THE PINES 



chemistry and a deficient rag supply, every 

 reader of these words is probably in close 

 proximity to an important spruce product — 

 paper. The manufacturers say, with hand on 

 heart, that they do not use much wood pulp, 

 but when one has passed a great paper-mill 

 flanked on all sides by piles of spruce logs, 

 with no bales of rags in sight anywhere, he is 

 tempted to think otherwise ! Modern forestry is 

 now planting trees on waste lands for the pulp 

 "crop," and the common poplar is coming in 

 to relieve the spruces. 



Beautiful trees are these spruces and firs, 

 either in the forest or when brought by the 

 planter to his home grounds. The leaves are 

 much shorter than those of most pines, and 

 clothe the twigs closely. There is a vast 

 variety in color, too, from the wonderful 

 whitish or "glaucous" blue of the Colorado 

 blue spruce, to the deep shining green of 

 Nordmann's fir, a splendid introduction from 

 the Caucasus. Look at them, glistening in the 

 winter sun, or drooping with the clinging 

 snow, walk in a spruce wood, inhaling the 

 bracing balsamic fragrance which seems so 



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