CONIFERS. 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



21 



The most valuable timber-tree of northeastern America, Pinus Strobus has played a conspicuous 

 part in the material development of the United States and Canada. Great fleets of vessels and long 

 railroads have been built to transport the lumber sawed from its mighty trunks ; and men have grown 

 rich by destroying it, building cities to supply the needs of their traffic, and seeing them languish 

 as the forests disappear. Fifty years ago the pineries of Maine and lower Canada, of northern New 

 York, of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, contained stores of white pine which 

 were believed to be inexhaustible ; but the best has already been cut, and the great trees which were 

 once the pride of the northern forest no longer exist. The White Pine, however, is a tree of strong 

 vitality and under favorable conditions reproduces itself freely, especially on New England hills which 

 agriculture, weary of a hopeless struggle against difficult conditions, has given back to the forest. 1 



The White Pine has been largely used in the United States and Europe in the decoration of parks 

 and gardens, and in the north Atlantic states no other cone-bearing tree surpasses it in beauty, rapidity 

 of growth, and durability. 2 A number of forms of abnormal habit or with variously colored leaves have 

 appeared in European nurseries and are occasionally found in gardens. 3 



The most beautiful Pine-tree of eastern America, our sylvan scenery owes the peculiar charm 

 which distinguishes it from that of all other parts of the world to the wide-spreading dark green 

 crowns of the White Pine, raised on stately shafts high above the level of the forest roof and breaking 

 the monotony of its sky-line. 



The specific name given to the White Pine by Linnaeus is that of an incense-bearing tree of 

 ancient Persia, the identity of which is now unknown. 4 



through the example of Thomas, Viscount Weymouth, second 

 Marquis of Bath, who planted it on his estate at Longleat ; and 

 it is now almost universally called in Europe the Weymouth Pine. 

 The seeds produced in these early plantations were distributed 

 over England, where, at one time, it was largely planted, but, al- 

 though the White Pine flourishes in some favorite localities in 

 Great Britain (see Goldring, The Garden, xxxi. 404. — Webster, 

 The Garden, xxxiii. 522), it is less successful there than in northern 

 and central Germany and northern Italy, and in southern Scandina- 

 via, where large specimens of this tree exist. (See Hansen, Garden 

 and Forest, v. 230.) 



The White Pine grows with the greatest vigor in northern Italy 

 and in many parts of northern and central Germany, where large 

 plantations have been made of this tree. In central Europe it has 

 been found to grow more rapidly than any of the indigenous Coni- 

 fers, with the exception, perhaps, of the Larch, and to bear while 

 young better than most Pines the partial shade of other trees ; it 

 supports without injury the severest cold of winter, and is not hurt 

 by the frosts of spring or early autumn ; its abundant and soft 

 leaves, which quickly decay after falling, make it valuable for the 

 improvement of worn-out soils, and it has been successfully used to 

 clothe the ground under thin Oak-trees in young plantations. But 

 the wood produced in Europe, although it has been shown to pos- 

 sess nearly the same qualities which distinguish it in its native 

 forests, has never been highly esteemed, and the White Pine has 

 not yet received from European silviculturists the attention its 

 success after long trial and under various conditions seems to jus- 

 tify (Hartig, Forst. Culturpfl. Deutschl. 81, t. 8. — Fiscali, Deutsch. 

 Forstcult.-Pfl. 59, t. 2, f . 7-13. — Nordlinger, Forstiot. 401, f . — 

 Mathieu, Fl. Foresticre, ed. 3, 546. — Lorentz, Culture des Bois, ed. 

 6, 156. — Willkomm, Forst. Fl. 153. — Mayr, Garden and Forest, 

 i. io. — Wesmael, Garden and Forest, iii. 494. — R. Hartig, Forst.- 

 Nat. Zeit. i. 442). 



1 Although the White Pine does not quickly or abundantly re- 

 produce itself when fires have been allowed to consume the surface 

 soil of the forest, it succeeds itself on land which has not suffered 

 from fire if sufficient shade is left to protect the young and tender 

 seedlings. In New England it is now occupying great tracts of 

 abandoned farm-lands, and these vigorous young forests, which 

 have sprung up on land worthless for the production of other 

 crops, promise prosperity to these rural regions. During the year 

 ending June 30, 1880, at least one hundred million feet of second- 

 growth white pine were manufactured in New Hampshire and 

 Vermont, while Maine produced nearly as much more. The manu- 

 facture of pails, boxes, and other small articles of second-growth 

 white pine has become an important industry, and the young White 

 Pine forests of central Massachusetts have made Winchendon, 

 Worcester County, the great centre of this industry in the United 

 States. (See Sargent, Rep. Sec. Board Agric. Mass. xxx. 276.) 



A few successful attempts have been made to cultivate the 

 White Pine in New England on a comparatively large scale, and 

 it will probably play an important part in any silvicultural opera- 

 tions which may be undertaken in the northeastern United States 

 (Lyman, Garden and Forest, v. 266 ; ix. 142. — Fernow ; Garden 

 and Forest, v. 609 ; ix. 202. — R. Douglas, Garden and Forest, vi. 

 106. — Garden and Forest, vii. 487). 



2 Beissner, Handb. Nadelh. 291. — Sudworth, Bull. No. 14 Div. 

 Forestry U. S. Dept. Agric. 13. 



3 Pinus Strobus nana (Knight, Syn. Conif. 34 [1850]), which is 

 the most distinct of these abnormal forms of the White Pine, is a 

 low compact round-topped bush seldom growing more than five or 

 six feet high, with short crowded branches and abbreviated leaves. 



Pinus Strobus nivea (Carriere, Trail'e Conif. ed. 2, 400 [1867]) 

 is characterized by denser foliage, shorter silvery white leaves, 

 and lighter colored bark than those of the normal form. 



4 Pliny, xli°. 17. 



