14 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



AMERICAN FOREST TREES. 



Lougleaf Yellow Pine. 

 Pinus palustris — Mill. 



Yellow pine grows most abundantly along 

 the Atlantic coast, from southern Virginia 

 to the shores of Tampa bay in Florida; 

 eastward to Trinity river in Texas; north- 

 ward in Alabama to Clay and Walker coun- 

 ties and northern Georgia; some distance 

 west of the Mississippi river, in the 

 South, and throughout western 

 Louisiana. 



It is known as longleaved pine 

 in Virginia, North Carolina, South 

 Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Flor- 

 ida, Mississippi, Louisiana and 

 Texas; as southern pine in North 

 Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and 

 Louisiana; as yellow pine in Dela- 

 ware, North Carolina, South Caro- 

 lina, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana 

 and Texas; as turpentine pine in 

 North Carolina ; brown pine in 

 Tennessee; hard pine in Alabama, 

 Mississippi and Louisiana; as 

 Georgia pine in Delaware; as fat 

 pine in several southern states; and 

 as southern yellow pine, southern 

 hard pine, southern heart pine, 

 southern pitch pine, heart pine, pitch 

 pine, longleaved yellow pine, long- 

 leaved pitch pine, longstravv pine, 

 North Carolina pitch pine, Georgia 

 yellow pine, Georgia heart pine, 

 Georgia longleaved pine, Georgia 

 pitch pine, Florida yellow pine, 

 Florida pine, Florida longleaved 

 pine, Texas yellow pine and Texas 

 longleaved pine throughout many 

 sections of the United States, and 

 in Atlantic coast markets particu- 

 larly. 



The tree grows to a height of 

 fifty to one hundred feet, one to 

 three feet in diameter. The trunk 

 is usually straight and slightly tap- 

 ering, with stout and slightly 

 gnarled limbs. Its bright olive-greeu 

 needles, from ten to fifteen inches 

 in length, are grouped in bunches of 

 three, growing in dense clusters at 

 the ends of the branches. The 

 flowers appear in the early spring, 

 before the new leaves. The stam- 

 inate ones grow in thick clusters and 

 are dark rose-purple in color. The 

 pistillate flowers appear below the 

 apex of the lengthening shoot in 

 groups of two, three or four; they are dark 

 purple. The fruit of yellow pine is a cone, 

 six to ten inches long, growing at the end of 

 the branches; in color, light brown. Jta scales 

 are thick, having small, blunt spines at the 

 ends. The seeds are nearly triangular, winged, 

 full and rounded, slightly ridged. 



Tlve heartwood is orange, the sapwood 

 much lighter. It is exceedingly coarse- 



THIBTY-FIRST PAPER. 



grained and canipact iu structure, with con- 

 spicuous medullary rays. It is more orna- 

 mental than that obtained from any other 

 pine. Its juices are also valuable, being 

 used extensively in the manufacture of resin, 

 tar and turpentine. A eubic foot of seasoned 

 wood weighs thirty-eight pounds. 



Rejiresentative uses of the wood are for 



TYPICAL FOREST GROWTH LONGLBAF YELLOW PINE, 

 LOUISIANA. 



masts, spars, bridges, decks of ships, via- 

 ducts, railway ties, car sills, car flooring, 

 flooring, intcrinr finish and general strueturiil 

 work. 



Lounsbcrry says: "(Jf the jiitch jiines 

 this great tree is the most valuable, ami so 

 extensively has its wood been utilized that 

 the very name Georgia pine is suggestive of 

 ednimcrce. Kven its stumps are cut up mihI 



sold as kindling wood. * * * In the ' tur- 

 pentine country' of Georgia it is a truly pa- 

 thetic sight to see these trees girdled and 

 bruised from the process of boxing. Their 

 juices have then been drawn off and sent 

 to be distilled. Even before the Eevolution 

 this making of turpentine was a largo indus- 

 try in this country. For many year? the 

 trees exist — it can hardly be called 

 living — and sometimes a small tuft 

 of green at their top is all that 

 distinguishes them from those that 

 are dead. Were it not for the long 

 continued activity of their heart- 

 wood and the healing salve of their 

 balsam, they would necessarily have 

 succumbed. Through its extensive 

 usefulness, however, the tree seems 

 to be doomed by the axe. Even 

 the young trees when they occur 

 among objectionable undergrowth 

 are set on fire, that they may clear 

 it away, and their ashes improve 

 and fertilize the land. ' ' 



A map showing the original com- 

 prehensive growth of Pinus palus- 

 tris, in a range of from five to as 

 high as 15,000 to the acre, would 

 cover an oasis of eastern Texas as 

 large as the state of Maryland, 

 western and central Louisiana to 

 more than a quarter of its area, the 

 southern half of Mississippi, the 

 southern half of Alabama, with 

 three widely distributed sections of 

 growth in the northern and central 

 part of the state, each as large as 

 Delaware, the southern half of 

 Georgia, the northern half of Flor- 

 ida, the southeast half of South 

 t'arolina, and the southern portion 

 of North Carolina. In many places 

 this original growth of longleaf yel- 

 low pine has been practically de- 

 pleted. This is true of North Caro- 

 lina, South Carolina and a good 

 jiortion of Georgia. In Florida, 

 .Vlabama, Mississippi and Te^as 

 great inroads have been made by 

 the axe and saw, and now practically 

 the entire range of yellow pine 

 growth is in the hands of operators, 

 and already the beginning of the 

 end of this magnificent wood can be 

 readily prophesied. However, a I 

 this time the production of longleal 

 yellow pine constitutes the most im- 

 spccific lumber operation in 

 Its intrinsic merit for such 



p(irl!Piit 



(his country. 



a variety of uses has popularized the wood, 



liiith at home and abroad, to that extent that, 



the drain on the forests has amounted to 



])raetically a slaughter. The important coast 



cities of Baltimore, Philadelphia, Wa.shing- 



ton. New York and Boston and the adjacent 



sections have for years depended upon long- 



