T 



WHITE PINE* 



(Pinus Strobus) 



HE best known wood of the United States has never been burdened 

 with a multitude of names, as many minor species have. It is 

 commonly known as white pine in every region where it grows, and in 

 many where the living tree is never seen, except when planted for 

 ornament. The light color of the wood suggests the name. The bark 

 and the foliage are of somber hue, though not as dark as hemlock and 

 many of the pines. The name Weymouth pine is occasionally heard, but 

 it is more used in books than by lumbermen. It is commonly supposed 

 that the name refers to Lord Weymouth who interested himself in the 

 tree at an early period, but this has been disputed. In Pennsylvania it 

 is occasionally called soft pine to distinguish it from the harder and 

 inferior pitch pine and table mountain pine with which it is sometimes 

 associated. It is the softest of the pines, and the name is not in- 

 appropriate. In some regions of the South, where it is well known, 

 it is called northern spruce pine in recognition of the fact that it is a 

 northern species which has followed the Appalachian mountain ranges 

 some hundreds of miles southward. There is no good reason for this 

 name when applied to white pine. It should be remembered, however, 

 that no less than a dozen tree species in the United States are sometimes 

 called spruce pine. Cork pine is a trade name applied more frequently 

 to the wood than to the living tree. It is the wood of old, mature, first 

 class trunks, as nearly perfect as can be found. Pumpkin pine is another 

 name given to the same class of wood. It is so named because the grain 

 is homogeneous, like a pumpkin, and may be readily cut and carved in 

 any direction. It is the ideal wood for the pattern maker, but it is now 

 hard to get because the venerable white pines, many hundred years old, 

 are practically gone. 



The northern limit of the range of white pine stretches from 

 Newfoundland to Manitoba, more than 1800 miles east and west across 

 the Dominion of Canada, and southward to northern Georgia, 1200 

 miles in a north and south direction. But white pine does not grow in 

 all parts of the territory thus delimited. It attained magnificent 



*The following 12 species are usually classed soft pines: White Pine (Pinus 

 sirobus); Sugar Pine (Pinus lambertiana) ; Western White Pine (Pinus monticola); 

 Mexican White Pine (Pinus strobiformis) ; Limber Pine (Pinus flexilis) ; Whitebark 

 Pine (Pinus albicaulis) ; Foxtail Pine (Pinus balfouriana); Parry Pine (Pinus 

 quadrifolia) ; Mexican Pinon (Pinus cembroides) ; Pinon (Pinus edulis); Singleleaf 

 Pinon (Pinus monophylld) ; Bristlecone Pine (Pinus aristata). 



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