California Pine

During the past year, when California pine -lumber has been pou"rine into the Southwestern territory of Texas and surrounding country in steady and corrstan-tly in-creastng .tnolonl", the" California White & Sugar Pine Manufacturers Association. its member mills, and the salesmen who represent them, have been constantly ansrvering t-he many questions that the trade wahts to know about these trvo great sDecies of California Pine.

^ And because these questions have become so numerous as to almost overrvhelm the salesmen themselves, this article is printed as an educational effort for the benefit of the lumbei dealer who wants to know' He wants to knorv why, and what, and where, and how, etc., about these trvo sreat species of trees.

tn"'sierra Nevada Mountains from the Oregon line south, are heavily timbered, clear down into Southern California.

The Government timber sharps figure that there is about 320,000,000,000--not MILLION but BILLION mind voustanding in this region. Of course, a lot of it is difficult of access, ind perhapi a lot of it will never be cut, but there is a huge quantity of accessible timber.

You Jan figure ii this way. They have been cutting lumber in Texas"on a large scile for sixty years. Yet there is more. virgin timber itanding in -California today -FOUR TIMES 6Vnn than there rvas in Texas before the first sawmill started to grind.

In this great Sieria territory it is estimated that there is approximately THIRTY THREE BILLION of SUGAR PINE and ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY BILLION of WHITE PINE. The remaining timber is of the various Fir groups, with some cedar.

Let's talk about Sugar Pine first.

It is called the Pinus lambertiana.

The old Michigan and Wisconsin pine is called the Pinus strobus.

The California White Pine is called the Pinus ponderosa.

California White Pine is white, soft, light, free from resinous substances. and partaking very closely of the qualities of the old Michigan and Wisconsin pine. It is smaller than the Sugar Pine, contains a far smaller percentage of clear lumber, and is not quite as soft and cheese-like in the quality of the wood as the Sugar Pine.

- Sugar pine stands on an average from 150 to I75 feet in height, and from three to ten feet in thickness, although individual trees often grow much higher and thicker than that. It is clear of limbs to a great height, and therefore clear of defects in the lumber to a great height, and is unusually free from blemish and disease.

For-those reasons it is possible to cut Sugar Pine boards and planks any width and thickness, and get soft, clear lumber such as no other pine can produce. It cuts like cheese, either with or across the grain, and is wonderfully rvorkable for any purpose. It is free from resinous substances, has no raised grain in the wood, and is a marvelous rvood to work, to dress, to paint and enamel, and for arly rlse to rvhich so wondrous a soft wood can be 1tut.

The present production of Sugar Pine is only about 250,000,000 feet annually, so that the present stand of 33 billion feet will last for more than 130 years. At the same time reforestation work and regrowing of Sugar Pine is occupying the direct attention of the lumber and timber men of California at the present time, and it is believed that Sugar Pine will be grown to such an extent as to give it fully two hundred years life, which is what White Pine possesses.

California Whrte rrne is being cut at the rate of about 900,000,000 feet annually at the present time, so that the stand of virgin timber is about sufficient for 2OO years at the present rate of cutting.

White Pine gror,r's in the same stands with Sugar Pine, and in the same territories, on both the eastern and rvestern slopes of the Sierras.

- These pines thrive in high altitudes, the best stands being found anywhere from 3,000 to 9,000 feet above sea levei.

The weight of dry Sugar Pine is exactll' the same as that of the old Michigan and Wisconsin White Pine.

Southern Long Leaf Pine r,veighs 50 per cent rnore than Sugar Pine when kiln dried, and 51.7 per cent more when air dried.

California White Pine is slightly heavier, and slightly stronger as to breaking strength, than Sugar Pine. -The shrinkage of both White and Sugar Pine is very, very light. as is also the tendency to crack and warp.

California White Pine, like Sugar Pine, can be had in boards of great width as well as thickness. Wooden counter tops are frequently made from White Pine. The entire freedom from smell, resin, raised grain, etc., make the California- Pines -particularly desirable for such purposes.

California White Pine grows on an a.reragi frbm 125 to 175 feet in height, and from 3 to 8 feet in th]ckness. While it stands with a great trunk free from limbs, it does not, in this regard, compare rvith its Sugar Pine brother. ealifornia Pine is perfectly manufactured, dried, dressed, and prepared for mirket. Its method of production, and condition of delivery, is easily on a par with the beauty and value of the r,r'ood itself. The very light weight of the lumber enables the producers to deliver this stock into territories far and wide, and no species of lumber in the country has spread its consuming markets to a greater degree in the lait several years, than the California Pines.

California Pine timber often averag€s 50,000 feet to an acre, while 25,000 feet to the acre is about the average in good stands.

They use both Sugar and White Pine for the same endiess variety of uses that they used to use the good old Michigan White Pine, the physical properties being almost identical. They use White Pine for almost the same things that they use the Sugar Pine, but for many exacting uses the Sugar Pine has the preference.

Both are incomparable for pattern stock.

Both can be used in a thousand difierent ways in factories and planing mills. For every place where a soft, easiiy worked rn'ood that shrinks little, is very light, free from resin and smell and discoloration, the California pines rnay be used.

The Sugar Pine is softer, lighter, richer rvood than the White Pine. But you can do nearly everything with White Pine that you can with Sugar Pine, and the iost is much less, because the supply is much greater.

You can build a house from roof to foundation with either White or Sugar Pine but for floors that will be sub- jected to heavy use, they are not recommended.

These woods are easy to handle, light to lift, easy to.nail, easy to tack, easy to saw, easy to split, are straight-grained' coniain no subsiances that interfere with paint or varnish' and are a delight to the carpenter, the mill worker, and the painter.

