358 



THE SCOTCH FIR OR PINE. 



servation cry aloud that trees abounding in resin 

 and gum must be injured by pruning, which is 

 only another name for wounding." 



The timber of the Scotch Fir, especially the 

 horizontal variety described above, (which is ge- 

 nerally considered to be the true Highland Pine,) 

 is similar in every respect to the best Baltic Pine, 

 and is highly prized. The best is obtained from 

 trees the age of which averages about a hundred 

 and twenty years, and which, from their growing 

 in a cold climate, have matured their timber 

 slowly. The earlier the age at which the side 

 branches die and drop off, the clearer is the wood 

 of knots, and proportionally the more valuable. 

 When fully matured, it is of a red hue, and is 

 considered scarcely less valuable than the Oak, 

 instances being on record where timbers of Pine 

 in the roofs of old buildings have, after the lapse 

 of several centuries, been found perfectly sound. 

 It is light, stiff, and strong, easily worked, and 

 freer from knots than that of any other kind of 

 Pir, — qualities which render it admirably adapted 

 for all kinds of house carpentry. Its size, length, 

 and straiglitness of trunk, fit it also for the main 

 timbers of buildings, such as rafters, joists, &c., 

 which are almost universally made of it. In naval 

 architecture it is very extensively used, and the 

 best masts are considered to be those made of the 

 Pine imported from the Baltic. In Russia, many 

 of the roads are formed of the trunks of the Pine, 

 trees being selected which are from six to twelve 

 inches in diameter at their largest end. The ground 

 being marked out for the road, the trunks are laid 

 down side by side, the thick end of the one alter- 

 nately with the narrow end of the other, and the 



