Forestry
^■^^ V , M AN I T f Hemlock. {Ts-uga canadensis) Evergreen; 60 to 70 feet high; occasionally 100; wood pale, soft, coarse, splintery, not durable. A cubic foot weighs 26 lbs. Bark full of tannin. Leaves ^ to f inch long; cones about the same. Its knots are so hard that they quickly turn the edge of an axe'or gap it as a stone might; these are probably the hardest vegetable growth in our woods. It is a tree of very slow growth — growing inches while the White Pine is putting forth feet. Its topmost twig usually points easterly. Its inner bark is a powerful astringent. A tea of the twigs and leaves is a famous woodman's sweater.
- 'As it bears pruning to almost any degree without suffering injury,
it is well suited to form screeens for the protection of more tender trees and plants, or for concealing disagreeable objects. " But the most important use to which this bark is applied, and for which it is imported from Maine, is as a substitute for oak bark in the preparation of leather. It contains a great quantity of tannin, combined with a coloring matter which gives a red color to the leather apt to be communicated to articles kept long in contact with it." {Emerson.) There is another species in the South {T. Caroliniana) distinguishable by its much larger cones.
