CHAPTER XXXI 
TIMBER ; FORESTRY 
417. Coniferous Woods.— Our native woods! are best 
classified into the two principal groups of soft (or conifer- 
ous) and hard woods.? The needle-leaved or coniferous 
trees of the country furnish more than three-quarters of 
our timber supply. Of these trees the pines are the most 
important, and there are at least eight species of them 
which may be ranked as sources of timber. White pine 
(Pinus Strobus) is the softest and most workable of all, 
while long-leaf pine (P. palustris, Fig. 232) is the hardest, 
strongest, and most durable when exposed to the weather 
or in the soil. 
Of coniferous woods other than pines some of those 
most in use are: in the East, two species of spruce (Picea) 
and hemlock (Tsuga) ; ; in the South, the American or bald 
cypress (Taxodium); in the West, species of spruce (Picea), 
the smaller redwood (Sequoia), and the “Douglas fir” 
(Pseudotsuga). 
The structure of coniferous wood, as seen for example 
on the end of a beam cut off squarely, or on a new lead 
pencil, is in one respect less complex than that of most 
1 See United States Department of Agriculture, Division of Forestry, Bulle- 
tin No. 10, ‘‘ Timber.”’ 
2 Some of the needle-leaved or coniferous trees, such as the larch and the 
yew, have rather hard wood, and some broad-leaved trees, such as willows, 
poplars, tulip-trees, and buckeyes, have soft wood, but people who deal in tim- 
ber usually speak of the two general classes as explained above. 
343 
