Page:Timber and Timber Trees, Native and Foreign.djvu/307

CHAP. XXXV.] the planks in thickness varying from 3 to 5 inches by 10 to 15 inches in width, and from 20 to 45 feet in length. Pitch Pine is extensively employed in ship-building for beams, shelf, and bottom planking, &c., &c., and also in civil architecture wherever long, straight, and large scantlings are needed. It will not, however, make good board for joiners' general purposes, although we find it is used to some extent for cabinet work.

The wood is of a reddish-white colour, clean, hard, rigid, highly resinous, regular and straight in the grain, and, compared with most other Pines and Firs, is rather more difficult to work; it is good in quality, and considered to be durable. The principal defects in Pitch Pine are the heart and cup shake, the latter often extending a long way up the tree. Hence, as far as possible, logs having these defects should be used in large scantlings, to guard against a waste of wood near the centre.

—All the specimens broke with a short fracture.