WHAT TO PLANT. 75 



value for fuel. Prof. Sargent, of the Arnold 

 Arboretum, commends it in strong terms, and 

 expresses the opinion that we have no tree that 

 promises to give the planter so valuable return 

 in an equal space of time. 



An entire and very valuable class of trees, 

 with the exception of a single one which we 

 have mentioned, remains to be spoken of. It is 

 that of the evergreens, or trees which are not 

 stripped of their leaves during any part of the 

 year, distinguished otherwise as the coniferous 

 or cone-bearing trees. As a class they are of a 

 softer texture and less specific gravity than 

 those of which we have hitherto spoken, and 

 which, in commercial language, are known as 

 " hard-woods." But the evergreens are not less 

 valuable than the latter. Indeed, they make up 

 the great bulk of our lumber-traffic, and furnish 

 the largest share of material used in the arts and 

 industries of mechanical life. Nine tenths of the 

 lumber in the market now is probably that of a 

 single species of the evergreens, the white pine. 

 The forests of the Pacific slope are made up 

 almost wholly of the coniferous trees, the red- 

 wood being the principal; and a belt of pines 



