WHITE PINE GROVES 251 



tures as gopher wood out of which Noah built 

 the ark. Certainly if the white pine of Josselyn's 

 day was abundant in the neighborhood of Ararat 

 in Noah's time he could have done no better. 

 The wood is light, soft, close and straight 

 grained. You may search the world for one 

 more easily worked or more generally satisfac- 

 tory. Indeed the last half-century has seen the 

 good white pine of the world pretty nearly used 

 up, certainly all the best of it, for woodworking 

 purposes. Fifty years ago it was the cheapest 

 New England wood, today it is the highest- 

 priced, and the old-time clear pine, free from 

 knots and sapwood is almost impossible to obtain 

 at any price. For all the forestry we can bring 

 into play it will take more than three centuries 

 to grow for us such trees as were common in 

 Maine and New Hampshire a century ago. In 

 1832 white pines were not rare in Maine six feet 

 in diameter and 240 feet high. In 1736 near 

 the Merrimac River above Dunstable in New 

 Hampshire a pine was cut, straight and sound 

 and having a diameter at the butt of 7 feet 8 

 inches. Half a thousand years were none too 

 many in which to grow such a pine as that. 

 Could a man have a few of these on his farm 



