On the Trail | Page 7

fact, many Christmas-trees are balsam-fir.
The sweet, aromatic perfume of the balsam needles is a great aid in identifying it. The branches are flat and the needles appear to grow from the sides of the stem. The little twist at the base of the needle causes it to seem to grow merely in the straight, outstanding row on each side of the stem; look closely and you will see the twist.
The needles are flat and short, hardly one inch in length; they are grooved along the top and the ends are decidedly blunt; in color they are dark bluish-green on the upper side and silvery-white underneath. The bark is gray, and you will find little gummy blisters on the tree-trunk. From these the healing Canada balsam is obtained. The short cones, often not over two inches in length, the longest seldom more than four inches, stand erect on top of the small branches, and when young are of a purplish color.
From Maine to Minnesota the balsam-fir grows in damp woods and mountain bogs, and you will find it southward along the Alleghany Mountains from Pennsylvania to North Carolina.
=Spruce=
The spruce, red, black, and white, differs in many respects from the balsam-fir: the needles are sharp-pointed, not blunt, and instead of being flat like the balsam-fir, they are four-sided and cover the branchlet on all sides, causing it to appear rounded or bushy and not flat. The spruce-gum sought by many is found in the seams of the bark, which, unlike the smooth balsam-fir, is scaly and of a brown color. Early spring is the time to look for spruce-gum. Spruce is a soft wood, splits readily and is good for the frames and ribs of boats, also for paddles and oars, and the bark makes a covering for temporary shelters.
=Hemlock=
This tree is good for thatching a lean-to when balsam-fir is not to be found, and its bark can be used in the way of shingles.
The cones are small and hang down from the branches; they do not stand up alert like those of the balsam-fir, nor are they purple in color, being rather of a bright red-brown, and when very young, tan color. The wood is not easy to split--don't try it, or your hatchet will suffer in consequence and the pieces will be twisted as a usual thing. The southern variety, however, often splits straight.
[Illustration: Horse-chestnut.
Sugar-maple.
Alder.
Ink impressions of leaves.]
[Illustration: Balsam-Fir.
Spruce.
Hemlock.]
[Illustration: White oak.
Linden.
Ink impressions of leaves.]
[Illustration: Pitch-pine and cone.
Sycamore leaf and fruit of sycamore.
(The buttonball.)]
=Pine=
The pine-tree accommodates itself to almost any kind of soil, high, low, moist, or dry, often growing along the edge of the water.
The gray pine is sometimes used for making the skeleton of a canoe or other boats, and the white pine for the skin or covering of the skeleton boat; but for you the pine will probably be most useful in furnishing pine-knots, and its soft wood for kindling your outdoor fire.
The trees mentioned abound in our northern forests. The birch in its different varieties is there also, but rarely ventures into the densest woods, preferring to remain near and on its outskirts. However, none of these trees confine themselves strictly to one locality.
Oaks, hickory, chestnut, maples, and sycamore are among the useful woods for campers.
Learn the quality and nature of the different trees. Each variety is distinct from the others: some woods are easy to split, such as spruce, chestnut, balsam-fir, etc.; some very strong, as locust, oak, hickory, sugar-maple, etc.; then there are the hard and soft woods mentioned in fire-making.
When you once understand the characteristics of the different woods, and their special qualifications, becoming familiar with only two or three varieties at a time, the trees will be able to help you according to their special powers. You would not go to a musician to have a portrait painted, for while the musician might give you wonderful music he would be helpless as far as painting a picture was concerned, and so it is with trees. They cannot all give the same thing; if you want soft wood, it is wasting your time to go to hardwood trees; they cannot give you what they do not possess. Know the possibilities of trees and they will not fail you.
=How to Chop Wood=
Trailing and camping both mean wood-chopping to some extent for shelters, fires, etc., and the girl of to-day should understand, as did the girls of our pioneer families, how to handle properly a hatchet, or in this case we will make it a belt axe. There is a small hatchet modelled after the Daniel Boone tomahawk, generally known as the "camp axe." It is thicker, narrower, and has a sharper edge than an ordinary hatchet. It comes of a size to wear on the belt and must be securely protected by a well-fitted strong