10 USES OF COMMERCIAL WOODS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



times almost wholly, upon it when streams and ravines were to be 

 crossed. 



Long-leaf pine contributed to the machinery used on southern 

 plantations, though in early times the use of farm machinery was 

 more limited than at present. A large part of the work was done 

 by hand labor; but wagons and carts were indispensable, and the 

 beds were of tener made of pine than of any other wood. 



The old Ramage printing press, made a century and a half ago 

 and now in the National Museum at Washington, D. C., is largely 

 of longleaf pine. 



EXPORTS. 



The exportation of building material from the longleaf-pine region 

 began very early, and the lumber for that purpose was sent in small 

 sailing vessels to Cuba and the eastern coast of Mexico and Central 

 America. It was preferred in many cases to the native timber, 

 because it was comparatively free from attack by ants, which in 

 tropical countries frequently destroy houses and eat away bridge 

 timbers. 



The southern pines attained to considerable importance in the ex- 

 port trade soon after the Revolution, and at the beginning of the 

 Civil War were going in quantity to English markets. The closing 

 of the southern ports early in the war left some of the operators and 

 contractors with timbers on hand which they had expected to send 

 abroad. A large number of rafts were caught in the Altamaha 

 River by the blockade, and these the owners towed to places of con- 

 cealment in estuaries and bayous, where they remained unmolested 

 until the war's close. 



It was about that time that the longleaf pine began to displace 

 in English shipyards the pine from Memel (a port on the Baltic 

 Sea). 1 It found place in heavy construction on land, as well as in 

 shipbuilding. It was stronger than the Memel pine and could be 

 had in longer pieces, up to 45, 50, and even 60 feet in length, and 

 14 inches square, free from sap. A favorite use for such timbers in 

 England was for wharves and harbor works, as well as for supports 

 for roofs and galleries in churches and other large buildings. Pave- 

 ment was made of it for shop floors, each block being made of four 

 pieces fastened together with dowels. The timber in England has 

 given 20 years' service in damp and unfavorable places, but has not 

 proved so satisfactory in South Africa, particularly near the Cape 

 of Good Hope and near rivers, where the climate is alternately dry 

 and damp. 



In the export of lumber at the present time from the United States 

 to foreign countries the southern yellow pines are not listed sepa- 



1 Timber, J. R. Baterdeu, London, 1908. 



