WESTERN YELLOW PINE. 63 



EARLY USES. 



The western yellow pine was one of the earliest woods of the far 

 West to be employed as mine props, and in many localities met the 

 whole demand. The timber was sufficiently strong for the purpose, 

 and the supply was usually abundant. Quartz mills for crushing the 

 ores accompanied the underground mining operations, and in most 

 cases steam engines furnished the power. The fuel was wood cut 

 from the surrounding hills and canyons, and this pine supplied a 

 large part of it. A single mine sometimes stripped hundreds of acres 

 for fuel and props. 



This timber performed an important part in railroad building on 

 the western mountains and plateaus. The procuring of ties and 

 bridge and trestle timbers was frequently one of the most difficult 

 problems to be solved by the engineers. The forests of western yellow 

 pine were drawn upon in many places where no other wood was avail- 

 able. In 1869, when the Kansas & Pacific Railroad was building, 

 yellow-pine ties and bridge timbers were cut in Colorado and hauled 

 by teams long distances eastward into Kansas. The Colorado South- 

 ern Railroad and the Denver & Rio Grande were built to a large 

 extent with yellow-pine ties cut in Colorado. 



Western yellow pine is coming into use among the electrical com- 

 panies of southern California^ for telephone poles. The wood, which 

 is sufficiently strong, had been ruled out in the past on the ground 

 of insufficient durability. Methods of treating the butts of the poles 

 with preservatives have been developed which are doing away with 

 this difficulty. There are numerous stands of young timber through- 

 out the range of the tree which are of just the right size for pole 

 purposes. 



During the Civil War the turpentine supply from the South was 

 cut off, and the extraordinary demand for it and the high price stim- 

 ulated the industry wherever yellow pine could be found in sufficient 

 quantity. The extensive yellow-pine forests on the sides and summits 

 of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, in Butte and Tehama Counties, Cal., 

 were boxed and the business was profitable for a time. After the close 

 of the war the southern forests became available and the Sierra Ne- 

 vada pineries were abandoned by turpentine gatherers. The boxing 

 caused great injury to the trees, and 40 years afterwards the trunks 

 had not recovered. 



MANUFACTURE AND PRODUCTS. 



Westerr yellow pine has uses ranging from the coarsest construc- 

 tion to highly finished products. House frames, beams, joists, rafters, 

 sills, sheathing, and studding are cut in all workable dimensions. It 



