and to the western slopes of the continental divide in Montana. The
coastal growth lies in a comparatively narrow strip. In the mountains an
altitude of 7,000 feet is sometimes reached, the soil and moisture
requirements, however, being the same. The largest trees are found in
bottom lands near the coast where trunks 300 feet tall and six feet in
diameter are found, but the average is much less. In mountain regions at
considerable altitudes a height of 100 feet and a diameter of two or
three is an average size. The leaves are about an inch and a half in
length, occasionally two and a half. They are arranged in rows along the
sides of the long, flexible branches. Cones are from two to four inches
long, and bear winged seeds three-eighths of an inch long, the wings
being half an inch or more in length. The bark of old trunks may be two
inches thick, but generally is thinner. It is unfortunate that the wood
of the large western firs lacks so many qualities which make it
valuable. It is generally inferior to the woods of Douglas fir, western
hemlock, Sitka spruce and the western cedars, sugar pine, and western
yellow pine. The wood of grand fir is light, soft, weak, brittle, and
not durable in contact with the soil. Its light color and the abundance
of clear material in the giant trunks are redeeming features. These
ought to open the way for much use in the future. It cannot find place
in heavy construction, because it is not strong enough. That shuts it
from one important place for which it is otherwise fitted. Box makers
find it suitable, as all fir woods are, and large demand should come
from that quarter. Trunks that will cut from 15,000 to 20,000 feet of
lumber that is practically clear, and of good color, and light in
weight, are bound to have value for boxes and slack cooperage. Trees
grow with fair rapidity. Annual rings are usually broad, and the bands
of summerwood are wide and distinct. This guarantees a certain figure in
lumber sawed tangentially, but it is not a figure to compare in beauty
with some of the hardwoods, or even with Douglas fir, or the southern
yellow pines. It ought to be a first class material for certain kinds
of woodenware, particularly for tubs, pails, and small stave vessels,
and as far as it has been used in that way it has been satisfactory.
It cannot be recommended for outside house finish, such as
weather-boarding, cornice, and porch work, because of its susceptibility
to decay; but it meets requirements for plain interior finish, and tests
have shown it to be good material for cores or backing over which to
glue veneers of hardwood.
While the eastern states have not yet wakened up to the fact that this
tree is of value in ornamental planting, its decorative qualities in
open stands have been recognized for some time in eastern Europe, where
trees of considerable size, promising to attain almost primeval
proportions, are already flourishing.
RED FIR (_Abies magnifica_) is the largest fir in America. At its best
it attains a height of 250 feet and a diameter of ten, but that size is
rare. It has several names, magnificent fir, which is a translation of
its botanical name; redbark fir, California red fir, and golden fir. The
reference to red which occurs in its several names, is descriptive of
its heartwood. Its range lies on the Cascade mountains of southern
Oregon, and along the entire length of the western slope of the Sierra
Nevadas in California. It is common in southern Oregon and sometimes
forms nearly pure forests at elevations of 5,000 or 7,000 feet. It is
plentiful in the Sierra Nevada ranges at altitudes of from 6,000 to
9,000 feet. In southern California it ascends 10,000 feet. On old trees
the limbs, regularly whorled in collars of five, are usually pendulous
or down-growing and are regularly and precisely subdivided into branches
and twigs, the short, stiff blue-green leaves, which persist for ten
years, closely covering the upper side of the latter. Its cones are the
largest of the firs, are dark purple in color and grow erect on the
branches.
The cones are six or eight inches long, and three or four in diameter.
They present a fine appearance as they stand erect on the branches. The
seeds are large, but their strong wings are able to carry them away from
the immediate presence of the parent tree. The wings are extremely
beautiful, and flash light with the colors of the rainbow. Old trees are
protected by hard, dark-colored bark five or six inches thick. A forest
fire may pass through a stand of old firs without burning through the
bark, but young trees are not so protected, and are liable to be killed.
A study of the wood of the red fir reveals rather more favorable
qualities than the other firs afford. Sap and heartwood are more easily
distinguished than in the other species, the sapwood being much lighter
in color than the reddish heart. Contrary to the general rule among the
firs, this wood possesses considerable durability, especially when used
for purposes which bring it in contact with the soil. It is, however,
light, soft and weak, but has a close, fine grain and compact structure.
