14 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



AMERICAN FOREST TREES. 



White Pine. 

 Pill MS strobus — Linn. 

 The range of growth of white pine is 

 from Newfoundland, the northern shores of 

 the gulf of St. Lawrence to lake Xipigon 

 and the valley of the Winnipeg river, south 

 through the states which border on Canada, 

 through central Illinois, Nebraska and 

 Iowa; in the east to the coast, and 

 along the Allegheny mountains to 

 northern Georgia. 



It is known as white pine in 

 Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, 

 Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Con- 

 necticut, New York, New Jersey, 

 Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, 

 West Virginia, North Carolina, 

 Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Wiscon- 

 sin, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, 

 Ontario and Nebraska; Weymouth 

 pine in Massachusetts and South 

 Carolina; soft pine in Pennsyl 

 vania; northern pine in South Car- 

 olina and Tennessee. The name 

 Weymouth pine is said to have 

 been given to the tree by English 

 settlers, in memory of Lord Wey- 

 mouth. This is undoubtedly an 

 error; it is more probable that the 

 name comes from wehmuthskiefer, 

 meaning melancholy pine. 



The white pine tree is conical 

 in shape, with wide'spreading 

 branches extending horizontally. 

 It reaches a height of from sev- 

 enty-five to a hundred and seventy- 

 five feet. It is from one to six 

 feet in diameter, and sometimes 

 larger. It fruits in September. 

 The bark of the tree is a light 

 greyish-green. On young growth 

 it is smooth, but becomes dark 

 and rough as the tree ages. When 

 very old the bark is sometimes an 

 inch and a half thick, with dis- 

 tinct scales, deeply fissured and 

 rugged, having an inner layer 

 lighter in color and about a six- 

 teenth of an inch thick. 



The leaves of white pine are 

 from three to five inches long. 

 They are simple, and are thickly 

 arranged on the branches, in clus- 

 ters of five. When first appear- 

 ing they have short sheaths which 

 drop away quickly, exposing the 

 three-sided, needle-shaped leaf, 

 which is a light green in color and glaucous. 

 The white pine needle is the softest and 

 most delicate of all the species. The fruit 

 is a reddish brown cone, from four to six 

 inches long, narrow and slightly curved; 

 the scales which compose it are thin and 

 blunt; somewhat resinous. It contains 

 winged seeds. 



White pine thrives best in sandy loam 



TWENTY-SIXTH FAFEB. 



ujjon ilritl lorniatiuns wliero it often forms 

 extensive forests. It is frcquentlj' found 

 scattered through hardwood timber lands, 

 and, in fact, reaches its greatest develop- 

 ment under these conditions. 



Tlie wood weighs from twenty to thirty 

 pounds per cubic foot. It is light and very 

 soft; not strung. It is excpcdinglv close, 



TVriCAL WIIIJK I'lNK Gltowm, MOUNT.\IN UEGION 

 WKSTKUN NOH'ill (AKOLINA. 



straight-grained and compact; easily worked 

 and free from knots. The surface is 

 smooth and brilliantly lustrous, susceptible 

 to a high polish. In color it is a brownish- 

 pink, having a yellowish or even cream- 

 white sapwood. The bands of summer cells 

 are inconspicuous and the resin passages 

 small; medullary rays are numerous. White 

 pine burns well, with a tarry, pungent 



•<mell and a lively, vigorous flame; the em- 

 bers glow in still air; the ashes are grey 

 or white. The wood has a distinct turpen- 

 tine taste, nearly as strong as that of pitch 



|lillC. 



White pine is more largely manufactured 

 into lumber, shingles, laths, etc, than any 

 (it her North American tree. For years it 

 has been the most common and 

 valuable building material of the 

 northern states, and is extensively 

 used in cabinet-making, interior 

 finish, and in the manufacture of 

 matches, woodenware, spars, boxes, 

 and articles too numerous to men- 

 tion. 



An authority (Hogdson), in 

 speaking of the great variety of 

 ns<>s to which white pine is put. 

 says: "It is the most useful and 

 the most democratic of woods. It 

 is found in the halls of the great 

 and powerful,, and in the cottages 

 of the most humble among us. It 

 is vigorous, plain or ornamental, 

 and not out of place either in the 

 backwoodsman's cabin or in the 

 stately cathedral; it adapts itself 

 to every condition that circum- 

 stances may place it in. White 

 pine can be made to look like any 

 known wood, but is at its best 

 when left natural and finished in 

 clear shellac. There is no wood 

 that grows which will convey so 

 cheerful a feeling to the beholder 

 as white pine finished in a natural 

 state. Next best to being finished 

 in a natural state, is to finish it to 

 imitate mahogany or light cherry, 

 which coloring it takes readily. 

 Where pine is to be either stained 

 (ir left natural, it should be quar- 

 ter-sawed, as it will show a finer 

 grain, shrink less and last longer. 

 The softness of its texture and its 

 susceptibility to injury may have 

 li:id some influence in preventing 

 its general use for ornamental pur- 

 poses, but the wood can be 'filled,' 

 so that niucL of this objection is 

 removed. Its pure white color, as 

 compared with other woods, recom- 

 mends it for purposes for which 

 holly has been heretofore used; 

 and the size of the timber from 

 which clear boards may be cut is 

 greatly in its favor, boards of a width of 

 sixteen and even twenty inches being not 

 \incommon, with no shade of distinction be- 

 tween sapwood and heart, and only the 

 faintest perceptible grain." 



During the latter part of the seventeenth 

 century all small silver coins of the Massa- 

 chusetts Bay Colony bore the device of a 

 white pine tree. About this time an enact- 



