88 USES OF COMMEECIAL WOODS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



It is believed that if gray pine is permitted to grow in good soil 

 and in fairly dense stands it will produce saw timber of considerable 

 value. It has been manufactured, on a small scale, in some parts of 

 the Coast Range, and early settlers on Huer Huero Creek, a tributary 

 of Salinas River, built their cabins of gray-pine lumber. Experience 

 has shown that saw logs should be peeled at once after felling, and 

 ought to be converted into lumber within a month or two. The sea- 

 soning should take place in the shade, and heavy weights should be 

 piled on the boards to prevent warping. A fair second-grade lumber 

 will result. 



BY-PRODUCTS. 



Many chemists in Europe and America have been interested in the 

 resin or turpentine produced by the gray pine. A single manufac- 

 turer placed an order for 500 barrels; and several years ago the 

 Alaska Fur Company bought the entire output of a small distilling 

 plant at North Fork, Madera County, Cal. The plant distilled about 

 20 barrels a year of high-grade turpentine from large roots. The 

 plant burned down about 15 years ago, and manufacturing at that 

 place stopped. 



There are two flowing seasons for this tree in the Sierra Nevadas. 

 One opens very early, and closes when the weather grows hot; the 

 other is in full current by the middle of August. The trees are so 

 scattered and of so many sizes that the profitable gathering of tur- 

 pentine will be difficult. It is said that to procure 500 barrels 50,000 

 trees must be tapped, and this number of trees can be found only by 

 covering large areas. 



The seeds of the gray pine are of local value for food, though not in 

 the same degree as those of the singleleaf pine east of the Sierras. 

 The gray-pine nuts have hard shells and must be broken by force 

 before the kernels can be extracted. The Indians gather them in the 

 fall. Next to the Coulter pine, this tree's cones are the heaviest of 

 all American pines. 



WHITE BARK PINE (Pinus albicaulis). 

 PHYSICAL 1 PROPERTIES. 



Weight of dry wood. 26 pounds per cubic foot (Sargent). 1 



Specific gravity. 0.42 (Sargent). 



Ash. 0.27 per cent of weight of dry wood (Sargent). 



Fuel value. 56 per cent that of white oak (Sargent). 



Breaking strength (modulus of rupture). 8,150 pounds per square inch, or 

 51 per cent that of longleaf pine (Sargent). 



Factor of stiffness (modulus of elasticity). 729,000 pounds per square inch, 

 or 34 per cent that of longleaf pine (Sargent). 



1 The weight, specific gravity, ash, fuel value, breaking strength, and factor of stiffness 

 were calculated from a single specimen of the wood which grew on the Frazer River, 

 British Columbia. 



