_White Pine._--One of our most beautiful evergreens. Growing throughout
the North-eastern and Lake states, and formerly forming dense forests
from the Bay of Fundy to Minnesota. Needles grow in groups of five of a
light bluish green from three to four inches long. Seeds are "winged"
and grow in cones five or six inches long protected by the scales.
Cones mature at end of second season. Wood soft, light coloured, free
from sap, easily worked and used in many trades, for pattern making,
various parts of houses, toys, crates, boxes, etc. Becoming very
scarce, owing to the destruction of the great forests. On the Pacific
coast its place in construction is taken by the sugar pine and other
woods.
_Yellow and Georgia Pine._--Two trees whose wood is frequently
confounded by the woodworker. Georgia pine is a tree with very long
needles, from twelve to fifteen inches, and in groups of three. Cones
from six to ten inches. A southern tree found from Texas to Virginia.
The tops of the young trees, like green fountains, are used in many
places as Christmas decorations. Wood hard and resinous, used for
flooring, interior finish, and decks.
_Yellow Pine._--A southern tree with needles in groups of two,
sometimes three, about three inches long. Cones small, about two
inches. Wood hard and used for the same purposes as Georgia pine.
_Red Pine, Norway Pine, Canadian Pine._--Three names for the same tree.
Grows throughout the North, from Nova Scotia to western Minnesota. Cut
principally in Canada. Needles, two in a group, about five inches long.
Cones about two inches long, mature the second season. Wood reddish in
colour, hard, and used for piles, spars, bridges, etc.
_Pitch Pine._--A name locally given to several different trees. The
wood is soft, brittle, resinous, and is used for fuel and for making
charcoal, rarely for rough building. Needles in groups of three and
three to five inches long. Sometimes called scrub pine, although it
often reaches a height of fifty to sixty feet. The cones, two or three
inches long, often remain on the tree for years. It is the tree found
along the Atlantic coast from Maine to Georgia, growing in sand, in
swamps, and among rocks. To be recommended for its persistence in
living under the most trying conditions, even if its wood is not very
valuable.
In the construction of a frame house several kinds of wood are needed.
First, the framework of rough-sawed spruce. Second, a better wood, like
white pine, for door and window frames. Third, the outside covering.
This may be clapboards, for which nothing has ever approached white
pine, although it is necessary now to find substitutes. The roof, if
shingled, may be of cedar, or cypress--some spruce is used to-day. For
interior work, floors may be spruce, white pine, cypress, yellow pine,
or hard woods. For finish or trim, many woods are used such as white
wood, oak, yellow pine, cypress, cherry, and bay wood.
_Spruce._--This wood has been used almost exclusively in the past for
framing, but great inroads have been made in the supply, especially by
the manufacturers of paper pulp. Consequently the cost is increasing
rapidly.
Three varieties are recognized, white, black, and red. White spruce is
a distinctly northern tree, delighting in the cold climate of Canada,
but dipping down along the Maine coast. It is a beautiful, straight,
and tall specimen, frequently found as high as a hundred and fifty
feet. The needles are only three quarters of an inch, or less, in
length and clothe the twigs in an entire circle. Cones two inches long,
bearing under their scales tiny winged seeds. It is used often as an
ornamental evergreen for lawns, and for this purpose probably has no
equal, as, unlike the Norway spruce, it holds its foliage, dense and
green, close to the ground.
The wood is weak, knotty, and soft, but suitable for rough framing.
_Black Spruce._--Another northern tree, rarely found in forests below
the Canadian border, except around the Great Lakes.
Leaves about same size as in white spruce, but cones smaller, more oval
in form, and one inch and a half long.
Spruce gum is obtained from this tree, which has a more pleasant odour
than white spruce.
Wood used for pulp making, framing, and, quartered, for sounding-boards
of musical instruments.
_Red Spruce._--A close relative of the black and sometimes confused
with it, but it is a distinct tree, reaching its best development
several hundred miles south of the black spruce, in the Appalachian
Mountains, and extending as far south as North Carolina; while the
black variety barely crosses the borders of Canada into Maine.
