CONIFERS 155 



and, most important of all, red bark. But the red pine, is a better 

 tree and it is strongly American. Its leaves are twice as long 

 (four to six inches), it grows even higher than the white pine, and 

 it is long-lived. The red pine is sometimes called the Norway 

 pine after Norway in Maine, not Norway in Europe. 



The red pine is also superior to the Austrian, which is the gloom- 

 iest tree in England. But for wind-breaks we need a pine with 

 dense bunches of long, coarse needles. Therefore the Austrian is 

 much planted in America for shelter belts, especially along the 

 sea-shore,, but it dies out after twenty or thirty years. As a lawn 

 tree it is too coarse and dull and it is always shaggy with dead 

 ones, whereas the Scotch pine has the neat habit of dropping its 

 cones as soon as ripe. Whenever we want a wind-break we 

 should plant red pine in preference to the Austrian; it will last 

 longer and it makes cheerful groves because the trunks are red and 

 the foliage, though dark, is lusty and brilliant. 



I am glad the Scotch and Austrian pines are short-lived here, 

 for we do not want our most conspicuous conifer to be like that of 

 any other country. The white pine is our tree. Let us plant that 

 everywhere and try to live up to it. The white pine (Pinus 

 Strobus) is one of the most graceful pines in the world, because of its 

 long, soft brushes, and it is certainly the cheeriest conifer we can 

 have in the North because there is so much white in its foliage. I 

 did not see a white pine in England worth the powder to blow it 

 up. Some one told me there isn't a healthy white pine in 

 England, but this a mistake. 



When it comes to hundred-foot pines the East must own itself 

 beaten by California and England. White and red pine have been 

 known to attain one hundred and twenty feet in the East, but 

 hardly in cultivation, and what is that compared with three hundred 



