CHAP, cxiii. coni'fer^. PiVus. 2173 



quantity of quicklime being dissolved in it, and the time o steeping is ten 

 days or a fortnight. The deeper the tank, and the lower the wood is sunk in 

 it, the more effectually will the lime water penetrate into the wood. Probably 

 alum water would be still more effective than lime water, and the corrosive 

 sublimate used in Kyanising would, doubtless, be the most effective of all. 



As fuel, the wood of the Scotch pine lights easily, and burns with great ra- 

 pidity; but it produces a black and very disagreeable smoke. Its value as a 

 combustible, compared with that of the beech, is as 1536 to 1540. Its char- 

 coal is excellent, and is to that of the beech as J 724 is to 1600. The faggot 

 wood of the Scotch pine is valued by the chalk and lime burners of England 

 more than any other, on account of its rapid burning and intense heat, and 

 consequent saving of time in attending on the kilns. The resinous juice, whe- 

 ther exuding naturally, or procured by incision and distillation, produces tar, 

 pitch, rosin, turpentine, and the essential oil of turpentine employed in house- 

 painting. Lampblack of an inferior quality is made from the smoke of the 

 wood ; and the leaves and branches are burned for potash, though of this salt 

 the tree yields only a small quantity. In the north of Russia, and in Lapland, 

 the outer bark is used, like that of the birch, for covering huts, for lining them 

 inside, and as a substitute for cork for floating the nets of fishermen ; and the 

 inner bark is woven into mats, like those made from the lime tree. Ropes are 

 also made from the bark, which are said to be very strong and elastic, and are 

 generally used by the fishermen. The Laplanders, and other people of the ex- 

 treme north, are said to grind the inner bark of the pine into a coarse flour, for 

 the purpose of making bread. This, though not true in the sense in which it is 

 generally taken, is still founded on fact. Mr. Laing, in his Journal of a Resi- 

 dence in Norway, states that he had been disposed to doubt the use of fir 

 bark for bread ; but he found it more extensive than is generally supposed. In 

 Norway, it is the custom to kilndry oats to such a degree, that both^ the grain 

 and the husks are made into a meal almost as fine as wheaten flour. In bad 

 seasons, the inner bark of young Scotch pines is kilndried in a similar manner 

 to the oats, and ground along with them, so as to add to the quantity of the 

 meal. The present dilapidated state of the forests, in districts which for- 

 merly supplied wood for exportation, is ascribed to the great destruction of 

 young trees for this purpose in the year 1812. The bread baked of the oat 

 and pine meal is said to be very good. It is made in the form of " flat cakes, 

 covering the bottom of a girdle or frying-pan, and as thin as a sheet of paper, 

 being put on the girdle in nearly a fluid state." When used at table, these 

 cakes are made crisp by being warmed a little. (^Laing^s Journal of a Residence 

 171 NorwayJ) According to Pallas, the young shoots, as well as the inner 

 bark, are ground and used as bread in some parts of Siberia. The leaves and 

 branches are eaten by cattle and sheep in severe weather ; and they are said, 

 by Delamarre and other French authors, to preserve sheep from the rot, 

 Evelyn tells us that pine chips are used as a substitute for hops ; and other 

 writers inform us that the young shoots, stripped of their leaves just when 

 they are beginning to appear, are sought for with avidity by the children of 

 the peasantry, who eat them. The milky juice found on the liber of the 

 young trees is also said to be very sweet. The log houses of Russia, Poland, 

 and Sweden are almost entirely made of the trunks of Scotch pine, notched, 

 and let into each other, as already described, p. 2123. 



In Russia, roads are formed of the trunks of the Scotch pine. The trees 

 selected are such as have trunks from 6 in. to 1 ft. in diameter at their 

 thickest end. The branches of these are lopped off, to the length of 12 ft. 

 or 15 ft., according to the width which the road is intended to be, and the 

 rest are left on. The ground being marked off for the road, and made some- 

 what even on the surface, the trees are laid down across it side by side, 

 the thick end of one trunk alternating with the narrow part of another, and 

 the branches at the ends of the trunks forming a sort of hedge on each side 

 of the road. The interstices of the trunks are next filled up with soil, and 

 the road is completed. The hedges formed by the branches on the extre- 



