Shadow and sunshine intermingling quick,
And dark’ning, and enlight’ning (as the leaves
Play wanton) every part.”
THE CONE-BEARERS
The cone-bearing trees are usually provided with needle-shaped or awl-shaped leaves, in contradistinction to the broad and flat ones that belong to the group described in the preceding section of this chapter. Most of them preserve their foliage through the winter, and are commonly recognized by this evergreen habit. They are much more important to the forester than the other class. The conifers grow on the true forest soils. They range along mountain crests or are scattered over dry and semi-arid regions or along the sandy seashore, while the broadleaf species usually require a better soil and a more congenial climate. This circumstance causes many deciduous forests to be cut down, in order that the better land on which they grow may be utilized for agricultural purposes. Moreover, the wood of the conifers is generally more useful, being in several of the species of great economic importance. Lastly, in their habit of denser growth, and from the fact that these trees are ordinarily found in the form of “pure” forests (in contradistinction to those forests in which a number of species grow intermingled), they furnish certain very important conditions for practical and successful forestry.
The common white pine well deserves to stand at the head of all the conifers or evergreens east of the Mississippi. Though it once covered vast areas in more or less “pure” forests it has been largely cut away, and recurring fires have generally prevented its return; but in certain places it could even now be restored by careful treatment. At present the last remnants of these pineries are disappearing swiftly, and before the methods of the forester can be applied to such extensive areas, this valuable heritage will probably have vanished. Heretofore it has been to us Americans in the supply of wood what bread and water are in daily life. It has been hardly less valued by other nations, having been planted as a forest tree in Germany a full century ago.
I cannot say what I admire most in the white pine; whether it be the luxuriance and purity of its foliage, or the very graceful spread of its boughs. There is hardly a tree that can equal it for softness and rich color. The tufts of needlelike leaves densely cover the upper surfaces of the spreading branches, and are of a mild, uniformly pure olive-green. Seen from beneath they appear tangled in the beautifully interwoven twigs and stems. It is here that we first begin to notice the exquisite manner of the white pine. The boughs reach out horizontally, with here and there one that ascends or turns aside to assume a position exceptionally graceful and to fill out a space that seems specially to have been vacated for it. I speak of the white pine at the age preceding maturity, when it is in its full strength, but before it has attained the picturesqueness of old age. Following an easy curve, the branch divides at right and left into dozens of finer branchlets, all extending forward and straining, as it were, to reach the light; and these in turn lift up hundreds of twigs and little stems to enrich the upper surfaces with bushy tufts of lithe green needles. The elegance of this habit in the white pine appears to advantage when we stand a little above it on a gentle slope and see the branches clearly defined against the surface of a lake below or some far-away gray cloud.
Both in middle age and when it is old the white pine is a distinguished-looking tree. When young it is sometimes elegantly symmetrical; but more often, owing to a crowded position, it lacks the air of neatness that belongs to a few of the other pines and to most of the firs. At maturity it is a very impressive tree, especially in the dense forest, where it develops a tall, dark, stately stem. In its declining years the branches begin to break and fall away, no longer able to bear the weight of heavy snows. This is often the time when it is most picturesque.