Needles about half an inch long. Cones small, sometimes barely an inch
and a half. They fall the first winter, while those of the black
remain on the tree often for years.
Wood is similar to black spruce but lighter in weight. Used for pulp,
framing, and sounding-boards.
_Hemlock._--The most dainty of the eastern evergreens, with little
cones about three quarters of an inch long, and needles half an inch.
Found throughout the country east of the Mississippi and in some
sections used for Christmas decorations.
A slow growing tree with wood of little value, being brittle, light,
and difficult to work, as it has a crooked grain and is liable to
splinter. The tree makes up in beauty what it lacks as a timber
producer and its bark is rich in tannin.
_Larch, Tamarack or Hackmatack._--Local names for the same tree. Drops
all its needles in the fall, like a broad-leaved tree, but the beauty
of the brilliant new green needles in the spring is a sight worth going
miles to see.
Found from the Lake states north to the Arctic Circle. Needles an inch
long. Cones from one half to three quarters.
Wood is heavy, hard and strong. Used in ship building, for telegraph
poles, posts, and ties.
_Fir, Balsam Fir, Balsam._--On all firs the cones stand upright on the
branches, while on spruces they hang down. As these two trees are often
intermingled, this is an easy way to distinguish them. The needles of
the firs are also blunt, while those of the spruces are sharply pointed.
This is the so-called Christmas tree and balsam pillows are made from
its needles.
Needles about three quarters of an inch long, cones almost black in
colour, from two to four inches long.
Wood of little value, being soft and weak.
The sap in the form of gum called Canada balsam is used in medicine,
and is obtained from blisters on the bark or by cutting the bark.
_Southern Cypress, Bald Cypress, Deciduous Cypress._--Found growing
naturally in the swamps of the South, but will grow in drier soil,
if planted in the North. Several fine specimens in the parks of
Philadelphia, New York, and Brooklyn. The lower part broadens out near
the ground into a conical base and in its native swamps the roots send
up peculiar formations known as cypress knees.
Leaves very delicate and feathery, not often over half an inch long,
cones round and an inch in diameter. Drops its needles like the larch
each fall.
Wood very durable in damp situations, valuable for flooring and
interior finish.
_Red Cedar._--The common cedar of the United States, found in all
sections where trees can grow at all, in sand, swamp, rocky hillside,
and abandoned farm. Reaches its greatest height in the South.
Wood of beautiful colour and grain, soft and not strong, easily worked,
but inclined to brittleness. Used in many trades; it furnished in the
past the only wood for lead pencils. Owing to its scarcity, substitutes
are now being tried. Very durable in contact with water and soil.
Used extensively for posts, small boats, cooperage, ties, chests, and
interior finish.
Foliage difficult to describe, being sharp and awl-shaped in the young
trees, changing in later years to a flat scale shape. Very often both
forms are found on the same tree. Seeds are the common cedar berry,
pale green in colour, about a quarter of an inch long, each berry
containing two or three seeds. These are liked by the birds and they
are dropped along fences frequently, so that in a few years the fences
become lined with young cedar trees.
_White Cedar._--Found in swamps along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
Has a more delicate foliage than red cedar, and, growing in dense
thickets, is apt to be taller and straighter.
The wood is light brown in colour, soft, weak, and, like red
cedar, durable in moist situations. Used for making shingles, for
boat-building, and for the same general work as the red variety.
_Arbor Vitæ_--called in many sections white cedar. It is an entirely
different tree from the real white cedar, having decidedly flattened
and very aromatic foliage. Used a great deal for hedges before the days
of the California privet. Seed borne in a tiny cone half an inch long.
Large quantities are cut in the Maritime Provinces of Canada to be made
into shingles. Grows sixty feet high and two feet or more in diameter.
_Arbor vitæ_ means tree of life, and as the bark and young twigs were
at one time used medicinally, that may have been the origin of the name.
Wood is light, soft, coarse-grained, but, like the cedars, durable.
Used for ties, posts, and shingles.