Seasoning defects, such as checking and warping, are liable to occur
unless properly guarded against. It weighs 29.30 pounds per cubic foot,
or nearly three pounds less than Douglas fir. It is used for rough
lumber, packing boxes, bridge floors, interior house finish, and fuel.
SHASTA RED FIR (_Abies magnifica shastensis_) is pronounced by George B.
Sudworth to be only a form of red fir (_Abies magnifica_) and not a
separate species. The principal difference is in the cones. The Shasta
form was discovered on the mountain of that name in northern California
in 1890 by Professor J. G. Lemmon. It was supposed to be confined to
that locality, but was subsequently found on the Cascade mountains in
Oregon, and also at several points in northern California. It was later
found in the Sierras five hundred miles south of Mount Shasta.
LOVELY FIR (_Abies amabilis_) is known by a number of names, red
fir, silver fir, red silver fir, lovely red fir, amabilis fir, and
larch. The last name is applied to this tree by lumbermen who have
discovered that fir lumber sells better if it is given some other
name. The range of this species extends from British Columbia
southward in the Cascade mountains through Washington to Oregon. It
is the common fir of the Olympic mountains and there reaches its
best development, sometimes a height of 250 feet and a diameter of
five or six; but the average, even in the best part of its range, is
much under that size, while in the northern country, and high on
mountains, it is a commonplace tree, averaging less than 100 feet
high, and scarcely eighteen inches in diameter. When this fir stands
in open ground, the whole trunk is covered with limbs from base to
top; but in dense stands, the limbs drop off, and a clean trunk
results.
Some of the largest trees rise with scarcely a limb 150 feet, and
above that is the small crown. The bark of young trees is covered
with blisters filled with resin. The bark is thin and smooth until
the tree is a century or more old, after which it becomes rougher,
and near the base may be two and a half inches thick. It is of very
slow growth, and a century hardly produces a trunk of small sawlog
size. The leaves are dark green above, and whitish below. They are
much crowded on the twigs, those on the underside rising with a
twist at the base, and standing nearly erect. They are longer than
those on the twig’s upper side. The purple cones are conspicuous
objects on the tree, are from three and a half to six inches long,
and bear abundance of seeds which are well dispersed by wind.
However, the reproduction of this tree is not plentiful. The species
holds its own, and not much more. When artificial reforestation
takes place in this country, if that time ever comes, lovely fir
will receive scant consideration, because of its discouragingly slow
growth. It ranks with lodgepole pine in that respect. Nature can
afford to wait two hundred years for a forest to mature, but men
will not plant and protect when the prospect of returns is so
remote. The wood is light, weak, moderately stiff and hard. The
heartwood is pale brown, the sap nearly white. The summerwood
appears in thin but well-marked bands in the annual rings, and the
medullary rays are large enough to show slightly in quarter-sawed
lumber. Growing as it does, interspersed with really valuable woods,
the lovely fir is not highly thought of from a commercial
standpoint. However, it is exploited in conjunction with the other
species and turned into lumber and general structural material. A
considerable quantity finds a market as interior finish and other
millwork. It has many of the properties which fit it for the
manufacture of packing boxes, particularly those intended for dried
fruit and light merchandise. It bears considerable resemblance to
spruce. The utilization of this and similar species of western fir
for pulp has been suggested, but little has been done. It has been
planted ornamentally in parts of Europe, but there is no comparison
between the decorative appearance of this fir and its associated
species, the others which are in cultivation being much superior.
Removal from the old habitat militates greatly against its natural
beauty and reduces it to the level of the ordinary.
ALPINE FIR (_Abies lasiocarpa_) is so called because it thrives on
high mountains and in the far North. It grows in southern Alaska, up
to latitude 60°, and southward to Oregon and Colorado. Its other
names are balsam, white balsam, Oregon balsam, mountain balsam,
white fir, pumpkin tree, down-cone, and downy-cone subalpine fir. It
grows from sea level in Alaska up to 7,000 feet or more in the
South. It is not abundant, and not very well known. However, its
slender, spirelike top distinguishes it from all associates and it
may be recognized at long distances by that characteristic. It
endures cold at 40 degrees below zero, and summer climate at 90
degrees. Trees are usually small, and the trunks are covered with
limbs to the ground. On high mountains the lower limbs often lie
flat on the ground, and the twigs sometimes take root. Under very
favorable circumstances this fir may reach a height of 160 feet and
a diameter of four, but the usual size is less than half of it, even
when conditions are fair, while on bleak mountains mature trees may
be only three or four feet high, with most of the limbs prostrate.
