2jl8 



AUB<!nETUM AND FIU'TICF-TUM. 



PART II f. 



the New York pine, and it is sold at a lower price than that of P. australis, 

 but higher than that of P. 5tr6bus. The long-leaved pine is the principal 

 tree in the extensive pine barrens of the southern states. The timber of it 

 is sent to England, principally from Savannah in Georgia, in planks called 

 " ranging timbers," which are from 15 ft. to 30 ft. long, and 10 in. or 12 in. 

 broad. At Liverpool it is called Georgia pitch pine, and is sold 23 or 30 per 

 cent higher than any other pine imported from the United States. The 

 timber of P. iStrobus is, however, that most generally imported into Eng- 

 land from the United States ; and the best is brought from the district of 

 Maine, particularly from the banks of the river Kennebeck. The persons 

 engaged in felling this timber are generally emigrants from New Hampshire. 

 " In the summer they unite in small companies, and traverse these vast 

 solitudes in every direction, to ascertain the places in which the pines abound. 

 After cutting the grass and converting it into hay for the nourishment of the 

 cattle to be employed in their labour, they return home. In the beginning 

 of winter they enter the forests again, establish themselves in huts covered 

 with the bark of the canoe birch, or arbor vitas ; and, though the cold is so 

 intense that the mercury sometimes remains for several weeks from 40° to 

 50° Fahr. below the freezing point, they persevere in their labour." {M'tchx 

 North Amer. Sj/l. iii. p. 167.) When the trees are felled they cut them into 

 logs of from 14- ft. to 18 ft. long ; and, by means of their cattle, drag them to 

 the river, where they stamp them as a mark of property, and then roll them on 

 its frozen surface, to remain till the breaking up of the ice enables them to 

 float down the current. All the logs that come down the Kennebeck are 

 stopped at Winslow, 120 miles from the sea; where each person selects his 

 own, and forms them into rafts with the intention of selling them to the 

 proprietors of the numerous saw mills between that place and the sea ; or 

 of having them sawn into planks for his own benefit, at the price of half, or 

 even three quarters of the product in abundant years. The logs that are not 

 sawn the first year, adds Michaux, are attacked by large worms, which form 

 holes about 2 lines in diameter, in every direction ; but, if stripped of their 

 bark, they will remain uninjured for thirty years. The district of Maine 

 furnishes three fourths of all the white pine exported from the United States, 

 including what is brought from New Hampshire, by the Merimack, to Bos- 

 ton. That cut on the shores of Lake Champlain is carried to Quebec 

 by the Sorel and the St. Lawrence. " What is furnished by the southern 

 part of the lake is sawn at Skeensborough, transported 70 miles in the 

 winter on sledges to Albany; and, with all the 'lumber' of North River, 



