64 



AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



for floor* in tome localities. It is probably used more for boxes than for anything 

 ebe at present. In 1909 Massachusetts box makers bought 600,000 feet, and a little 

 more went to Maryland box factories. Its poor holding power on spikes limits its 

 employment as railroad ties and in shipbuilding. Carpenters and furniture makers 

 object to the numerous knots. Country blacksmiths who repair and make wagons 

 as a side line, find it suitable for wagon beds. It is much used as fuel where it is 

 convenient. 



TORRBY PINS (Pinus torrcyand), called del mar pine and Soledad pine, is an 

 interesting tree from the fact that its range is so restricted that the actual number of 

 trees could be easily known to one who would take the trouble to count them. A 

 rather large quantity formerly occupied a small area in San Diego county, California, 

 but woodchoppers who did not appreciate the fact that they were exterminating a 

 species of pine from the face of the earth, cut nearly all of the trees for fuel. Its 

 range covered only a few square miles, and fortunately part of that was included in 

 the city limits of San Diego. An ordinance was passed prohibiting the cutting of a 

 Torrey pine under heavy penalty, and the tree was thus saved. A hundred ana 

 fifty miles off the San Diego coast a few Torrey pines grow on the islands of Santa 

 Cruz and Santa Rosa, and owing to their isolated situation they bid fair to escape the 

 cordwood cutter for years to come. Those who have seen this tree on its native 

 hills have admired the gameness of its battle for existence against the elements. 

 Standing in the full sweep of the ocean winds, its strong, short branches scarcely 

 move, and all the agitation is in the thick tufts of needles which cling to the ends of 

 the branches. Trees exposed to the seawinds are stunted, and are generally less than 

 a foot in diameter and thirty feet high ; but those which are so fortunate as to occupy 

 sheltered valleys are three or four times that size. The needles are five in a cluster. 

 The cones persist on the branches three or four years. The wood is light, soft, moder- 

 ately strong, very brittle; the rings of yearly growth are broad, and the yellow bands 

 of summerwood occupy nearly half. The sapwood is very thick and is nearly white. 



