History: The Softwoods (Conifers)
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The softwood or conifer group of forest trees in the United States comprises 35 kinds of pines, 7 spruces, 3 larches or tamaracks, 4 hemlocks, 10 firs, 19 others, mostly cedars and cypresses, 4 yews and their relatives and 12 junipers, a total of 94 species. There is a total of about 845 native kinds of forest trees in the United States. In addition many exotic softwoods have been imported for ornamental and landscape purposes.
The hardness or softness of the wood does not have any bearing upon its classification as a Softwood or a Hardwood tree. Some coniferous (softwood) trees are harder in texture than some hardwoods. Longleaf Pine and Pacific Yew wood are very much harder than many hardwoods. There is much similarity in texture, grain and color of many of the softwoods. The most important representatives of the soft wood group are included in this book.