- White Pine is so straight grained and soft that most of the wooden matches of the world are made from it.

From both these California woods they make sash, doors, trim, mouldings, interior fi'nish, exterior finish and trim, columns, paneli, frames, ceiling, partition, sheathing, forms, furniture,-bee-hives, factory stock of all kinds that require light, 'rvhite, soft, easily worked woods.

Sugar Pine is used extensively in piano and organ building, most piano keys being of this stock. It makes an incomparable drain board, as it has no smell, no sticky substances, no raised grain, does not swell or warp, etc.

It is one of the best known -woods for ship decking for these same reasons.

To enumerate the uses of White and Sugar Pine rvould be too great an undertaking. There are thousands of items.

The production of California Pine began in a practical way about fifty years ago. Previous to that time the earlv Californians soon discovered the value of the pines because they lvere so easily cut and worked, so easily handled. and made such splendid homes for the mining camps. Most of the old mining camps of the Forty Niners were covered with pine "shakes,'r and they lasted two generations in many cases, effectually resisting weather and storm.

The early efiorts at sawmilling in California were naturally crude,-but in the last fifteen years the sawmilling-and logging business in California has come to a very high polnt oi perfection. There are no finer sawmills on earth ihan theie are in California, and they have worked out their methods of logging and manufacturing to the N'th degree.

- The lumber dealer who buys California Pine, either White or Sugar, receives stock that comes up to the best Iumber he has ever used in quality of manufacture, and this is one of the pleasing facts that has caused this product to spread rapidly of iate. There is nothing crude about California pine in any fashion.

Most of the leading California pine mills are equipped with kilns, planers, sash, door and millwork departments. box factories, and in many cases still other manufacturing departments.

While many of the mills are located in the mountains where the timber is, a greater number are located on the flats or in the valleys, and the logs are brought down for manufacture.

Several of the California mills are the biggest in the world from a standpoint of money invested in the mill properties themselves.

With no effort to give the grading rules for these pines' the following are a general description for the White and Sugar Pine grades, rvhich are maintained in most efficient manner by the California White & Sugar Pine Manufacturers Association :

YARD GRADES-For the "yard" class of lumber these grades are:

B Select & Better-a nearly perfect grade o{ lumber, suitable for the highest ttses to rvhich lumber can be put.

C Select-a class of lumber only slightly less perfect than the B Select and suitable for the finest painted trim or, if the occasion demands, for natural finishes-

D Select-a class of finishing lumber well suited for any kind of work that is to be painted over.

No, 1 Common-a high quality common grade containing small, sound and tight knots. This grade is oftenldescribed as "rvater tight,":1p'd used in,l many cases for exterior.trim .. , .,'..

No, 2 Common-:.a class of luiiiSm eontaining larger knotsl than the No. 1 Common but' still suitable for manyl high class uses such as shelvint or barii'.6oaf$s.

No; 3 Q6666n-a high class sheathing lumber i5r concrete floof material possessing numerous khot and other defects with occasional loose knot or knot hble.

No.l"4 and 5 Common-lower common grades hqving many uses for construction or rvhere they are to be cut rtp as in the manufacture of boxes.

In addition to the above Association grades, there are various local grades under rvhich this lumber is sometimes sold.

FACTORY GRADES-The so-called factory grades are determined by the ability of each piece of lumber to produce a certain percentage of clear, sound cuttings' These cuttings must be of the size and quality used in door manufacture. No. 1 and 2 Clear is the highest grade lumber, admitting very few defects. The grade of No. 3 Clear must contain 7O/o or more of door cuttings; the grade of No. 1 Shop 50% to 7O%. No. 2 Shop from 25/o to 50/o, and' the grade of No. 3 Shop all lumber of cutting type below the grade of No. 2 Shop.

The sizes to which California White Pine lumber is dressed conform to American Lumber Standards. Both standard and extra-standard thicknesses are available'

A force of Association inspectors maintains the grades of lumber on a highly uniform basis among the mills.

The California White & Sugar Pine Manufacturers Association has its offices in the Call Building, in San Francisco. It is one of the nlost emcient of manufacturing organizations, and its members produce about 85 per cent of all the pine cut in its trade territory.

The Association is doing the very best of organization rvork, handling the grading and inspection of their lumber, working for ancl creatinq efficiency and uniformity in the production of their lumber, the gathering and distribution of useful information concerning their lumber, as well as a trade extension and market promotion and advertising department that is doing some very fine work indeed in spreading the gospel of California Pine; and last, and most imporfant, the work of wise reforestation.

C. Stbwell Smith, the Secretary, is an old Southern Pine Association man, and well gifted and experienced for the work tte is doing. The other officers of the Association are:

R: D. Baker, President; G. D. Oliver, Vice President; E. H. Cox, Treasurer'; A. S. Titus, Traffic Manager; Austin L. Black, Advertising Manager; E. P. h'ory, Manager Trade Extension,'

This associbtion is ready all the time to give anyone a helping hand that wants to knorv anything about California Pine.

Try them out !

Anddll the woes of many years Se\ilr piled upon those two. I hear$Dad say: "So it appears",

AndiErandpop: "Can't 'oe- true

"That the Lumber Yard is rnoving up to Main Street".

Said Grandpop: "l remember It was sixty years ago, Bout the middle of November, Or within a weck or so, That I first became a member Of the Yard Gang. Kids, You know. And the Lumber Yaid was quite a ways frgm Main Street' I 'lwe used to run away And hide among the The ends made caverns from school piles. t dark and co<il

And we were mileq and n Away from any growh-uP's

Those stacks were PjrggPs

In the Lumber Y from Main