The White Pine 109 



The white pine is one of the finest and most 

 valuable trees in the forests of America. It is a 

 giant of a tree, often a hundred and fifty feet 

 high. The trunk is large and very straight, and 

 the lowest branches are far above the ground. 



The white pine's leaves or needles grow in 

 clusters of five. They are of a blue-green color, 

 straight and slender. Each needle is three- 

 sided, with a small, blunt point at the end, and 

 may be from a single inch to more than a foot 

 long. 



The tree's fruit is a cone, which ripens in the 

 summer of the second season, and falls from the 

 tree during the winter or spring. It is green, 

 from four to eight inches long, and covered with 

 loose scales. The pine has very small winged 

 seeds, which the winds carry far from the mother 

 tree when the cone finally opens to let them out. 



On the young trees the bark is smooth and 

 green, turning to a dark gray as the tree grows 

 older; that on the trunks of large trees is broken 

 up by long, deep furrows. 



The pine's wood is light and soft. Much of 

 it is used as lumber for building our homes, for 

 the woodwork inside, and in making furniture 



