Peter Kalm observed .that cattle, in the heat of the day, choose the shade of this tree rather than of any other, though its foliage be much thicker. He judges that this strange choice arises " from the gratefulness of the fragrance " of this tree. Another author comments on the delightful fragrance exhaled by the exuding balsam of the despised Jersey pine. The oppor tunity to point a moral here is almost irresistible. But I stay my pointer. The range of P. Virginiana is wide; from Long Island to Georgia and Alabama, and west to Indiana, where it rises to the height of ioo feet. Its average height is one-third of this maxi mum limit, with a trunk diameter rarely over i8 inches, The wood has been locally used for making tar, and for pump logs, water pipes, for fencing and fuel. It is not an economic tree, unless considered so in its work of covering quickly large areas of sterile soils in.the Eastern States.
The Grey or Scrub Pine (P. divaricata, Sudw.) is an out cast, strangely spurned and superstitiously feared in many places where it grows. It ventures farther north than any other pine. From the northern tier of states it ranges into the cold of frigid regions, following the Mackenzie River even to the Arctic circle. It grows only on barren ground—rocky slopes and in cold, boggy stretches. In Michigan it dips down to the southern point of the lake, scattering over the sand dunes, and clothing the barren stretches of the lower peninsula, which are known as the " Jack Pine Plains." The grey-green leaves, scant, stubby,
in twos, and the crouching, sprawling habit of the tree, which wears its old cones for a dozen years or more—all tend to preju dice the casual observer against this pine. Only the thoughtful will consider what the desert and the cold North would be with out it. North of Lake Superior it rises to the stature of a tree, reaching 70 feet in height, and spreading along the valley of the Mackenzie River, the only pine, it forms forests of considerable area, an immeasurable boon to the scant population of that region. The wood makes fuel and lumber, frames for the Indian's canoe, posts and railroad ties.
From Michigan to Minnesota the grey pine acts as a nurse tree to the seedlings of P. resinosa on denuded lands. Later the scrub " cleans " the young trees of lower limbs, greatly adding to their timber value.
Strange notions prevail in certain sections concerning this weird-looking pine tree. Women dare not pass within ten feet of a tree, and men also give it a wide berth. Cattle browsing near it are fatally stricken; the tree is believed to poison the ground it shadows. One who believes current reports of this tree will destroy every one growing on his land; but he dare not chop them down. Each must be burned like a witch, by making a funeral pyre all around it. Every misfortune that overtakes a family is laid at the foot of the grey pine, as long as there is one left on the place.