Of the soft pines there are two kinds, the white pine and the sugar pine, the latter being a western tree found in Oregon and California, while the former is found in all the northern states from Maine to Minnesota. There is also a smaller species of white pine found along the Rocky Mountain slopes from Montana to New Mexico.
There are ten different varieties of hard pine, of which, however, only five are of practical importance in the building industry. These are the "long-leaf southern pine," the "short-leaf southern pine," the "yellow pine," the "loblolly pine," and the "Norway pine." The long-leaf pine, also known as the "Georgia pine" and the "long straw pine," is a large tree which forms extensive forests in the coast region from North Carolina to Texas. It yields very hard, strong timber, which can be obtained in long, straight pieces of very large size.
The loblolly pine is also a large tree but has more sapwood than the long-leaf pine, and is coarser, lighter, and softer. It is the common lumber pine from Virginia to South Carolina, and is found as well in Texas and Arkansas. It is known also by the names of "slash pine," "old field pine," "rosemary pine," "sap pine," and "short straw pine," and in the West as "Texas pine." The short-leaf pine is much like the loblolly pine and is the chief lumber tree of Missouri and Arkansas. It is also found in North Carolina and Texas.
The Norway pine is a Northern tree found in Canada and the northern states. It never forms forests, but is scattered among other trees, and forms small groves. The wood is fine grained and of a white color but is largely sapwood and is not durable.
Fir. The fir tree yields timber very similar to spruce, and is often mixed in with spruce in the market. There are two kinds of fir trees, the western fir tree and the eastern fir tree, the first being known as the silver fir and the other as the balsam fir. All of the firs are evergreen, and bear cones which stand erect instead of hanging down. The wood is soft and not strong, being of a much coarser quality than ordinary spruce. It can be used in building work only for the roughest work in the case of the eastern fir, while the western fir is used more extensively but is not as good as spruce. Tamarack. This is a wood which is very much like spruce in structure, but is hard and very strong, resembling hard pine in this respect. The tree grows in the northern part of the United States and Canada, both in the East and in the West, and also in Europe. Its true name is larch, but it has come to be known as tamarack, tamarack pine, and hackmatack. In the East the tree grows in wet places called tamarack swamps, but the tree in the West and in Europe thrives best in dryer soil, and grows more quickly under these conditions than in a swamp. The wood is used mostly for
long straight timbers such as posts, poles, and quite extensively for piles. It has also been used a great deal for railroad ties. It is supposed to be very durable, and is well suited for use as ties or as piles, but it can not always be obtained now. It has never been used to any extent as sawn lumber, because the demand for the trunks for use as posts and poles has been so great that it did not pay to saw them up.
Broad=Leaved Trees. Ash. Ash is a wood which is frequently employed for interior finishing in public buildings, such as school houses, churches, and so forth, and_also in the cheaper classes of dwelling houses. It is one of the cheapest of hard woods, and is used when it is desired to have a hard-wood finish and when the more expensive kinds of hard wood, such as oak, can not be afforded. The wood is somewhat like oak in texture and appearance, the difference being that ash is coarser, and the pith rays do not show. It is strong, straight grained, and tough, comparatively easy to work, elastic, and fairly durable. It shrinks moderately, seasons with little injury, and will take a good polish. The trees do not grow together in forests, but are scattered. They grow rapidly, and attain only medium height. Of the six different species found in the United States, only two, the "white ash," and the "black ash," are used extensively in building work. The first is most common in the basin of the Ohio River, but is also found in the North from Maine to Minnesota, and in the South, in Texas. The black ash is found from Maine to Minnesota, and southward to Virginia and Arkansas. There is very little difference between the two species. The black ash is also known as the "hoop ash," and the "ground ash." Beech. This wood is not used to any great extent in Carpentry except in Europe, but is made up into tool handles, shoe lasts, and so forth, and is also used in wagon making and ship building. The tree grows freely in the eastern part of the United States and Canada and also in Europe. There are a number of different species and the tree is sometimes called by other names such as "ironwood," and "horn-beam." The wood is used for building work in the United States only occasionally for inside finish and is not a popular wood. It is heavy, hard, and strong, but of coarse texture like the ash. In color it is light brown, or white. It shrinks and checks during the process of drying out, and is not durable when placed in contact with the ground. It works fairly well, stands well, and will take a good polish.