EVERGREEN TREES. 147 
CHAPTER XII. 
EVERGREEN TREES. 
Our indigenous Evergreen trees do not offer so great 
_ pecuniary inducements for growing for timber as the decid- 
: uous ; they grow as rapidly, and their wood is valuable, but 
| it requires a longer time for the trees to attain an available 
size for the purposes for which they are chiefly used. The 
largest of our Evergreens, such as the Pine and Hemlock, 
are mainly used for boards, planks, and sawed timber, and 
for such purposes large trees are required, and to grow 
these, forty or more years are requisite. The value of our 
Evergreen forests is seldom or never appreciated, and we 
are very much inclined to attribute all the wealth, progress, 
and all that has contributed to place our country in its 
high and enviable position to its free institutions and lib- 
eral government; and while no one would wish to depre- 
ciate these, still I am equally certain that our noble forests 
have contributed largely toward elevating us to our present 
situation. The immigrant finds cheap, rich lands and a 
patronizing government; still, these would aid him but 
little toward making a home; he must have shelter for 
himself and his family, and our forests have supplied the 
materials, and so cheaply, that he can not only make one 
that is comfortable, but more or less elegant. 
We may dig canals, build railroads, and set up the tele- 
- graph, but we must have wood to complete them; and so 
