PINON. 81 



to drive hogs slowly across the Sierras during the late summer, 

 arriving in the pine belt about the time the nuts began to fall. The 

 herds fattened two months on the abundant mast and were then ready 

 for market. This occurred in the region of the Mono Indians, and 

 the name Mono mast pine was applied to the tree. 1 



Although the nut harvest in the aggregate is enormous, and a pro- 

 portion so small as to be almost negligible is ever gathered by man, 

 yet in certain localities former plenty has been changed to little or 

 nothing, due to the cutting of the trees for fuel and mine timbers. 

 The white man's and the Indian's interest clashed many times on 

 the desert frontier, the red man defending his food tree and the 

 white man bent on taking it away. 



MEXICAN PINON (Pinus cembroides). 



The Mexican pinon has its northern limit in southern Arizona and 

 New Mexico, where the trees are comparatively numerous, but so 

 small that they contribute scarcely any saw timber, though something 

 to the region's fuel supply and to the needs of ranches. Its average 

 height is only about 30 feet and its diameter less than 1 foot. The 

 nuts have hard shells, like those of gray pine, and are edible. The 

 tree is sometimes called nut pine, pinon, and stone-seed Mexican 

 pinon. The wood is light, soft, very close ringe,d^ compact; bands of 

 small summer cells thin, not conspicuous, resin passages few, small; 

 medullary rays numerous, obscure ; color light, clear yellow, the sap- 

 wood nearly white. The wood's weight is 40.58 pounds per cubic 

 foot, specific gravity 0.65, and ash 0.9 per cent of dry weight of wood. 

 (Sargent.) 



PINON (Pinus edulis). 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. 



Weight of dry wood. 39.8 pounds per cubic foot (Sargent). 



Specific gravity. 0.64 (Sargent). 



Ash. 0.62 per cent of weight of dry wood (Sargent). 



Fuel value. 85 per cent that of white oak (Sargent). 



Breaking strength (modulus of rupture). 6,300 pounds per square inch, or 

 39 per cent that of longleaf pine (Sargent). 



Factor of stiffness (modulus of elasticity). 604,000 pounds per square inch, 

 or 29 per cent that of longleaf pine (Sargent). 



Character and qualities. Wood heavy, hard, weak, brittle ; annual rings 

 very narrow; summerwood thin, not conspicuous; resin passages few, small; 

 medullary rays numerous, obscure; color, light brown, the sapwood nearly 

 white ; moderately durable in contact with the soil. 



Growth. Height, 10 to 25 feet; diameter, 6 to 20 inches. 



J The herding of the hogs on the pine mast was often attended with danger. The 

 Indians of the immediate vicinity resented the invasion, and with reason, since their food 

 supply was being devoured by the hogs. They retaliated by stealing as many of the 

 swine as possible, and sometimes offered violence to the herders. Bears of large size 

 and savage nature also left off gathering nuts and fell upon the swine with appetites so 

 voracious that the herders were compelled to wage constant war upon the marauders. 



101500 Bull. 9911 6 