The sprawling form of growth makes the tree peculiarly liable to be
killed by fire. The bark is thin, smooth, and flinty; and in color
it is ashy gray or chalky white. Leaves are one and a half inches or
less long; the purple cones from two to four inches. Trees bear
cones at about twelve years of age. The seeds are equipped with
violet or purplish wings, and they fly far enough to find the best
available places to plant themselves. The wood is narrow-ringed,
light, soft, and in color from pale straw to light yellowish-brown.
It is fairly straight grained, and splits and works easily; but
trunks are very knotty. Its best service in the past has consisted
in supplying fuel to mining camps and mountain stock ranges.
[Illustration]
DOUGLAS FIR
[Illustration: DOUGLAS FIR]
DOUGLAS FIR
(_Pseudotsuga Taxifolia_)
During one hundred and ten years, from 1803 until the present time,
botanists and others have proposed and rejected names for this tree. It
has been called a fir, pine, and spruce, with various combinations, but
the name now seems to be fixed. Laymen have disputed almost as much as
botanists as to what the tree should be named. It has been called red
fir, Douglas spruce, Douglas fir, yellow fir, spruce, fir, pine, red
pine, Puget Sound pine, Oregon pine, cork-barked Douglas spruce, and
Douglas tree. More than a dozen varieties are distinguished in
cultivation.
The range of Douglas fir covers most of the Rocky Mountain region in the
United States and northward to central British Columbia; on the coast
from the latitude of southern Alaska to the Sierra Nevada mountains in
central California. It reaches its maximum development in western
Washington and Oregon, particularly between the Cascade mountains and
the Pacific ocean. In these Cascade forests, stands are found which
yield from 50,000 to 100,000 feet per acre, and mills in that region cut
the longest timbers in the world, some two feet square and 100 feet
long.
Two forms of Douglas fir are recognized by botanists, not essentially
different except in size and habit of growth. One is the finely
developed form on the Pacific coast where the climate is warm and the
air moist. The other is the Rocky Mountain form which is smaller and
shows the effect of cold, dryness, and other adverse circumstances. When
the seeds of the two forms are planted in nurseries, where they enjoy
identical advantages, the coast form outgrows the other in Europe, but
the Rocky Mountain form thrives best in the eastern part of the United
States.
Douglas fir needles are from three-quarters to one and a quarter inches
long, and of a dark, yellow-green color. They remain on the twigs about
eight years. Cones are from two to four and a half inches long, and are
borne on long stems. The seeds, which ripen in August, are of light,
reddish-brown color with irregular white spots on the lower side; are
about a quarter of an inch long, and are provided with wings. Trees of
this species in the moist climate of the Pacific slope average much
larger than those in the mountains farther east. The largest are 300
feet high, occasionally more, and from eight to ten in diameter. The
average among the Rocky Mountains is from eighty to 100 feet high, and
two to four in diameter. Young trees are slender with crowded branches.
In thick stands the lower limbs die and the trunks remain bare, except
an occasional small branch. Douglas fir at its best grows in thick
stands, with crowns forming a canopy so dense that sunlight can scarcely
reach the ground. The result of this is that other species have little
show where Douglas fir prevails.
The bark of large trunks attains a thickness of eight or ten inches near
the base. Young bark contains blisters filled with resin, similar to
those of balsam and other species of fir.
The wood is light red or yellow, the sap much whiter. Lumbermen
recognize two kinds of wood, yellow and red. The former is considered
more valuable. Both may come from the same trunk, and the reason for the
difference in color and quality is not well understood. It cannot be
attributed to soil or climate, or to the age of the tree, and it does
not seem to depend upon rate of growth. The bands of summerwood are
broad and quite distinct. A few scattered resin ducts are visible under
a magnifying glass of low power. The medullary rays are numerous, rather
large, frequently yellow, conspicuous when wood is split radially. The
wood’s average weight is given by Sargent at 32.14 pounds per cubic
foot, yet some specimens exceed forty pounds. It is hard, strong, and
stiff. In mechanical properties it rates about the same as longleaf pine
of the South. Elaborate tests have been made to determine which of these
woods is the better for heavy construction, and neither appears to win
over the other. In one respect, however, Douglas fir has a clear
advantage over its southern rival: it may be had in much larger pieces.
