98 
WHITE PINE. 
thick, from 10 to 15 inches wide, from 10 to 15 feet long, and frequently 
deformed with knots : at New York they are called Albany boards, and 
are sold at the same price as at Boston. The clear boards, formed from 
the largest stocks of the Pumpkin Pines, are of the same length and thick- 
ness as the first, and 20, 24 and 30 inches wide. They should be perfectly 
clear, hut they are admitted if they have only two knots small enough to 
be covered with the thumb : they are employed for all light and delicate 
works of joinery, particularly for the panels of doors and the mouldings of 
apartments : at Philadelphia, they are called White Pine panels. 
This wood is also formed into clap-boards and shingles. The clap-boards 
are of an indeterminate length, 6 inches wide, 3 lines thick at one edge, 
and thinner at the other : they form the exterior covering of houses, and 
are placed horizontally lapping one upon another, so that the thinner edge 
is covered. The shingles are commonly 18 inches long, from 3 to 6 inches 
wide, 3 lines thick at one end, and 1 line at the other : they should be free 
from knots, and made only of the perfect wood. They are packed in 
square bundles, and sustained by two cross pieces of wood confined by 
withes. The bundles sometimes consist of 500, but oftener of 250 shin- 
gles : the price at Hallowel, in 1807, was three dollars a thousand : two 
men can make 1600 or 1800 in a day. 
East of the river Hudson, the houses are almost invariably covered with 
these shingles, which last only twelve or fifteen years. They are exported 
in great quantities to the West Indies, and in the French islands they are 
called essentes blanches. 
From these details an estimate may be formed of the consumption of the 
White Pine in the United States : that of Europe and the West Indies is 
also considerable. In a table of importation from the United States, pre- 
sented to the Parliament of Great Britain, the timber introduced in 1807 
is reckoned at §1,302,980, of which I suppose the White Pine to have 
formed a fifth. In 1808 it was sold at Liverpool at about 60 cents the 
cubic foot. Planks 2 inches thick and 12 wide were worth 4 cents a foot, 
and common planks 6 cents. 
In this statement the wood imported from New Brunswick is not includ- 
ed, nor the vast quantities sent from the United States to the West India 
Islands not dependent upon Great Britain. 
The precious qualities and varied uses of this tree are sufficient motives 
for propagating it in Europe. It flourishes in the centre ofFrance, but it 
would succeed better on the borders of the Bhine, in the valleys of the 
Alps and Pyrenees, and in the cold and humid climates of Germany, 
Poland and Russia : its vegetation appeared to me more vigorous in Bel- 
gium than in the neighborhood of Paris. When the forests of Wild Pine 
and of Norway Spruce Fir are renewed in those countries, ( the White Pine 
should be introduced ; it will be easy to decide whether it can be success- 
fully naturalized. 
