BLEMISHES IN WOOD OF CONIFEROUS TREES. 



63 



white firs. The injuries are sufficient to keep lumber containing 

 them out of the better grades used for finishing purposes. This 

 involves the loss of a large percentage of the selling price, and the 

 damage may reach serious proportions, as trees of this family are some- 

 times vigorously attacked. While the ordinary defects in the wood 

 are undoubtedly a source of weakness in small pieces, they are of no 

 account in large beams and other heavy construction material, for 

 which these woods are much used. The long-leaf pine and white fir 

 described below illustrate defects of this character. 



Sapsuckers render certain woods of this family valueless for even 

 coarse construction. They remove large areas of bark, usually in 

 narrow vertical strips, and the injuries are so extensive as to leave 

 cleavage places in the wood. Defects of this character have been 

 observed in bull pine, pitch pine, Engel- 

 mann spruce, and western hemlock. 



Injuries less extensive, but important 

 because of special uses of the lumber, are 

 described below for red cedar and cypress. 

 In Monterey cypress and desert juniper 

 the small black checks and brown stains are 

 sound or accompanied by so much curled 

 grain and bird's-eye that they embellish 

 the wood. 



Sapsucker wounds afford favorable con- 

 ditions for the entrance and growth of a 

 fungus (Peridermium cerebrum) which pro- 

 duces large galls on pine trees. When 

 abundant, these galls so distort the trees 

 that they become useless for lumber. Ob- 

 servations upon scrub and short-leaf pine show that not infrequently 

 the fungous attack begins in sapsucker wounds. 



Long-leaf pine (Pinus palustris). — Black stains with resin de- 

 posit are produced about sapsucker wounds in this wood, and lighter 

 stains extend some distance along the grain. These shade off into 

 fat streaks, which may permeate many layers of wood and reach far 

 up and down the grain. Figure 1 1 shows the appearance of healed 

 bird pecks in this pine. The illustration of the tangential section 

 does not show as extensive staining as is sometimes present. The 

 cavities there delineated are filled with resin. (Specimens from 

 Baldwin, Fla. ; Boardman, N. C. ; and Buna, Tex.) A specimen from 

 Florida (A. M. 485) shows a series of very extensive pitch streaks 

 half an inch in thickness and 3 to 4 inches long in one direction from 

 the wound. Blemishes in the long-leaf pine' are serious enough to 

 keep the lumber out of finishing grades. 



Fig. 11.— Effects of sapsucker work 

 on wood of long-leaf pine (Pinus 

 palustris). Radial and tangential 

 sections. (From Hopkins.) 



