Spruce. Another evergreen and cone-bearing tree which fur nishes great quantities of lumber to the market every year is the spruce. There are three kinds of spruce, white, black, and red, of which the white spruce and the red spruce are the varieties com monly found on the market. The white spruce is scattered through out all of the northern states, along the streams and lakes, the largest varieties being found in Montana. The black spruce is found in Canada and in some of the northern states. It is distinguished from the other varieties by its leaves and bark only, the foliage being much darker in color than that of the white spruce, while the cones remain in place for several years, a much longer time than do those of the white spruce. The red spruce is sometimes known as Newfoundland red pine and is found in the northeastern part of North America. It is used very extensively in northern New Eng land where it serves as a substitute for soft pine, and large quantities of it are used up every year for pulp wood.
The leaves of the spruce are single and have sharp points at the ends. They are short and four-sided and are arranged on the stein so as to point in all directions. The cones hang downward, while those of the fir trees point upward.
Spruce trees have many natural enemies and numbers of the trees are destroyed before they reach the market. Large quantities of fallen tree trunks are to be found in the forests, blown down by the wind alone during heavy wind storms, or so weakened by the ravages of insects that they have fallen from their own weight. There is a beetle which attacks these trees especially, and which causes great damage, while very often the same trees are attacked by various kinds of fungous growths.
Spruce timber is of a light color, very nearly white except the heartwood which has a reddish tinge. It is very dense and compact in structure and straight grained. The wood is light and soft, fairly strong for a soft wood, but not very durable when exposed. It is very resonant and is frequently used for sounding boards on this account. It can not be obtained in large sizes, but it is considered by many to be the best framing timber available, except the pines.
Pine. This is the timber which has been used in building con struction to a greater extent than any other except perhaps oak. It is peculiarly fitted for the purpose as it has grown in great abund ance all over the United States and possesses all of the most desirable characteristics of a good building material, being strong, but at the same time light in weight and easily worked, elastic, and very dur able. The tree is almost always a large one with branches starting
at a considerable distance from the ground. It has a smooth, straight trunk, evergreen, needle-shaped leaves, of varying length, and cones.
There are two distinct classes of pines used in building work, the soft and the hard pines, both of which are found in large quanti ties. The softer varieties are used for outside finish of all sorts, and the harder varieties for heavy framing and for flooring. The ease with which the soft-pine lumber can be cut and shipped to the market, makes it the most popular wood in use at the present time. It is of uniform texture and nails without splitting, seasons very well and does not shrink so much as the harder pines, will take paint and is very durable. The wood is white in color, straight grained, and has few knots. The hard pines furnish the strongest timber in use for building, with the exception of oak, which is now almost too expensive to be used for heavy framing. The pieces can be obtained in large sizes and great lengths and the wood is very hard, heavy, and durable, at the same time being tough. In color it is yellow or orange, the sapwood being of lighter color than the heartwood.
There are many different kinds of pines, which are recognized in different parts of the country under various names, but there are five general classes into which the species is commonly divided, though the same timber may be called by different names in two different localities, as will be seen.
(1) The term "hard pine" is used to designate any pine which is not white pine, a classification which is very general, though it is often seen in works on Carpentry and in specifications.
(2) "White pine," "soft pine," and "pumpkin pine," are terms which are used in the eastern states for the timber from the white-pine tree, while on the Pacific Coast the same terms refer to the wood of the sugar pine.
(3) The name "yellow pine," when used in the northeastern part of the country, applies almost always to the pitch pine or to one of the southern pines, but in the West it refers to the bull pine.
(4) "Georgia pine" or "longleaf yellow pine," is a term used to distinguish the southern hard pine which grows in the coast region from North Carolina to Texas, and which furnishes the strongest pine lumber on the market.
(5) "Pitch pine" may refer to any of the southern pines, or to pitch pine proper, which is found along the coast from New York to Georgia and among the mountains of Kentucky.