No other commercial wood of the world equals it in that particular. The
Douglas fir flagstaff at the Kew gardens in England was 159 feet long,
eight inches in diameter at the top, more than three feet at the base.
The extraordinary size of squared beams cut from this species has led to
great demand for it for heavy construction in Europe and this country.
The pines from the Baltic sea region of northern Europe, which held
undisputed place in heavy work during centuries, has now yielded that
place to Douglas fir and longleaf pine.
No other single species in the United States or in the world equals the
annual sawmill cut of Douglas fir. The four species of southern yellow
pines, if counted as one, surpass it; but singly, not one comes up to
it. In 1910 the lumber cut from this fir amounted to 5,203,644,000 feet,
which exceeded one-eighth of the total lumber cut in the United States.
The importance of such a timber tree can scarcely be estimated. The
available supply in the western forests is very large and will last many
years, even if the demand for more than 5,000,000,000 feet a year
continues to be met.
The timber is exported to practically every civilized nation in the
world. Shipbuilding creates a heavy demand. Some of the leading European
nations use it as deck lining for battleships, and except mahogany and
teak, it is said to have no equal for that purpose. Its cheapness gives
it a decided advantage over those woods.
Every important lumber market in the United States handles Douglas fir,
and its uses are so many that it would be easier to list industries
which do not use it than those which do. It is manufactured into more
than fifty classes of commodities, in Illinois alone. Among these are
boats, railroad cars, electrical apparatus, farm machinery, laundry
supplies, ladders, refrigerators, musical instruments, fixtures for
offices, stores, and banks, and sash, doors, and blinds. This list of
uses shows that its place in the country’s industries includes much more
than rough construction. It may be stained in imitation of valuable
foreign and domestic woods, including walnut, mahogany, and oak. The
natural grain and figure of the wood may be deepened and improved by
stains, and this is much done by manufacturers of interior finish,
panels, and store and office fixtures. There is practically no limit to
the size of panels which may be cut in single pieces. It is easy to
procure planks large enough for whole counter tops.
The best grain of Douglas fir is not brought out by quarter-sawing. The
figures desired are not those produced by the medullary rays, but by the
rings of annual growth. Therefore, the sawyer at the mill cuts his best
logs--if intended for figured lumber--tangentially, as far as possible.
In the state of Washington, which leads all other states in the
production of Douglas fir, its chief use as a manufactured product is
for doors, sash, and blinds, and the annual consumption in that industry
exceeds 50,000,000 feet. It is cut in veneers, and it is likewise used
as corewood to back veneers. Crossarms for telegraph and telephone poles
demand 35,000,000 feet yearly in Washington alone, and many thousands of
poles are of this wood. It is third among the crosstie woods of the
United States, the combined cut of oaks standing first, and the pine
second. It is rapidly taking high position as material for large water
pipes and for braces, props, stulls, and lagging in mines and for paving
blocks for streets.
BRISTLECONE FIR (_Abies venusta_) is pronounced by George B.
Sudworth to be “the most curious fir tree in the world.” It is found
almost exclusively in Monterey county, California, but a few trees
grow outside of that circumscribed area. It has been called Santa
Lucia fir, because it was once supposed to exist only in canyons of
Santa Lucia mountains, but its range is now known to be more
extensive. Monterey county, California, is of peculiar interest to
dendrologists. Three species of trees are either confined to that
area, or have their best development there. They are Monterey
cypress (_Cupressus macrocarpa_), Monterey pine (_Pinus radiata_),
and bristlecone fir. All are peculiar trees: the cypress because of
its ragged form and extremely limited range, the pine because of
its exceedingly rapid growth when given a chance, and the fir,
because of its peculiar form of crown, odd appearance of cone, and
extraordinary weight of wood. No reason is apparent why that
particular point on the California coast should have brought into
existence--or at least should have gathered to itself--three
peculiar tree species. Bristlecone fir is well named from the
bristles an inch long covering the cone. The leaves, too, are
peculiar, bearing much resemblance to small willow leaves. Their
upper sides are deep yellow-green and the under sides silvery. The
largest leaves are two inches long, cones three inches. They ripen
in August, and soon afterwards scatter their seeds. The tree is not
a prolific seeder, and it is believed that its range is becoming
smaller. Bristlecone’s form of crown has been compared to an Indian
club, the large end on the ground and the handle pointing upward.
