked backwards, especially for some time."
"That is true," Don Miguel answered; "what you say could not be more logical." ”

“ The first explorers of the country spoke enthusiastically of our red cedar as one of the finest woods of the New World, praising its quality and especially its durability. Indeed the heart wood of red cedar seems to hold an oil which makes it proof against vermin and fungi. Every housewife knows the value of red cedar chips or red cedar chests in keeping garments safe from moths. Every old-time farmer knows the value of red cedar as fence-posts. The heart wood seems practically indestructible by rot. ”

“ The Eastern red cedar is a handsome, narrow pyramid in its youth, often becoming broad and irregular, or [Pg 277] round-topped above a buttressed, twisted trunk, as it grows old. The scale-like leaves are four-ranked, blue-green when young, spreading, and sometimes three fourths of an inch long, on vigorous new shoots. The dark blue berries are covered with a pale bloom and have a resinous, sweet flesh. This juniper is familiar in abandoned farms and ragged fence-rows, becoming rusty brown in foliage to match the stringy red bark in winter time. ”

“ The red cedar flourishes on fertile and well-watered soils near sea level, where it grows to an enormous size. In the park it is a smaller tree, 150 to 170 feet high and rarely more than 4 or 5 feet through above the swollen butt. It grows occasionally up to an altitude of 4,000 feet, but is a small and insignificant tree in the high mountains.
In the sapling stage the red cedar grows rapidly. The mature tree increases very slowly in size. It exceeds all other trees in the Cascades in longevity. ”

“ Fence posts of white cedar, and cedar pails, shingles, and the like, have a great reputation for durability.
The peculiarity of a red cedar is its fruit. Instead of a cone, a blue, juicy, sweet berry follows the blossoming of this tree. The foliage, too, is erratic. Minute leaves of the scale form, discovered in the other cedars, are found here on most twigs. They are still smaller, and the twigs are much smaller. But on new shoots, and often on a whole branch, the leaves are needle-like, one-half to three-quarters of an inch long, and spreading as the leaves of a spruce. ”

“ Red Cedar can only expect enemies from the side of the plain."
"That is true."
"Hence his precautions are taken on that side, and not here; he does not suspect us so near him, and, persuaded that no one is spying him, he will let the smoke of his fire rise peacefully to the sky in the shade of night, convinced that nobody will perceive it, which would be perfectly true, if, unfortunately for him, we were not here. Such is the reason why I urged you to enter the mountains, in spite of the advanced hour."
White Gazelle and Don Pablo were struck by the correctness of this reasoning. ”

“ To us in New England to whom a cedar tree thirty feet high is no common sight the stories of these hundred-foot high trees seem strange indeed, and I know of but one red cedar whose diameter is as much as twelve inches. This tree is much less than thirty feet in height, however. It grows by itself on rocky ground in a pasture where it has no close neighbors of any variety. Its trunk divides at eight feet from the ground into many branches which make a round head whose ancient, twigs are hoary with lichens and seem to be in the last stages of senile debility. ”

“ White men have put western red cedar to many uses, as shingles, lumber, cooperage, poles, posts, piles, car siding and roofing, boat building from skiffs to ships, and general furniture and interior finish. ”

“ At starting, Red Cedar, while concealing the object of his journey, had dropped hints to his comrades that he would bring them allies; moreover, he informed them, that his excursion would not last more than three or four days at the most. In the desert, especially in the Far West, there is no regular road; travellers are compelled, for the greater part of the time, to march axe in hand, and cut a path by force. The gambusinos knew this by experience, and hence were not surprised, because Red Cedar did not return at the period he had fixed. ”

“ Red cedar is the kind you want to get to make things of; it has a pastel red color and a fragrant odor and it is this latter property that makes it a good wood for wardrobe chests, for moths do not like it. ”

“ It also grows on crests and ridges, where the frequent showers and fogs supply the moisture which it demands. In sheltered localities it grows to a height of 75 or 80 feet, but it is commonly a small tree with, a bent and twisted stem, which, with its pendulous branches, presents a somewhat scrubby appearance. The foliage is green, sometimes with a bluish tinge. It resembles that of the common western red cedar, but the leaves are sharper, more pointed, and rougher to handle. The small, rounded, inconspicuous cones are produced somewhat sparingly. The bark of the young tree is red. ”

“ Red Cedar is very fine-grained, soft, light, durable, fragrant, and of a pinkish-red color. Much wood is derived from the Red Cedars, Juniperus virginiana, Juniperus scopulorum, and Juniperus barbadensis, of the Eastern, Western, and Southern States respectively. Although seen in construction, red cedar is chiefly used in chests, closets, lead-pencils, and cigar-boxes. One hundred and twenty-five thousand trees (125,000) [93] are annually required for lead-pencils alone. The waste is often converted into shavings and used instead of camphor to protect woolens. ”

“ By no means the least interesting vegetation on Cedar Point are the dune plants, many species of arenophilous species, and efficient soil binders. Some idea of the appearance of a few of such plants may be gained from the cut (Fig. 2) , which shows one of the sand hills held exclusively by the roots of the Red Cedar. Other similar hillocks are held by one of the wild grape vines, Vitis vulpina, and many other plants. ”

“ Don Miguel exclaimed, "I consent. I would sooner sleep a week in a tree than let that villain escape."
"Do not be alarmed; he will not keep us at work all that time; the boar is at bay, and will soon be found. However large the desert may be, it possesses no unexplored refuge to men who are accustomed to traverse it in every direction. Red Cedar has done more than a common man to escape us. ”

