266 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
valuable timber; for it is tall, straight, of uniform diameter throughont its length, 
and free from knots; all which qualities combine to render it fit for spars, which 
fetch double or treble the sum per foot that the other trees do. The large and 
spreading trees are on the outskirts of the masses, and straggle here and there in 
groups or single trees.” These last are the trees which are described by tourists, and 
drawn by artists as the Highland pine. 
The pine forests of the Continent have suffered like those of the Highlands of 
Scotland, but in Germany and France the work of reproduction goes on with a rapidity 
which is interrupted in Scotland by the pasturing of cattle and sheep, which, as well 
as the deer, browse on the young seedling trees, and prevent their growth. 
The wood of the pine is light, but strong, and nearly as durable as oak when kept 
dry, and answers well for house-building, and is only inferior to oak for ships, the 
best masts and spars being made of it. A great deal of the pine wood that is used in 
ship-yards is imported from the Baltic and from Norway, and the most celebrated 
masts in Europe are those of Riga. The value of the wood consists in its freedom 
from knots, and it is found that the knots of this species are more easily worked and 
less liable to drop out of the flooring boards than is the case with knotty boards of the 
spruce or silver fir. The facility with which the wood of the Scotch pine is worked 
occasions its employment in almost all kinds of joinery and house-carpentry, to the 
exclusion of every other kind of timber wherever it can be procured. It is at once 
straight, light, stiff, and consequently best fitted for rafters, girders, joists, &c., which 
may be made of smaller dimensions of this timber than any other. Complaint has . 
been made of the want of durability in the timber of the Scotch pine, and a Mr. 
Menteath of Closeburn has for upwards of fifty years caused all his Scotch pine timber 
to be steeped in lime water, after it has been cut and fitted for the different purposes 
required. It appears that the alkali of the lime neutralises, in some degree, the 
albuminous nature of the soft wood, or that the water acts as a solvent, and extracts 
a part of it; for while Scotch pine of twenty or thirty years’ growth seldom lasts 
thirty years before it is destroyed by worms, Mr. Loudon tells us that timber pre- 
pared by Mr. Menteath’s process has lasted much longer, and is still as sound as 
ever. Mr. Loudon suggests that alum dissolved in water might be even more effective 
than the lime. As fuel, the wood of the Scotch pine lights easily, and burns with 
great rapidity; but it produces a black and very disagreeable smoke. The faggot 
wood of the Scotch pine is valued by the chalk and lime-burners of England more 
than any other, on account of its rapid burning and intense heat, and consequent 
saving of time in attending on the kilns. The roots, which are extremely resinous, 
were formerly used in Scotland as a substitute for candles. The resinous juice, 
whether exuding naturally, or procured by incision and distillation, produces tar, 
pitch, rosin, turpentine, and the essential oil of turpentine employed in house-paint- 
ing. The turpentine of the Scotch pine is, however, inferior to that of the silver fir, 
and is only used for the coarsest kind of work. To produce it, a narrow piece of bark 
is stripped off the trunk of the tree in spring, when the sap is in motion, and a notch 
is cut in the tree at the bottom of the channel formed by removing the bark, to 
receive the resinous juice, which will run freely down to it. As it runs down it leaves 
a white matter like cream, but a little thicker, which is very different from all the 
kinds of resin or turpentine in use, and which is generally sold to be used in the 
making of flambeaux instead of white beeswax. The matter that is received in the 
hole at the bottom is taken up with ladles, and put into a large basket. A great part 
of this immediately runs through, and this is common turpentine. It is received into 
stone or earthen pots, and is then ready for sale. The thicker matter which remains 
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