Trees from sixty to eighty feet high have such “handles” twenty or
thirty feet long. That peculiarity of shape makes the tree
recognizable among associated species at a distance of several
miles. The recorded weight of the wood is 42.27 pounds per cubic
foot, which is nearly twice the weight of some other firs. The wood
is moderately soft, but very firm. Few uses for it have been
reported. Trunks are very knotty, and are too few in number to be of
importance as a source of lumber. The tree has been planted
successfully for ornament in the south of Europe.
BIGCONE SPRUCE (_Pseudotsuga macrocarpa_) is of the same genus as
Douglas fir and bears much resemblance to it, but is smaller, and
its range lies wholly outside that of its northern relative. It is a
southern California species, occupying mountain slopes and canyons
in Santa Barbara and San Diego counties. It is found from 3,000 to
5,000 feet above sea level. Trees average forty or fifty feet in
height and two or three in diameter. The leaves are approximately of
the same size as those of Douglas fir; but the cones are much
larger, hence the name by which the tree is known. It is called
hemlock as often as spruce. The cones are from four to seven inches
long, hang down, and usually occupy the topmost branches of trees.
The winged seeds are half an inch long. The bark is six inches or
less in thickness. The wood is inferior in most ways to that of
Douglas fir, lighter, weaker, and less elastic. Its color is reddish
brown. It has never contributed much lumber to the market and never
will. Its range is local and the form of the tree is not of the
best. An occasional log reaches a sawmill, but the principal demand
is for fuel.
[Illustration]
BIGTREE
[Illustration: BIGTREE]
BIGTREE
(_Sequoia Washingtoniana_)
Botanists have had a hard time giving this tree a Latin name which will
meet the requirements of technical classification, but an English name
acceptable everywhere was early found for it--bigtree. No fewer than a
dozen names have been proposed by botanists. Most of them attempt to
express the idea of vastness or grandeur; but the simple English name
comes directly to the point and ends the controversy as far as the
common name is concerned.
Everything connected with this tree is interesting. Geologically, it is
as old as the yellow poplar. There were five species of sequoias in the
northern hemisphere, in Europe and America, before the ice age. They
grew in the North, nearly to the Arctic circle, at a time when the
climate of those regions was milder than it is now. The later advance of
the ice southward overwhelmed three species of bigtrees, and pushed two
survivors into the region which is now California. These are the bigtree
and the redwood. It is not known how long ago it was that the ice sheet
did its destructive work, but it antedated human history, and the
gigantic trees have been in California since that time.
Long after the ice age ceased generally in North America it continued
among the high Sierras of California, and the bigtrees to this day give
a hint of it in the peculiar outlines of their range. They are scattered
north and south along the face of the Sierra Nevada mountains in
California, a distance of 260 miles, and at elevations from 4,500 to
8,000 feet.
The aggregate of the total areas is about fifty square miles. The stand
is not continuous, but consists of “groves,” that is, isolated stands
with wide intervals between, where no trees of this species are found.
The arrangement suggests that the bigtree forest was cut in sections by
glaciers which descended from the high mountains to the plains, a
distance of one hundred miles or more, crossing the belt of sequoias at
right angles. The glaciers withdrew thousands of years ago, and their
tracks down the mountain slopes have long been covered by forests; but
the bigtree groves, for some unknown reason, never spread into the
intervening spaces, but today are separated by wide tracts in which not
a seedling or an old trunk or log of that species is to be found. This
is one of the mysteries which add interest to those wonderful trees--why
they cannot extend their range beyond the circumscribed limits which
they occupied thousands of years ago.
It was claimed for a long time and was quite generally believed that
bigtrees were not reproducing, that there “were no little bigtrees.”
That was conclusively disproved by Fred G. Plummer, geographer of the
United States Forest Service, who made a scientific study of a small
grove, measured the trees, and actually counted and classified them. His
work showed that there were in the area which he investigated:
Trees containing 100,000 to 120,000 feet each 2
Trees containing 80,000 to 100,000 feet each 13
Trees containing 60,000 to 80,000 feet each 49
Trees containing 40,000 to 60,000 feet each 112
Trees containing 20,000 to 40,000 feet each 251
Trees containing less than 20,000 feet each 353
“Little bigtrees” 2,682
-----
Total 3,462