SHORTLEAF PINE. 17 



at present among the varnish manufacturers, but there is a possibility 

 of its use as a substitute for linseed oil in the manufacture of paints. 



SHOBTLEAF PINE (Pinus echinata). 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. 



Weight of dry wood. 38 pounds per cubic foot (Sargent). 



Specific gravity. 0.61 (Sargent). 



Ash. 0.29 per cent of dry weight of wood (Sargent). 



Fuel value. 82 per cent that of white oak (Sargent). 



Breaking strength (modulus of rupture). 10,800 pounds per square inch, or 

 67 per cent that of longleaf pine (Sargent). 



Factor of stiffness (modulus of elasticity). 1,948,000 pounds per^square 

 inch, or 97 per cent that of longleaf pine (Sargent). 



Character and qualities. Heavy, hard, moderately strong; grain rather fine, 

 even ; annual rings generally wide near the heart, followed by zone of. narrow 

 rings; suinrnerwood broad, often occupying half the width of the -annual 

 growth ; resin moderately abundant, especially near base and near knots ; resin 

 passages numerous, medullary rays numerous, conspicuous; color, orange or 

 lighter yellow, the sapwood nearly white; not durable. 



Growth. Height, 60 to 90 feet ; diameter, 1 to 3 feet. 



SUPPLY. 



The commercial range of shortleaf pine lies principally in Alabama, 

 Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, South Caro- 

 lina, and Texas. The lumber is known under many names in different 

 localities, among them being yellow pine, spruce pine, bull pine, 

 shortschat pine, pitch pine, poor pine, shortleaved yellow pine, rose- 

 mary pine, Virginia yellow pine, North Carolina yellow pine, North 

 Carolina pine, Carolina pine, slash pine, and oldfield pine. 



The botanical range of shortleaf pine is much more extensive than 

 its commercial range. In many regions the growth is scattered, and 

 only a few trees are found here and there. Early botanists reported 

 the species as far north as Albany, N. Y., but it long ago disappeared 

 from that latitude, and it is doubtful if it is now to be found north 

 of central Pennsylvania. A century or more ago lumbermen cut 

 large quantities of shortleaf pine on the main stream and tributaries 

 of the Potomac and floated the logs to tidewater at Georgetown. The 

 operations were west of the Blue Ridge, in contiguous parts of Mary- 

 land, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Shortleaf pine has now ceased to 

 exist as a source of lumber in that region. 1 



Thirty years ago the stand west of the Mississippi was estimated 

 approximately at 95 billion feet. That was before much lumbering 

 had been done in that part of its range. The largest cut of short- 



1 It is noteworthy that Indians who roamed through the Shenandoah Valley before its 

 settlement by white people called the Shenandoah " Pine River," or, as the name was 

 literally translated by Heckwelder, " River that flows past ' spruce pine.' " (William E. 

 Connelley's Memoirs of John Heckwelder.) 



101500 Bull. 9911 2 



