COMMERCIAL USES OF WHITE PINE 



391 



White pine prefers fertile, well-drained soil, but grows 

 satisfactorily in all but the driest sands or very swampy 

 lands. Its most common associate is the hemlock, but it 

 also grows with other conifers and with the northern 

 hardwoods. Forests composed almost entirely of white 

 pine occur under natural conditions and it thrives when 

 planted alone or mixed with other species. It is the most 

 important tree for reforesting waste lands in the north- 

 eastern United States, and of late years thousands of 

 acres have been planted with it, mostly by private own- 

 ers. Its rate of growth is rapid and evenly maintained. 

 In 35 years White pine trees in a fully stocked plantation 

 will reach forty to fifty feet in height and yield from 

 10,000 feet to 30,000 feet B. M., depending on condi- 

 tions of growth and the closeness with which the trees 

 can be utilized. A White pine plantation in Connecticut, 

 31 years after planting, had an estimated yield of 

 15,000 feet B. M. per acre, on poor soil. In the same 

 state, a 50-year old plantation, on medium soil, yielded 

 41,000 feet B .M. per acre. In 75 years, a plantation on 

 poor soil, also in Connecticut, gave a yield of 60,000 feet 

 B. M. In the first example the value of the stumpage 

 was estimated to be $75 per acre, in the second instance, 

 $292 per acre, and in the third $422 per acre. As an orna- 

 mental tree the White pine is highly prized because of 

 its silvery, feathery foliage, its symmetrical growth in 

 youth, and its dignity and character in old age. It is 

 extensively planted, not only in its native region, but in 

 distant States, and in Europe it has been recognized as 

 one of the most valuable American trees, both for orna- 

 mental and commercial planting. 



The White pine appears to have more than its fair 

 share of enemies. In early life grazing cattle and forest 

 fires are destructive. In the Eastern States, the White 

 pine weevil attacks the leading shoots of saplings and 

 kills the tips ; usually a side branch turns upward to 

 continue growth, but this causes a bad crook in the 

 trunk, and if the tree is attacked several times, it is 



permanently deformed. The gypsy moth defoliates and 

 kills White pine trees at times, and another imported, 

 insect enemy, the leopard moth, will become highly 

 destructive to it if it is not controlled. Several other 

 insects, such as the cottony scale, also injure it, as well 

 as a root disease which may be related in some way to 

 the nodules (mycorhiza) commonly found on the root- 

 lets. The White pine needle blight does not appear to 

 be so detrimental as was feared several years ago. 



None of these troubles compare in seriousness with 

 the White pine blister rust, which threatens to become 

 as destructive to the White pines of the United States, 

 both the eastern species and those in the mountains of 

 the West, as the chestnut blight has been to the chestnut 

 trees. The blister rust was brought to the United States 

 from Europe some years ago on nursery stock, and in 

 spite of the efforts made by the National and State 

 officials to prevent this disease from gaining a foot- 

 hold in this country, new outbreaks have been found 

 each year. The disease has been spread most widely in 

 Massachusetts because of the extensive planting of White 

 pine in that State, but it is also present in Vermont, 

 New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York and Pennsyl- 

 vania, and a few infections have recently been discovered 

 as far west as Wisconsin and Minnesota. 



Efforts to control the blister rust are being made by 

 the various States concerned, in cooperation with the 

 United States Department of Agriculture. The success- 

 ful outcome of this endeavor depends largely on the 

 interest shown by White pine owners and others in 

 locating infections and in applying the proper measures 

 to prevent the further spread of the disease. It is to 

 be hoped that Byron had not the gift of prophecy when 

 he wrote: 



"These blasted pines, 

 Wrecks of a single winter, barkless, branchless, 

 A blighted trunk upon a cursed root." 



Commercial Uses of White Pine 



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OTHER American timber-producing trees have a 

 wider range than white pine, but it is not believed 

 that any have yielded, in the aggregate, a larger 

 amount of lumber. One reason for the important posi- 

 tion held by white pine lumber for-nearly three centuries 

 is the fact that it grew in great abundance and perfection 

 in the region where the settlement and commercial de- 

 velopment of America began. The wood is light and 

 resinous, the logs can be floated long distances, and the 

 finest white pine forests existed on the headwaters of all 

 the principal rivers from Maine to Minnesota. 



White pine forests originally covered about 350,000 

 square miles of territory in the United States, and it 

 seems probable that this area has furnished nearly five 

 hundred thousand million feet, b. m., of white pine lum- 

 ber since 1023, the year that sawmills in New York first 



began to manufacture it. In 1 635, a cargo of white pine 

 masts was shipped to England from Plymouth, Massachu- 

 setts. From this beginning a profitable and extensive for- 

 eign trade has developed in "Weymouth pine," as the 

 white pine is known abroad. In the early days, white 

 pine lumber also went from New England to Africa and 

 was paid for in slaves that were sold in Virginia and the 

 West Indies. Because of limited knowledge of the extent 

 of the American wilderness, it was predicted in Massachu- 

 setts as early as 1650 that the supply of white pine would 

 soon be exhausted, but in 1700 white pine planks 36 

 inches wide and 36 feet long were easily procured for the 

 decks of vessels. In 1706 it is known that 70 sawmills 

 were operating on the Piscataqua River, and this was 

 the center of the white pine industry of that period. 

 These mills had only old-fashioned, up-and-down sash- 



