KED-WOOD PiNE. 



73 



in all probability resulting from the adhesive quality 

 of this timber. Its great weight is, however, a con- 

 siderable inconveniency attending its use as spars, 

 and the abundance of resin, we shoidd think, would 

 imfit it for tree -nails ; resinous tree-nails, — probably 

 from some derangement of the structure or disposi- 

 tion to chemical change produced in the resin by the 

 very great pressure of the hard driving, — soon cor- 

 rupting and infecting the adjacent wood. In some 

 cases we have also known very resinous Baltic plank 

 decay soon in vessels. The pitch pine, from the quan- 

 tity of resin, contracts little in drying, at least for a 

 long time, till the resin itself begins to dry up. It 

 forms the best house-floors we have seen, being strong 

 and dm-able, continuing close at joinings, and the 

 fibre not readily taking in moistm*e when washed. 



Our red- wood pine, when come to some age, is in 

 wet ground attacked by rot, which commences in 

 the bulb and adjacent roots and stem, in a manner 

 very similar to the rot in larch. The red-wood also 

 approaches nearer to the outside where this rot ex- 

 ists, and on the side of the tree where the rot is 

 greatest. Most of our planted red pine forest, espe- 

 cially in poor wet tills, and in all flat sandy moorish 

 ground of close subsoil, fall by decay at from 30 to 

 60 years old. This decay is gradual, owing to the 



