An evergreen with needle-like leaves in bundles, two to five leaves in a
bundle, is a pine. These bundles are usually bound with a thin, papery
sheath at the base, and set in spiral rows that wind around the twig. The
leaves in the newest sheaths are nearest the growing tip of the shoot.
Here we shall find the leaves shorter, some so short that they have not
yet got outside of their sheaths. The silky covering hides them, as the
bud scales on other trees covered the undeveloped shoot with its flowers
and leaves, wrapped in the winter buds.
The kind of pine depends upon the number of leaves in a bundle. This is
the first thing to find out when we undertake to determine the name of a
pine tree. All of the vigorous young shoots have bundles that do not vary
in number of needles. Further back on the limb are leaves more than a
year old. The sheaths are shorter, or have fallen away entirely. Now the
number of needles in a bundle begins to be uncertain. We find bundles
that have fewer needles than those on the younger wood. This is because
the older leaves are falling. Finally we reach a point where the twigs
are bare. On white pine shoots it is easy to find leaves that are five to
seven years old.
“Soft pine” is a lumberman’s term. Carpenters use it, so do all people
who work in wood. It means that the wood of a certain group of pines is
soft and light, and the sap is not gummy. Any boy who has cut kindling
wood knows what a joy it is to whittle soft pine. Until a few years ago,
this was the wood out of which boxes of all sorts were made, and it was
the only kindling wood we had. Now things are changed. Much box lumber is
made of poplar and other soft woods, which do not split as easily as
pine. This means that soft pine is getting scarce, and is too valuable to
use where cheaper woods will serve.