QUALITY OF TIMBER. 569 
much instruction from the treatises I have cited, and I helieve 
he will be convinced that the sooner a natural wood is brought 
into the state of an artificially regulated one, the better it is for 
all the multiplied interests which depend on the wise adminis- 
tration of this branch of public economy. 
One consideration bearing on this subject has received less 
attention than it merits, because most persons interested in such 
questions have not opportunities for the comparison I refer to. 
I mean the great general superiority of cultivated timber to 
that of strictly spontaneous growth. I say general superiority, 
because there are exceptions to the rule. The white pine, 
Pinus strobus, for instance, and other trees of similar character 
and uses, require, for their perfect growth and _ best ligneous 
texture, a density of forest vegetation around them, which pro- 
tects them from too much agitation by wind, and from the per- 
sistence of the lateral branches which fill the wood with knots. 
A pine which has grown under those conditions possesses a tall, 
straight stem, admirably fitted for masts and spars, and, at the 
same time, its wood is almost wholly free from knots, is regular 
in annular structure, soft and uniform in texture, and, conse- 
quently, superior to almost all other timber for joinery. If, 
while a large pine is spared, the broad-leaved or other smaller 
trees around it are felled, the swaying of the tree from the 
action of the wind mechanically produces separations between 
the layers of annual growth, and greatly diminishes the value 
of the timber. The same defect is often observed in pines 
which, from some accident of growth, have much overtopped 
their fellows in the virgin forest. 
The white pine, growing in the fields, or in open glades in 
the woods, is totally different from the true forest-tree, both in 
general aspect and in quality of wood. Its stem is much 
cellent work of CeRINI, Dei Vantaggi di Societa, por l’Impianto e Conser- 
vazione dei Boschi, Milano, 1844, 8vo; and the prize essay of MeGuscHER, 
Memoria sui Boschi, etc., 2d edizione, Milano, 1859, Svo. Another very im- 
portant treatise on the uses of the forest, though not a manual of sylviculture, 
is SCHLEIDEN, Pir Baum und Waid, Leipzig, 1870. 
24- 
