klein THE PINE 289 



upward, and at its base five branches radiate. The next year the 

 crown repeats the same story, and the tips of the side branches 

 divide and elongate in the same way. The best growth is gener- 

 ally made by the crown buds in the very top of the tree. So it 

 happens that we may count the years of our sapling by the whorls 

 of branches it bears. In the early years the growth is beautifully 

 symmetrical, if there is room for sun and air to reach the little 

 tree. Later the branches crowd each other, and some are killed. 

 In deep woods where trees interfere, the stems are bare of living 

 branches almost to the top. 



This is the lumberman's pine, a tree whose limbs die so young 

 that there are practically no big knots in the lumber. He cuts 

 clear beautiful boards out of such a tree, and there is very little 

 waste. Or he squares the trunk for a big bridge timber whose 

 value and strength would be greatly lessened by large knots. 



The great pine forests of lower Canada and the Northern States 

 seemed inexhaustible to the early settlers. New York and Penn- 

 sylvania had pineries that promised a lumber supply for genera- 

 tions to come. But alas! Their doom seems inevitable and near. 



To quote Ruskin from "Modern Painters" is at this point 

 most appropriate, 



"I wish the reader to fix his attention for a moment on these 

 two great characters of the pine, its straightness and rounded 

 perfections; both wonderful, and in their issue lovely. I say 

 first its straightness. Because we see it in the wildest scenery, 

 we are apt to remember only as examples of it those which have 

 been disturbed by violent accident or disease. Of course such 

 instances are frequent. The soil of the pine is subject to con- 

 tinual change; perhaps the rock in which it is rooted splits in 

 frost and falls forward, throwing the young stems aslope, or the 

 whole mass of earth around it is undermined by rain, or a huge 

 boulder falls on its stem from above and forces it for twenty 

 years to grow with the weight of several tons leaning on its side. 



"Nevertheless this is not the truest or universal expression of 

 the pine's character. The pine rises in serene resistance, self- 

 contained; nor can I ever without awe stay long under a great 

 Alpine cliff, looking up to its great companies of pines. 



"You cannot reach them; those trees never heard human voice; 

 they are far above all sound but that of the winds. No foot 

 ever stirred fallen leaf of theirs. 



