SECRETARY'S REPORT. 143 



sometimes said to reach the height of more than two hundred 

 feet; and Michaux actually . measured one which had been 

 felled, and which exceeded one hundred and fifty; and the 

 trunk is singularly smooth and straight. 



A magnificent appearance is far from its chief recommenda- 

 tion. We know not that we in Nosv England arc equally in- 

 debted to any other production of our forests, not even to 

 the oak. Michaux remarks that throughout the Northern 

 States, except in the larger capitals, seven-tenths of the houses 

 are of wood ; of which seven-tenths, three quarters, estimated 

 at half a million, (this estimate was made nearly fifty years 

 ago,) are of white pine. 



In the first part of this statement there is a mistake quite 

 remarkable in a writer of such singular research and accuracy. 

 If we except the larger capitals, we ought to say, not that 

 seven-tenths, but nine-tenths, at least, of houses in the northern 

 States arc wooden; indeed, the number of those of a different 

 description may be considered as too small to deserve notice; 

 and of these nine-tenths, the great mass are of white pine. 

 This tree owes its selection for this .most important purpose 

 to one quality in particular — the small expense of labor at 

 which it can be fashioned and put together. 



While it is more durable and better able to bear exposure 

 to the fierce temperature and sudden changes of our climate 

 than any other pine which abounds in New England, it is also 

 lighter, softer, and more free from knots. In favorable situa- 

 tions the diameter of the trunk varies from three to seven 

 feet; and thus it furnishes planks of ample dimensions for 

 building. This tree has also one important quality, in common 

 with the locust, which is denied to many other of our best tim- 

 ber trees : we mean the great proportion which the heart, or 

 perfect wood, bears even in young trees to the alburnum, or 

 sapwood, being not less than eleven to one in trees of a foot 

 in diameter. In all timber, after felling, it is the sapwood 

 which is the first to decay, and which is as unfit for any useful 

 purpose as the unripencd products of Nature generally. Hence 

 it is an important element in the value of the white pine that 

 it ripens its wood at so early a period. 



It is true, after all, that in point of durability, when freely 



