128 HARDY ON NOTA SCOTIAN CONIFERS. 



growth like that of the spruce. It may be always noticed, hoAvever, 

 that whilst the spruce growth of this nature is persistent in its foli- 

 age, that of the fir is annually deciduous. 



The Sih'er Eir is a graceful shrub up to a certain age, and its 

 sprays, soft and flattened, form the best couch in the woodman's 

 camp. The bark of the tree readily peels in summer, and is used 

 in sheets to cover the lumberer's shanty, which is now built in pros- 

 pect of the winter's campaign. The resinous fluid contained in the 

 pustules is the Canada Balsam of commerce. 



I am not aware that any exportation of balsam, or, indeed, of 

 any resins is made from Nova Scotia, All such productions might 

 be made profitable, as prices have recently been high in consequence 

 of the American war, commerce having been plentifully supplied 

 with tar, pitch, resin and turpentine from North Carolina and other 

 states of the Confederacy. It must be noticed however, that the 

 pines of the Southern States are not found in these Northern lati- 

 tudes. They are the long-leaved or yellow pine (P. Palmtris), and 

 the loblolly or old field pine (P. teed a?). Our common P. strohus 

 affords but little resin. P. resinosa and P. Rigidsa or pitch pine 

 are both resinous woods, as is also the larch. It is much to be 

 regretted that so many thousand acres of these woods are yearly 

 disappearing by fij'e and through wanton waste, whilst a source of 

 profit like the above is still allowed to slip by unnoticed. 



In conclusion I will append a few remarks on the transplanting 

 and acclimatization of evergreens, a subject which I am glad to 

 observe has been very practically studied of late years. It is patent to 

 every one, resident in Halifax, that we are now compelled to suffer 

 everywhere on this bleak peninsula for the wholesale destruction of 

 trees on the part of the earlier inhabitants. The bitter winds 

 experienced on a winter's drive over the common, and the roads to 

 the N. West Arm and Three Mile House, oftentimes denuded of 

 snow, which is at others piled in drifts, whilst the sleighing is 

 excellent in both town and country, point, as a cause, to the cutting 

 away of the road-side fiinge of sheltering trees ; and now the slow 

 remedy of replanting must needs be applied. As a winter shelter 

 the evergreen tree is naturally adopted, though in former times its 

 association with the rigor of the climate doubtless resulted in its 

 wholesale downfall at the hands of the early settlers, and there is 



