228+ AiinoriKTUM and fkutici-.tdm. I'aut jii. 



loade in the top of the mast, filled with oil, and hermetically sealed ; the oil is 

 said to be absorbed in a few months. The bowsprits and yards of ships of 

 war are of this species. The wood is not resinous enough to furnish turpen- 

 tine for commerce." (Afichx.) Before the American war, England is said 

 to have furnished herself with masts from the United States ; and she still 

 completes from America the demand which cannot be supplied from the north 

 of Europe. The finest timber of this species is brought from Maine, and 

 particularly from the river Kennebeck. Soon after the establishment of the 

 American colonies, England became sensible of the value of this resource, and 

 solicitous for its preservation. In 1711 and 1721, severe ordinances were 

 enacted, prohibiting the cutting of any trees proper for masts on the pos- 

 sessions of the crown. The order had reference to the vast countries bounded 

 on the south by New Jersey, and on the north by the upper limit of Nova 

 Scotia. " I am unable to say," adds Michaux, " with what degree of rigour 

 it was enforced before the American revolution ; but, for a space of 600 miles, 

 from Philadelphia to a distance beyond Boston, I did not observe a single 

 tree of the white pine large enough for the mast of a vessel of 600 tons." 

 (Michx.) The white pine is also used extensively in America for clap-boards 

 and shingles. The clap-boards are of an indeterminate length, 6 in wide, i in. 

 thick at one edge, and much thinner at the other ; they form the exterior 

 covering of the walls of the wooden houses, and are placed horizontally, lapping 

 one over the other, so that the thinner edge is covered. The shingles are com- 

 monly 18 in. long, from Sin. to 6 in. wide, a in. thick at one end, and 1 line thick 

 at the other : they should be free from knots, and made only of the perfect wood. 

 These shingles are used instead of tiles to almost all the houses east of the 

 river Hudson ; but they only last 12 or 15 years. They are exported in great 

 quantities to the West Indies. The timber of the Weymouth pine continues to 

 be imported into Britain in immense quantities ; but it is considered as very 

 inferior to some of the other American pines, and to the pine timber of the north 

 of Europe. In M'Culloch's DicUonary of Commerce, speaking of the white 

 pine of America, as compared with the Baltic pine, an extract is given from 

 the evidence of Mr. Copland, an extensive builder and timber-merchant, 

 when examined before parliament as to the comparative value of European 

 and American Timber. " The American pine is much inferior in quality, much 

 softer in its nature, not so durable, and very liable to dry rot : indeed, it is 

 not allowed by any professional man under government to be used; nor is it 

 ever employed in the best buildings in London : it is only speculators that are 

 induced to use it, from the price of it being much lower (in consequence of 

 its exemption from duty) than the Baltic timber. If you were to lay two 

 planks of American timber upon each other, in the course of a twelvemonth 

 they would have the dry rot, almost invariably, to a certain extent." M'Cul- 

 loch adds that " many passages to the same efiect might be produced from the 

 evidence of persons of the greatest experience in ship-building." (^M'Culloch's 

 Com. Diet., art. Timber Trade.) The wood of Weymouth pines grown in 

 England has been used for floors, and by cabinet-makers ; but, as the species 

 is generally valued as an ornamental tree, it is seldom cut down for timber. 

 Its picturesque beauty, according to Gilpin, is not great. " It is admired," 

 he says, " for its polished bark, though the painter's eye pays little attention 

 to so trivial a circumstance, even when the tree is considered as a single 

 object : nay, its polished bark rather depreciates its value, for the picturesque 

 eye dwells with more pleasure on rough surfaces than on smooth : it sees 

 more richness in them and more variety. But we object chiefly to the Wey- 

 mouth p'ue on account of the regularity of its stem and the meagrcness of its 

 foliage. Its stem rises with perpendicular exactness ; it rarely varies ; and its 

 branches issue with equal formality from its sides. Its foliage, too, is thin, 

 and wants both richness and effect. If I were speaking, indeed, of this tree 

 in composition, I might add that it may often appear to great advantage in a 

 plantation. Contrast, we know, produces beauty, even from deformity itself. 

 Opposed, therefore, to the wildness of other trees, the regularity of the Wej- 



