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The Christmas Spirits and the Trees: December: Grows

Sugar-Pine: Another giant among the Pines. Not only is it a giant in size (12 x 220), but it bears, I believe, the biggest of all the cones, 11 to 21 inches long. Think of it! A cone as big as the biggest ear of corn at the county fair. L: 5, 3-4. Grows on mountain slopes and the sides of ravines and canyons from Oregon to California. It is helping to keep the snows and the rains and the cold out of hundreds of thousands of houses all over the country. Long-Leaf: L: 3, 8-10; C: 6-10; 3 X 120. Grows from Virginia to Texas along the coastal plain. Also known as the Southern, Georgia, or Hard Pine. Hard, heavy, strong, durable, and so rich in resin that it is the chief source of our naval stores - tar, pitch, turpentine, and other resinous products. It supplies excellent wood for building railroad-cars, and for masts and other purpose requiring strong timbers, such as bridges and viaducts. Short-Leaf or Yellow: L: 2, 3-5; C : 1 1/2-2 1/2; 4 X 120. About the same height, you see, as Brother Long-Leaf but considerably larger around the waist. Grows from New York south to Texas, and in the Mississippi Valley as far north as Missouri and Illinois. Not so hard or strong as Long-Leaf but used for the same purposes.

Cuban or Slash: L: 2-3; C : 2-6; 3 X 115. S. C. to La., along the coast in swampy land, hence the name "Slash," which, among other things, means "swamp-land." Same qualities and uses as Long-Leaf.

Loblolly: L: 3, 6-10; C : 3-5; 5 X 150. N. J. southward in swamps and lowland along tide-water; also on sandy borders of Pine barrens. Much used for box board.

Red or Norway: L : 2, 5-6 (its needles look like thin, graceful rapiers with which two squirrels might play at foils); C : 2-2 1/4; 3 X 120. Me. to Minn. and south to Pa. Medium between white and yellow Pines in quality. Largely used for bridges, buildings, piles, masts, and spars. Jack-Pine: L : 1 1/4-2 3/4; C : 1 1/2-2; 2 X 70. We put little Jack's calling-card right beside that of the big Sugar-Pine because the contrast is so striking. Jack himself isn't much for size, when you come to compare him with the giants of the family, but he's a giant for good works, in proportion to his inches. Last summer, like enough, he helped keep the cattle and other live stock out of the corn and the pumpkin-patch, and probably he's just helped bring Uncle Charley and the folks to the Christmas dinner, and roasted the turkey and baked the pies; and, in the past, has carried many a Red Brother to and from his pappooses in the family wigwam. Jack-Pine is good for fuel, railroad-ties, and fence-posts, and the Indians always preferred it for their canoe frames. You'll notice its twin needles seem to turn away from each other, as if they'd had a falling out. From this it gets its scientific name, Pinus divaricata, the last half of which means "to stretch apart." It grows from Nova Scotia to Vermont and northern Indiana and Illinois. Like other Scrub-Pines, it belongs to "The Ancient and Honorable Society of Pioneers," going ahead into sandy regions and lands exhausted by thriftless farming and preparing the way for trees and crops requiring richer soil, as described in the September chapter.

Lodge-Pole Pine : L : 2, 1-3; C : 1 1/2-2; 2 1/2 X 100. Alaska to California and Colorado. Light, soft, weak, brittle wood. Used by the Indians for lodge-poles. Now used locally for ties, mine timbers, and inferior lumber. Foxtail-Pine: L : 5, 1-1 1/2; C : 3 1/2-5; 2 inches x 40 feet. You can see, easily enough, where it gets its name; but, unlike Reynard, it wears its brush at the end of its tail--that is to say at the extremities of the branchlets. A peculiarity of the needles is that, instead of being neatly wrapped up at the ends, like a fried chop, as most needle clusters are, they are sheathless. THE "WHITES" OF THE PINE FAMILY There are several "White" Pines, so called from the color of their wood. The Rocky Mountain White (L : 5, 1-3; C : 3-10; 5 X 80) grows in the Rockies from Canada to New Mexico and is used for lumber to some extent, but is not nearly so important as the Western White Pine (L : 5; C : 5-11; 8 X 50), which grows from British Columbia to California, Idaho, and Montana; and the White Pine (L : 5, 3-5; C : 4-8; 6 X 250) which is found from Maine to Minnesota, and from Newfoundland southward along the Appalachians, the Adirondacks, and the Alleghanies to Georgia. The wood of both is of the same high quality--light, soft, and easily worked--and is used for all purposes for which the very best Pine is desired. The Sugar-Pine, previously mentioned, is also a "White" Pine. And, just because this wood is so valuable, what do you think has happened? It has been cut down so fast, without provision for new generations to follow, that it has almost disappeared in the East. Steps are now being taken to restore it to the forests. It is the tallest, most stately of the cone-bearers of the East and is always a member of the famous Chorus of the Elders. Don't you remember? "The murmuring Pines and the Hemlocks, Bearded with moss and, in garments green, indistinct in the twilight, Stand like Druids of eld with voices sad and prophetic Stand, like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms."

OTHER IMPORTANT MEMBERS OF THE PINE CLAN Why, just the poetry of the Pines and the curious things about them--as to why we always hear their solemn voices chanting in their dim cathedral aisles and why some wear long gray beards, "like harpers hoar"--all such we must now leave for some future time, and here briefly summarize the characteristics of other members of the Pine family--the most important Hemlocks, Spruces, Cedars, and so on.

Western Larch. (Leaves triangular, conspicuously keeled below, separate, 1-1 3/4 inches long; C : 1-1 1/2; 80 X 250.) British Columbia to Oregon and Montana. Very hard, heavy, durable, and close-grained. Used for ties, construction timbers, and lumber.