A CENTURY IN THE GROUND 



213 



Rocky Mountains and beyond, the Western forests of 

 white pines, which are now among our most valuable 

 trees, will be endangered. At a very conservative esti- 

 mate, the government and private holdings in these for- 

 ests represent a valuation of $240,000,000. 



Compliance with this request on the part of nursery- 

 men may make it unnecessary for the Department of 

 Agriculture to declare a quarantine covering the known 

 infested States, prohibiting the further interstate move- 

 ment of white pine, currants and gooseberries. With the 

 cooperation of the nurserymen, as proposed, very little, if 

 any, hardship will be experienced, and the protection 

 which a quarantine would give will be secured without 

 restriction on the general nursery trade in the Eastern 

 half of the United States. 



The States within the range of the Western white 

 pines will be warned of the danger from Eastern nursery 

 stock, of white pines, currants and gooseberries, and the 

 inspectors of all of the Western States will be asked to 

 notify this board of the shipment into their several 

 States of any of the stock referred to from points east of 

 the western line of the States enumerated. If, as a result 

 of this request, no such shipments are made, further ac- 

 tion may be unnecessary. If, however, nurserymen 

 should ignore this request, it is practically certain that 

 a quarantine will have to be established at an early date 

 prohibiting the interstate movement of these plants from 

 the infested States. 



WOODEN PIPE A CENTURY IN THE GROUND 



SOME exceedingly interesting specimens of wood that 

 have stood the test of time have come to light in 

 Philadelphia recently in the work of relocating 

 sewers in preparation for the new subway system. At 

 the southwest corner of Washington Square, a section 

 of wooden pipe in excellent condition was chopped out 

 where it crossed a trench that was being dug. It was 



about four feet from the surface of the ground to the 

 center of the pipe. The wood was positively identified 

 as Pinus rigida, or pitch pine. This tree grew to good 

 proportions about here in the early days. 



From 1790 to 1795, Philadelphia was scourged several 

 time with epidemics of yellow fever, and the water 

 supply was blamed. A "Watering Committee" accepted 

 the plan of Benjamin Henry Latrobe; the entire system 

 was of wooden pipes, as no others were known then. 

 The total of wooden pipe in use by the city at any one 

 time seems to have been forty-five and a half miles, and 

 it was not until 1817 that the first cast-iron pipe was 

 used. The specimens now being taken out were in the 

 plans of the first system and were undoubtedly laid in 

 the years 1799 to 1801. While the color has been changed 

 slightly clear through the log, and the odor has been 

 affected, the wood still retains a resinous aroma and is 

 firm in texture. The logs used were of a size suitable 

 to the size of bore, which varied from 3 to 6 inches. 

 The specimen photographed had a 4-inch bore and the 

 log was about 14 inches in diameter when taken up. 



Wood was practically the whole thing in this first 

 water-works system, even the boilers and much of the 

 pumping engines having been of that material. 



WILL PLANT NUT TREES 



THE Board of Estimates of Baltimore has approved 

 the city forester's plan for the planting of fifteen 

 nut trees this spring. City Forester Maxwell ex- 

 pects to use these trees on one of the city reservations 

 where conditions of growth are good and if the experi- 

 ment proves successful to extend the use of nut trees to 

 other city planting. He is trying to initiate the European 

 idea of getting something more than shade service from 

 trees that are planted. He will use either English wal- 

 nuts or pecans in the planting. 



A CENTURY IN THE GROUND 



This piece of pitch pine was used in Philadelphia as a water pipe. It 

 has a 4-inch bore and the log was about 14 inches in diameter when 

 taken up. It had been in the ground over a hundred years. 



IDENTIFICATION OF WOODS 



OVER 1,000 samples of wood are annually submitted 

 to the United States Forest Products Laboratory, 

 Madison, Wis., for identification. The requests 

 vary in importance from one case in which a party wished 

 to know from what kind of wood a particular chess 

 pawn was made to that of a contractor who had thou- 

 sands of ties rejected by a railroad on the ground that 

 they were red oak instead of white oak as specified. As 

 a rule experienced lumbermen can readily distinguish be- 

 tween species commonly handled, but when a particular 

 specimen shows some abnormal growth or discoloration 

 they are in doubt. At the Forest Products Laboratory 

 samples are usually examined under the microscope 

 which makes visible many characteristics not visible to 

 the unaided eye. The distinguishing characteristics of 

 over 400 native and 100 foreign words have been studied 

 and arranged in systematic order for use in identifying 

 samples submitted. 



