Vol. VI APRIL, 1917 No. 3 E EDITORIAL CHAT Enthusiasm NTHUSIASM alone probably wouldn't produce much in the line of results, but it's a powerful stimulant. Ways and means are mere incidents in the path of accomplishment if enthusiasm is the driving power. Problems of material and process are solved, machinery and equipment developed with the greatest facility, for enthusiasm acknowledges no obstacles. Enthusiasm is the quality which produces excellence where its absence breeds mediocrity. It transforms the dull monotony of clockwatching routine into the exalted satisfaction of constructive achievement. Devoid of it, the finest equipment in the world is inadequate. With it, no heights of attainment but may be surmounted. It is a safe assertion that no enterprise has become great without the impelling force of enthusiasm, and by the same token enthusiasm is in large measure the gauge of that greatness. Quality The giant shown above, while not exactly in the class with California's redwoods, still makes a strong bid for honor. It measured 9 feet 6 inches at the butt, and it was necessary to cut it in seven lengths. The logs were cut up in Westside Lumber Company's mill, Tuolumne, Čal., and produced 3,700 feet of lumber, Disston Saws doing the work. (Continued from March Issue) From "American Forest Trees" Copyright Hardwood Record the center of a mature hemlock clump, and the chance is that several trees next to the open space thus made will die. The unusual light proves too much for their roots which had always been cool and damp; but when young hemlocks are protected until they get a start, they thrive nicely in the open. The wood of hemlock is light, soft, not strong, brittle, coarse and crooked grained, difficult to work, liable to windshake, splinters badly, not durable. The summerwood of the annual ring is conspicuous; and the thin medullary rays are numerous. The color of hemlock heartwood is light brown, tinged with red, often nearly white. The sapwood is darker. Lumbermen recognize two varieties, red and white, but botanists do not recognize them. The physical characters of hemlock are nearly all unfavorable, yet it has become a useful and widely used wood. It is largely manufactured into coarse lumber and used for outside work-railway ties, joists, rafters, sheathing, plank walks, laths, etc. It is rarely used for inside finishing, owing to its brittle and splintery character. Clean boards made into panels or similar work and finished in the natural color often present a very handsome appearance, owing to the peculiar pinkish tint of the wood, ripening and improving with age. With the growing scarcity of white and Norway pine, hemlock (Continued on page 46) |