This tree is common in the northern part of the United States, a portion of the British provinces, and also in some parts of Michigan and "Wisconsin.

It frequently reaches the height of from eighty to ninety feet, with a diameter of two feet. It grows in dry, sandy soils, and has a beautiful straight trunk, and furnishes planks forty feet long without a blemish. The wood, for some uses, is preferable to the white pine, as it is heavy, strong, and very durable; it also is a very beautiful tree, and is sometimes planted around private residences in the rural districts on account of the beauty of its trunk and branches.

The only trouble one experiences in the cultivation of this tree is the difficulty in procuring the young trees for planting, as seven eights of the trees bought for cultivation usually perish during removal, no matter how carefully handled; it is very difficult, nay, in fact, impossible, to give a succinct reason for this, as the young trees of the red pine that are raised in nurseries are usually hardy and strong plants that transplanting would not seem to affect. The seed of this tree is also very difficult to obtain, and " some rogues have been known to sell the seed-cones of the gray pine to unsophisticated people for those of the red pine, which they much resemble."