NORWAY PINE 



(Pinus Resinosd) 



EARLY explorers who were not botanists mistook this tree for 

 Norway spruce, and gave it the name which has since remained in 

 nearly all parts of its range. It is called red pine also, and this name is 

 strictly descriptive. The brown or red color of the bark is instantly 

 noticed by one who sees the tree for the first time. In the Lake States it 

 has been called hard pine for the purpose of distinguishing it from the 

 softer white pine with which it is associated. In England they call it 

 Canadian red pine, because the principal supply in England is imported 

 from the Canadian provinces. 



Its chief range lies in the drainage basin of the St. Lawrence river, 

 which includes the Great Lakes and the rivers which flow into them. 

 Newfoundland forms the eastern and Manitoba the western outposts of 

 this species. It is found as far south as Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, 

 northern Ohio, central Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. It con- 

 forms pretty generally to the range of white pine but does not accom- 

 pany that species southward along the Appalachian mountain ranges 

 across West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Where it 

 was left to compete in nature's way with white pine, the contest was 

 friendly, but white pine got the best of it. The two species grew in 

 intermixture, but in most instances white pine had from five to twenty 

 trees to Norway's one. As a survivor under adversity, however, the 

 Norway pine appears to surpass its great friendly rival, at least in the 

 Lake States where the great pineries once flourished and have largely 

 passed away. Solitary or small clumps of Norway pines are occasionally 

 found where not a white pine, large or small, is in sight. 



The forest appearance of Norway pine resembles the southern 

 yellow pines. The stand is open, the trunks are clean and tall, the 

 branches are at the top. The Norway's leaves are in clusters of two, 

 and are five or six inches long. They fall during the fourth or fifth 

 year. Cones are two inches long, and when mature, closely resemble 

 the color of the tree's bark, that is, light chestnut brown. Exceptionally 

 tall Norway pines may reach a height of 150 feet, but the average is 

 seventy or eighty, with diameters of from two to four. Young trees are 

 limby, but early in life the lower branches die and fall, leaving few 

 protruding stubs or knots. It appears to be a characteristic that trunks 

 are seldom quite straight. They do not have the plumb appearance of 

 forest grown white pine and spruce. 



The wood of Norway pine is medium light, its strength and stiffness 



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