144 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



exposed to the elements or when set in the ground, its timber 

 cannot compete with many of the harder woods ; but, if well 

 seasoned and kept carefully painted, it will endure for centu- 

 ries without any symptoms of decay, as we find attested by 

 many wooden houses, more especially in our large towns. 



Where entirely covered, it seems to be incorruptible. But 

 were its durability less, the other qualities to which we have 

 adverted — namely, its lightness and softness — would form a 

 most liberal equivalent. 



It is not easy to estimate how much the rapid advancement 

 of New England may have been owing to the abundance of this 

 valuable tree. The importance of shelter is a point which it 

 requires few lessons from our winter climate to set forth; and 

 by no tree with which we are acquainted could this want be 

 supplied so rapidly and easily as by the white pine. At the 

 value which human labor has always maintained among us, the 

 difference of expense to New England which would have result- 

 ed from the general employment of the oak, for instance, in- 

 stead of the pine, for our houses, would be enormous. In many 

 parts of the valley of the Mississippi, this pine, as well as al- 

 most every other species of pine, is exceedingly rare. 



The settlers are in consequence obliged to substitute the 

 oak, both for their houses and their furniture. Their dwell- 

 ings (we speak of the new settlers) are generally of oak, filled 

 in with earth, and arc quite inferior, both in appearance and 

 comfort, to those which we find in the newly-cleared lands of 

 Maine. We arc scarcely less indebted to the white pine for 

 our commercial and naval than for our civil architecture. It 

 is this tree which gives us, not indeed the frames, but the 

 masts, of our vessels, for which it is admirably fitted, by the 

 degree in which it combines the qualities of durability and 

 lightness, as well as by the straightness of its trunk. 



Its place for this purpose, in the Northern and Middle States. 

 could hardly be supplied. During our colonial existence its 

 value was fully appreciated by the mother country ; and, more 

 than one hundred years ago, some statutes were passed re- 

 stricting the cutting of trees proper for masts. 



There is no evidence, however, that these statutes were ever 

 enforced ; and, however useful in their design, they would inter- 



