Canadian Forcstri/ Journal, Scplrmhcr, li)17 



1291 



The White Pine f- 

 is one of the tallest ! 

 trees of the forests of I 

 North Eastern Am- j 

 erica sometimes at- } 

 tainini? the height 

 of 200 feet with a 

 long columnar trunk 

 3-5 feet in diameter. 

 When growing in the open it develops 

 a wide pyramidal head easily dis- 

 tinguished from all other pines by its 

 bluish green fine-needled foliage and 

 the dark deeply-furrowed bark with 

 which the large trunks are vested. It 

 once constituted tfie bulk of large 

 tracts of forest but being by far the 

 most valuab'e timber tree of its range 

 these tracts have been largely cleared 

 away to meet the needs and wastes of 

 a growing population, and now only 

 occasional monarchs tower ng head and 



THE 



White Pine | 



I By Romeyn B. Hough ! 

 I i 



shoulders above the 

 surrounding forests 

 of other growth sug- 

 gest the magnifi- 

 cence of the prime- 

 val Pine forests. 

 Fortunately it is 

 (juick to reproduce 

 itself and many 

 tracts of land where cultivation has 

 been neglected become quickl^^ cov- 

 ered with its new second growth. 



The wood of the White Pine is the 

 most valuable of the pines for house 

 fmishing, window sash, bhnds, etc. 

 It is light, soft, very easily worked, 

 durable and of a light pinkish-brown 

 color with thin lighter sapwood. Re- 

 produced by permission from Mr. 

 Hough's "Handbook of Trees of 

 Northern States and Canada." R. B. 

 liough, Lowville, N.Y. 



The Bamboos of Japan 



To Canadian eyes the sight of 

 an enormous trestle work of slender 

 bamboo poles carrying a railroad 

 track across a mountain chasm might 

 not immediately inspire confidence. 

 Such, however,is a common occurrence 

 in Japan, where bamboo is used for a 

 multitude of structural purposes. 



.Japan has more than sixty species 

 of bamboo which have been named. 

 The tree grows with amazing rapid- 

 ity. For commercial purposes it is 

 often used split but more commonly 

 in the original round shape for the 

 power of resistance in bamboo against 

 pressure is remarkably great. Cut- 

 ting occurs at from three to ten 

 years, which illustrates the repro- 

 ductive advantage of the bamboo as 

 compared with Canadian spruce, for 

 example, which for saw timber pur- 

 poses cannot be utilized usually until 

 above fifty years. Japan's supply of 

 bamboo forests is constantly increas- 

 ing as artificial afforestation is easy. 



In the form of hoops for barrels and 

 pails, the split bamboo is manufactur- 

 ed in great quantity. 



Bleached bamboos are manu- 

 factured with a view to prevent un- 



sightly change of color or to prevent 

 splitting and other damage by ex- 

 tracting the oil while the bamboos are 

 still in their original round shape. 

 The process gives the bamboo an 

 attractive lustre. 



In the whole of Japan are over 600 

 species of forest woods. Twelve 

 hundred and eighty men are employed 

 on the state-owned forests for pro- 

 tection and improvement. 



DOES QUARTZ CAUSE FIRES? 



A letter to the Forestry Journal 

 last month from Mr. R. F Davy, 

 Assistant Engineer, Department of 

 Public Works, Temiskaming Station, 

 P.Q., raised the question whether 

 fires have been caused by the re- 

 flection of the sun's rays on white 

 quartz on a hill side. The Journal 

 has since heard from an experienced 

 woodsman, now a fire inspector, that 

 he endorses the theory and that sever- 

 al years ago he knew definitely of 

 more than one forest fire that could 

 have owed its origin to no other cause 

 than the sun's rays acting on quartz. 



