BLEMISHES IX 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 (Periderrrdum 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, X. 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.) 
