QUALITY OF TIMBEE. 359 



One consideration bearing on this subject has received less at- 

 tention tlian 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 strohus, 

 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 protects them from too 

 much agitation by wind, and from the persistence of the lateral 

 branches which fill the wood with knots. A pine which has 

 grown under those conditions possesses a tall, straight stem, ad- 

 mirably 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, consequently, 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 sway- 

 ing 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 wliich, 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 gen- 

 eral aspect and in quality of wood. Its stem is much shorter, its 

 top less tapering, its foliage denser and more inclined to gather 

 into tufts, its branches more numerous and of larger diameter, its 

 wood shows much more distinctly the divisions of annual growth, 

 is of coarser grain, harder and more difficult to work into mitre- 

 joints. Intermixed with the most valuable pines in the American 

 forests, are met many trees of the character I have just described. 

 The lumbermen caU them " sapHngs," and generally regard them 

 as different in species from the true white pine, but botanists are 

 unable to estabhsh a distinction between them, and as they agree 

 in almost all respects with trees grown in the open grounds from 

 known white-pine seedlings, I beheve their peculiar character is 

 due to unfavorable circumstances in their early growth. The 

 pine, then, is an exception to the general rule as to the inferiority 

 of the forest to the open-ground tree. The pasture oak and pas- 



