The Pines 



vigour characterises thousands which endure the shade and soon 

 spring to a height that resists the fires that menace them. 



The wood of the Cuban pine is not distinguished in the 

 markets from longleaf pine, and it serves the same uses. Spars 

 of the hirgest dimensions, straight and free from blemish, come 

 out of these coast pineries. The wide, porous sap wood and the 

 coarse grain once counted against this tree, but they are now con- 

 sidered distinct advantages, for this kind of v^ood more readily 

 absorbs creosote and other preservatives by infiltration, and kiln- 

 drying converts the sap wood into good lumber. 



Turpentine of higher quality than that of longleaf pine is 

 derived from these trees, which also abound in other resinous 

 matters. Young trees are ready for tapping at forty years; and 

 in this time a new forest has replaced the one stripped by lum- 

 bermen. A large part of the turpentine exported by Georgia and 

 South Carolina to-day is from land thus spontaneously reforested. 

 The future of our na\'al stores depends to a large extent on the 

 perpetuity of the forests of Cuban pine. 



Western Yellow Pine {P. ponderosa, Laws.)— Spire-like 

 tree with stout, short horizontal branches; loo to 230 feet high, 

 with trunk 5 to 8 feet thick. Bark thick, cinnamon-red, some- 

 times black, becoming furrowed and broken into large plates. 

 Wood light red, strong, hard, very heavy, not durable, fine 

 grained. Z^z/Js ovate, brown, scaly, terminal the largest. Leaves 

 in threes, or in twos and threes, stout, rigid, shiny, 3 to 15 

 inches long, yellow-green, tufted on ends of naked branches; 

 last till third season; sheath persistent. Flowers: staminate 

 yellow, in crowded spikes; pistillate dark red, oval, subterminal, 

 clustered or paired. Fniiis green or purple when full grown; 

 scales conspicuously beaked, with recurved point. Preferred 

 habitat, deep, well-drained soil on mountain slopes or elevated 

 plains. Distribution, British Columbia and Black Frills south 

 through Rocky Mountains and coast ranges to Texas and Mexico. 

 Uses: Principal lumber tree of Northwestern and Southwestern 

 states. Used in building, for railroad ties, fencing and fuel. 



The most extensive pine forests in the world are those of the 

 yellow pine in the mountainous West of our own country. The 

 hardihood of this tree is the wonder of foresters and botanists, 

 and the admiration of everybody who knows anything about it. 

 Pines are particular trees, as a rule. They like one type of soil 



42 



