CHAPTER I

Red Cedar

The botanical name for red cedar suitable for chest construction is =Juniperus Virginiana=, or =Southern Juniper=, as it is familiarly known. Commercially, it is sold as “Tennessee Red Cedar.” There are other cedar woods but none of them should be used in chests if the great advantages of cedar are to be derived, and especially should the “western cedar” be avoided, as it is very common and easy to purchase, yet it has no value as a wood for cedar chest construction. Southern Juniper may aptly be called the “wood imperishable,” since, under ordinary conditions, it will never decay. Placed as shingles with copper nails, there is little doubt but that it will last for ages, or until the attacks of rain and wind have weathered it away. Until recent years one of its greatest uses has been in telegraph poles, fence posts, greenhouses, etc., where constant contact with damp earth would soon rot away a less durable wood. Now, since the rapid rise in the value of red cedar has almost prohibited its use, cypress, “the wood eternal,” has largely succeeded it.

LOG HOUSES OF RED CEDAR

When America was settled, one of its most valued natural resources was found in the red cedar belt of the South. Settlers migrating to this region found the straight cedar logs perfectly suited to cabin construction, consequently the best trees were felled and utilized in the building of America’s first homes. As times went on and the settlers prospered, the logs were taken from the houses, and assembled into barns, frame construction taking their place in the homes. Today, these old logs, perfectly preserved, are purchased by lumber men, as some of the most select red cedar lumber is manufactured from them. A great many of these old logs have been cut up into lead pencil slabs, as cedar is the best wood that has ever been found for lead pencils. It is straight grained and easily cut with a knife, the two necessary characteristics. Another source for pencil supply has been found in the rail fences, so common in the South, practically all of which were constructed of split cedar rails. This wood is so highly prized by pencil makers that many fences have been bought up at such prices that modern fences have taken their places, leaving a comfortable profit for the owner.

WHERE RED CEDAR ABOUNDS

The geographical range of red cedar is very wide and hard to define. Roughly speaking, it can be found westward to Minnesota, south to Florida, and southwest through Texas. The finest forests were originally found in middle Tennessee, in Davidson, Rutherford, Bedford, Marshall, and Warren Counties, with a considerable quantity in the breaks of the Cumberland plateau and in Eastern Tennessee. There was considerable red cedar also in Southern Virginia, North Alabama and in Georgia, while some is found in Arkansas in the Ozark Mountains.

[Illustration: Fig. 1. Red Cedar and Loblolly Pine; Occasional Scrub Pine in the Background. Southern Maryland]

These belts are still the most reliable source of supply, some of them having been cut over a great many times. Second growth, although it is stunted, more knotty, and contains more sapwood than first growth, finds a market in fence posts and a very little in furniture construction.

DEPLETION OF THE CEDAR SUPPLY

The supply of Southern Juniper in this country, both first and second growth, is rapidly being depleted. There is no reason why this condition should exist. The early settlers, anxious to clear their lands, destroyed it ruthlessly, it is true, yet it lends itself so readily to reforestation that it is difficult to surmise why steps to maintain its constant supply were not taken long ago. About two hundred years ago, a Swedish naturalist, Peter Kalm, after traveling over the settled portion of the country, wrote at some length upon the splendid qualities of red cedar, and prophesied its early extinction unless steps were taken to replenish the supply.

[Illustration: Fig. 2. Red Cedar. Longitudinal Section, Magnified 76 times.]

In Poor Richard’s Almanac for 1749, Benjamin Franklin urged the people to plant and foster the growth of red cedar. He was of the opinion that the rapid clearing of the land, the constant need of wood for fuel would soon destroy the slow-growing oaks and other hardwoods, and that “it would be to our advantage to endeavor to raise some other kind of timber that will grow faster or come sooner.”

“The red cedar (a species of juniper) I take to be the most profitable tree for fencing and several other uses that we can raise in our country, considering how easily it may be raised from seeds, its readiness to grow on most kinds of soil, its quick growth, the profits it will afford while it is arriving at maturity, and the long duration of the wood when grown to a proper size for the materials we want for our several occasions in husbandry and building. I know of no other tree that will grow so well on such different soils as this will, for upon our sandy beaches, which are nothing but beds of sand, they grow as thick as possible, from whence many thousand posts for fencing are brought into Pennsylvania and York governments, and I have seen, in a great many swamps upon a branch of the Susquehannah, great trees growing, near 18 inches diameter, 70 feet high, and very straight. And the inhabitants near the mountains, upon Hudson Bay, make a great use of them for making large hovels or barracks to put their corn in before it is threshed. They will grow well in high gravely or clay soil, in rich or poor, or even upon a rock, if there be but half a foot of land or earth upon it. It is much to be valued for its quick growth from seed, the little sap and much durable heart, which is acquired sooner than any tree that we can raise on common land. Indeed, the mulberry and locust are of quick growth in very rich land, but not upon poor.”

[Illustration: Fig. 3 Fifty Year Old Cedar, Job’s Swamp, Ocean County, New Jersey]

That the predictions of Kalm and Franklin have been substantiated is a well known fact since the cedar of commercial size grown in the Eastern and New England States—of which they spoke—has long since been exhausted. Neither knew of the extensive cedar growths in the South and West, yet the original growth of these regions is very near exhaustion.

[Illustration: Fig. 4. Mature Cedar Brake Along Road. No Underbrush, but the Young Cedar Seedlings Fill all Gaps. Marble Falls, Burnet County, Texas]

Luckily, our efficient Forest Service is at this time doing everything in its power to encourage reforestation of the cedar tracts, and the future of the red cedar tree looks more promising than the present.

CHARACTERISTICS OF RED CEDAR

As has been intimated, red cedar is a very durable wood. It is also light, straight grained, does not warp readily, will dry out rapidly, takes a beautiful finish, and has a most pleasant aroma, but one which is moth and insect repelling. Moths shun the red cedar, as other insects shun the pennyroyal herb.

These favorable characteristics all combine to make red cedar the ideal wood for chest construction. Chests must be light, yet strong; good to look upon when finished; of such flat stock that the finish on one side alone will not cause the wood to warp; and they must be moth proof. Southern Juniper furnishes all of these desirable points, and in addition its pleasant aroma permits the immediate wearing of apparel taken from the cedar chest without airing, as must be done with garments protected by moth balls.

[Illustration: Small Carved Wood Chest of Venetian Make (Sixteenth Century)]