Pines and Their Kindred 215 



There, where the sands will support nothing 

 else except the saw palmetto, the " white " and 

 " slash " pines yield freely of their balm, and 

 furnish a means of livelihood to some very poor 

 people. 



The cone-bearers, and their kin — pines, 

 spruces, firs, hemlocks, and cedars — are our 

 most important timber trees. 



These are called " soft woods," and the timber 

 yielded by broad-leaved trees is described as 

 " hard wood." 



The balms of the soft wood trees are pleasant 

 and healing, we cannot do without their lumber, 

 but their services as standing trees are best of all. 



When the summer insects are torpid br dead, 

 and the summer birds have all flown southward, 

 bird flocks from the North come to the brown 

 fields. 



These autumn arrivals, and the birds that stay 

 with us all winter, are good friends to the farmers 

 and to the land. Their food is mainly the seeds 

 of weeds. 



Farms and gardens would be wellnigh covered 

 each spring with thistles and ragweed, cocklebur, 

 and burdock, were it not for the brave little win- 

 ter birds. Weed-tops loaded with seed provide 

 them with food, and the evergreens give them 

 lodging. When winter gales whistle through the 

 fields and there is no shelter to be found on the 

 bare boughs of broad-leaved trees, the farmer's 