“ If the ambitious can discover nameless wonders, they will then be privileged to use them in extending their reputations.
Red Cedar Lake takes its Indian name from the tree that mostly abounds upon its shores. It appears to contain but little more water than Winnipeg, but it has near its centre a large island, which causes it to appear much larger on the map. It has a great many bays and several islands; has a sandy bottom and fine beach; is shallow, clear, and yields a small white fish, a few trout, and the plebeian varieties hereafter mentioned as native to the Mississippi. ”

“ RED cedar, the most plentiful coniferous tree in the State, is very valuable, growing on a great variety of soils, seeming to thrive on hills where few other trees are found. It is more common in the southern counties. ”

“ The red cedar usually attains a height of about thirty to forty feet, but in favourable situations it grows still larger. The soil which it loves best is of a stony, and often sterile character, and dry barren hill-tops are frequently covered with cedars, while the more moist and fertile valleys between possess a sylva of a far different character. ”

“ Close even grain, compact structure. Wood light, soft, weak, brittle, easily worked, durable in contact with the soil, and fragrant. Used for ties, posts, interior finish, pencil cases, cigar boxes, silos, tanks, and especially for lead pencils, for which purpose alone several million feet are cut each year. A small to medium-sized tree scattered through the forests, or in the West sparsely covering extensive areas (cedar brakes) . The red cedar is the most widely distributed conifer of the United States, occurring from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Florida to Minnesota. ”

“ The cedar trees, which are landmarks in many of our northern states, yield light, soft, durable wood that is useful in making poles, fence posts, lead pencils and cedar chests. The wood of the red cedar gives off a peculiar odor which is said to keep moths away from clothes stored in cedar chests, but it is the close construction of the chest which keeps them out. ”

“ But on this occasion the redskins seemed to have given up their ordinary tactics, so obstinately did they assail the gambusino intrenchments; frequently repulsed, they returned with renewed ardour, fighting in the open and trying to crush their enemies by their numbers.
Red Cedar, terrified by the duration of a combat in which his bravest comrades had perished, resolved to attempt a final effort, and conquer the Indians by daring and temerity. By a signal he collected his three sons around him, with Andrés Garote and Fray Ambrosio ”

“ Its bark, as well as the seed pods, contains a large percentage of tannin. It multiplies from seed and is a secondary tree throughout the subtropical zone.
Red Cedar, Cedrela brasiliensis, A. Juss.—30 metres in height by O·75 metre in diameter, and sometimes more. Furnishes very fine light timber of a nice colour and easy to work. Much used for joinery work. One of the best stock trees in the subtropical zone, where it should be used for reafforestation in the existing woods, and afforestation throughout the subtropical region. To be sown in rows as far as possible and with seeds in layers. ”

“ The trees were easily distinguished by the numerous branches spreading horizontally, and thickly covered with short dark green needles, giving them that56 sombre, shady appearance, that makes them the favourite haunt of many species of owls. Their beautiful reddish wood was well known to all the party, as it is to almost every one in the civilized world. Everybody who has seen or used a black-lead pencil must know what the wood of the red cedar is like—for it is in this the black-lead is usually incased. ”

“ The position of living trees growing upon buried logs furnishes the key to the length of time since the trunks fell. The long period during which the moss-buried wood has remained sound has led to the claim that western red cedar is the most enduring wood in America. Such is not necessarily the case. A good many others would probably last as long if protected in the same way. ”

“ Others have grown so slowly that only with a microscope can the annual rings be counted. I fancy my patriarch as belonging to their lodge, nor would I be surprised to learn that when its first plume appeared above the ledges Indian tepees were the only human habitations of the region.
The red cedar seems to have a power to fix itself on a rough ledge and grow there year after year and indeed century after century, that is far greater than that of any other tree. ”

“ Its heart is almost as red as blood, and the wood has a sweet fragrance; the sap is nearly white, the grain soft and weak, but it will last for hundreds of years. I have seen beams of cedar that were laid before the Revolution and they were as sound as when hewn. Cedar wood makes a good bow ”

“ It is difficult to believe that a pasture can be fascinating and lovable without either red cedars or barberry bushes, yet here are neither, and though the slim young spruces stand as prim and erect as the red cedars of a hundred and fifty miles farther south, they do not quite take their places, nor do they have the vivid personality of those trees. ”

“ The red cedars, the birches, the huckleberry bushes in the daytime have individuality indeed, but in the night-time they have personality. They loom up in spots where by day you did not notice them at all. Some red cedars stand erect and stiff as military men might on sentinel duty, others gowned in black like monks of old group together and seem to consult, while all about them mingling in gracious beauty are the birches and the berry bushes,—the birches slender, dainty aristocrats gowned in the thinnest of whispering silk, the berry bushes sturdy and comfortable in homespun. ”

“ Clear as a flame of sacrifice breaks out,
And every cedar bough, made delicate
With climbing roses, drops in white and red,—
Saw I (good angels keep you in their care)
So beautiful a crowd." ”

“ And when at last a study of the flora compelled me to admit their identity,5 I turned about and protested that I had never seen red cedars before. One, in St. Augustine, near San Marco Avenue, I had the curiosity to measure. The girth of the trunk at the smallest place was six feet five inches, and the spread of the branches was not less than fifty feet.
The stroller in this road suffered few distractions. The houses, two or three to the mile, stood well back in the woods, with little or no cleared land about them. ”