CONIFEROUS WOODS 



529 



and poplar growth, are now annually cut down to furnish paper 

 pulp. It has been recently proposed to utilize cotton stems for 

 paper pulp. Ten million or more tons of the raw material, worth 

 nearly a dollar a ton for this purpose, are now annually avail- 

 able in the cotton-growing states. 



7. TIMBER 



504. Coniferous woods. The wood of our cone-bearing trees 

 (mainly of the pine family) is generally known as soft wood, 



FIG. 392. Forest of hard or yellow pine (Firms palustris) on southern 



coastal plain of the United States 



After Frye 



and that of our broad-leaved, mostly deciduous trees is known 

 as hard wood. These terms are not quite correct, for the conif- 

 erous larches and yews furnish a harder wood than that of such 

 broad-leaved trees as willows, poplars, tulip trees, and buckeyes. 

 Out of the entire timber supply of the country more than 

 three quarters is at present furnished by the thirty-eight or more 



