76 TIMBER 



and California, and grows at from 1,500 to 8,000 ft. above 

 sea level. Botanically it closely resembles the P. strains, 

 but is a larger tree and of rapid growth ; has an average 

 height of 150 to 175 ft. and a diameter of 4 to 5 ft., with a 

 maximum height of 235 ft. and 12 ft. diameter. The w r ood 

 is soft, straight grained, easily worked, very resinous, and 

 has a satiny lustre which makes it appreciated for 

 interior work ; its colour is very like Baltic redwood. It 

 is extensively used for doors, blinds, sashes, and interior 

 finish, also for druggists' drawers, owing to its freedom 

 from odour, for oars, mouldings, shipbuilding, coopers' 

 work, shingles, and the poorer grades for fruit boxes. It 

 is largely replacing white pine, owing to its cheapness. 

 The timber is fairly free from attacks of fungus, and very 

 durable, as proof of which many mills are now working 

 up large logs which have lain on the ground for thirty or 

 forty years, and though the sapwood has rotted away the 

 heartwood is usually as sound as on the day the tree was 

 felled. 



Very little of the timber goes abroad, owing to the 

 difficulties of transport, but in 1905 over 400,000 cubic 

 feet were exported via Galveston, the larger portion of 

 which went to Australia, and the balance to Great Britain. 



Weight about 30 Ibs. per cubic foot. 



Western Yellow Pine (P. ponderosa), or bull pine, is the 

 most widely distributed tree in the West, its range com- 

 prising almost the whole of the Pacific and liocky Mountain 

 regions. It is sold under the names of western pine, western 

 white pine, and California white pine, closely resembles 

 the Jeffrey pine (P. jeffreyi), and attains a height of nearly 

 200 ft. with a maximum diameter of 6 to 7 ft. ; it is 

 more subject to insect attack than probably any other 

 western conifer, grows much more rapidly than the sugar 



