282 WOODS OF COMMERCE. 



"Yellow, Broom," or "Long-straw Pine"; and generally, 

 especially in foreign trade, as "Pitch Pine," associated with 

 the name of the port of origin, such as Darien, Pensacola, 

 Savannah, etc. Height 50100 ft.; diam. 1| 4 ft. S.G. 

 932498. W 3944. E 950 tons, e' 1-931-53. p' -91- 

 1-3. / 3-57. ft 45-09. c 4666. c -616. fc 3-99. v' -847. 

 Imported in logs and planks, 20 45 ft. long, squaring 11 18 in., 

 or 3 5 in. thick and 10 15 in. wide. Reddish, resembling the 

 Northern Pine (P. sylvdstris), but heavier and more resinous, 

 owing to which latter character the broad zone of autumn wood 

 appears greasy, tough, compact, clean, regular, straight, and 

 sometimes fine and sometimes rather coarse in grain, susceptible 

 of a high polish, rigid, rather difficult to work, but harder and 

 stronger than other American Pine, liable to heart and cup- 

 shake; but, I believe, very durable. "There are," says Mr. 

 Stevenson, "numerous architects and civil engineers who rigidly 

 adhere to the use of Memel and Dantzic Fir, and who will not 

 allow the use of Pitch Pine, whilst there are others who rank 

 it almost with the Oak, and state that in piling, and in jetties, 

 exposed to the tides and weather, it will last double and treble 

 the time allotted to Memel and Dantzic Fir." It is still the most 

 abundant, and by far the most valuable Pine in the Atlantic 

 States, occupying a belt from 80 to 125 miles wide, once covering 

 130,000 square miles. "Invaded from every direction by the 

 axe, a prey to fires which weaken the mature trees and destroy 

 the tender saplings, wasted by the pasturage of domestic animals, 

 and destroyed for the doubtful profits of the turpentine industry, 

 the forests . . . appear hopelessly doomed to lose their com- 

 mercial importance at no distant day " (Sargent). Millions of 

 feet of marketable timber are constantly destroyed by the care- 

 lessness of the turpentine-workers. As a source of turpentine it 

 is the most important species in the world. Its timber is used in 

 shipbuilding for spars, beams, and planking, the redder wood 

 ("Red Pine" of the dock-yards in the Northern States) being 

 specially valued for durability and a greater power of resisting 

 the ship-worm than that possessed by Oak. In English ship- 



