Chapter III: Part 3

SCRUB PINE (_Pinus virginiana_). This tree is often called Jersey
pine because it is a prominent feature of the landscapes in the
southern part of that state where it has spread extensively since
the settlement of the country. Its short needles have been
responsible for several of its names, among them being shortshuck
pine in Maryland and Virginia, shortshat pine in Delaware,
shortleaved pine in North Carolina, and spruce pine and cedar pine
in some parts of the South. In Tennessee it is known as nigger pine,
and in some parts of North Carolina as river pine. The range is
fairly well outlined by the above discussion of its names. It grows
from New York to South Carolina, and west of the mountains it is
found in northern Alabama and middle Tennessee, in Kentucky and West
Virginia. It reaches its largest size in southern Indiana where it
is sometimes 100 feet high and three in diameter. It is there a
valuable tree for many purposes, but is not abundant. Its average
size is small in the eastern states, usually not over fifty feet
high, and often little more than half of that. Few trunks east of
the Allegheny mountains are more than eighteen inches in diameter.
The name scrub pine is an index to the opinions held by most people
regarding this tree. It is often considered an encumbrance rather
than an asset; yet statistics of wood-using industries hardly
justify that view. Millions of feet of it are employed annually in
each of the states of New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and North
Carolina, for boxes, slack cooperage, and common lumber. The wood is
moderately strong, but is not stiff. It is medium light, soft,
brittle, with summerwood narrow and very resinous. Its color is
light orange or yellow, the thick sapwood ivory white. The needles
are from one and a half to three inches long, and fall in the third
and fourth years. Cones are two or three inches long, and scatter
their seeds in autumn. The wings are too small to carry the seeds
far, yet the tree succeeds in quickly spreading into surrounding
vacant spaces. Cones adhere to the branches three or four years. Tar
makers and charcoal burners utilized scrub pine in New Jersey,
northeastern Maryland and southeastern Pennsylvania a century and a
half ago. The tree seems to be as abundant now as it ever was.
Unless it occupies very poor land--which it generally does--the
growth is liable to be suppressed and crowded to death by broadleaf
trees before the stands become very old. As a species, it is weak in
self-defense, and it owes its survival to its habit of retreating to
poor soils where enemies cannot follow. It may be said of it as the
Roman historian Tacitus said of certain men: “The cowards fly the
farthest, and are the longest survivors.”

NORWAY PINE

NORWAY PINE

(_Pinus Resinosa_)

Early explorers who were not botanists mistook this tree for Norway spruce, and gave it the name which has since remained in nearly all parts of its range. It is called red pine also, and this name is strictly descriptive. The brown or red color of the bark is instantly noticed by one who sees the tree for the first time. In the Lake States it has been called hard pine for the purpose of distinguishing it from the softer white pine with which it is associated. In England they call it Canadian red pine, because the principal supply in England is imported from the Canadian provinces.

Its chief range lies in the drainage basin of the St. Lawrence river, which includes the Great Lakes and the rivers which flow into them. Newfoundland forms the eastern and Manitoba the western outposts of this species. It is found as far south as Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, northern Ohio, central Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. It conforms pretty generally to the range of white pine but does not accompany that species southward along the Appalachian mountain ranges across West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Where it was left to compete in nature’s way with white pine, the contest was friendly, but white pine got the best of it. The two species grew in intermixture, but in most instances white pine had from five to twenty trees to Norway’s one. As a survivor under adversity, however, the Norway pine appears to surpass its great friendly rival, at least in the Lake States where the great pineries once flourished and have largely passed away. Solitary or small clumps of Norway pines are occasionally found where not a white pine, large or small, is in sight.

The forest appearance of Norway pine resembles the southern yellow pines. The stand is open, the trunks are clean and tall, the branches are at the top. The Norway’s leaves are in clusters of two, and are five or six inches long. They fall during the fourth or fifth year. Cones are two inches long, and when mature, closely resemble the color of the tree’s bark, that is, light chestnut brown. Exceptionally tall Norway pines may reach a height of 150 feet, but the average is seventy or eighty, with diameters of from two to four. Young trees are limby, but early in life the lower branches die and fall, leaving few protruding stubs or knots. It appears to be a characteristic that trunks are seldom quite straight. They do not have the plumb appearance of forest grown white pine and spruce.

The wood of Norway pine is medium light, its strength and stiffness about twenty-five per cent greater than white pine, and it is moderately soft. The annual rings are rather wide, indicating rapid growth. The bands of summerwood are narrow compared with the springwood, which gives a generally light color to the wood, though not as light as the wood of white pine. The resin passages are small and fairly numerous. The sapwood is thick, and the wood is not durable in contact with the soil.

Norway pine has always had a place of its own in the lumber trade, but large quantities have been marketed as white pine. If such had not been the case, Norway pine would have been much oftener heard of during the years when the Lake State pineries were sending their billions of feet of lumber to the markets of the world.

Because of the deposit of resinous materials in the wood, Norway pine stumps resist decay much better than white pine. In some of the early cuttings in Michigan, where only stumps remain to show how large the trees were and how thick they stood, the Norway stumps are much better preserved than the white pine. Using that fact as a basis of estimate, it may be shown that in many places the Norway pine constituted one-fifth or one-fourth of the original stand. The lumbermen cut clean, and statistics of that period do not show that the two pines were generally marketed separately. In recent years many of the Norway stumps have been pulled, and have been sold to wood-distillation plants where the rosin and turpentine are extracted.

At an early date Norway pine from Canada and northern New York was popular ship timber in this country and England. Slender, straight trunks were selected as masts, or were sawed for decking planks thirty or forty feet long. Shipbuilders insisted that planks be all heartwood, because when sapwood was exposed to rain and sun, it changed to a green color, due to the presence of fungus. The wood wears well as ship decking. The British navy was still using some Norway pine masts as late as 1875.

The scarcity of this timber has retired it from some of the places which it once filled, and the southern yellow pines have been substituted. It is still employed for many important purposes, the chief of which is car building, if statistics for the state of Illinois are a criterion for the whole country. In 1909 in that state 24,794,000 feet of it were used for all purposes, and 14,783,000 feet in car construction.

For many years Chicago has been the center of the Norway pine trade. It is landed there by lake steamers and by rail, and is distributed to ultimate consumers. The uses for the wood, as reported by Illinois manufacturers, follow: Baskets, boxes, boats, brackets, casing and frames for doors and windows, crating, derricks for well-boring machines, doors, elevators, fixtures for stores and offices, foot or running boards for tank cars, foundry flasks, freight cars, hand rails, insulation for refrigerator cars, ladders, picture moldings, roofing, sash, siding for cattle cars, sign boards and advertising signs, tanks, and windmill towers.

As with white pine, Norway pine has passed the period of greatest production, though much still goes to market every year and will long continue to do so. The land which lumbermen denuded in the Lake States, particularly Michigan and Wisconsin, years ago, did not reclothe itself with Norway seedlings. That would have taken place in most instances but for fires which ran periodically through the slashings until all seedlings were destroyed. In many places there are now few seedlings and few large trees to bear seeds, and consequently the pine forest in such places is a thing of the past. The outlook is better in other localities.

The Norway pine is much planted for ornament, and is rated one of the handsomest of northern park trees.

PITCH PINE (_Pinus rigida_). The name pitch pine is locally applied
to almost every species of hard, resinous pine in this country. The
_Pinus rigida_ has other names than pitch pine. In Delaware it is
called longleaved pine, since its needles are longer than the scrub
pine’s with which it is associated. For the same reason it is known
in some localities as longschat pine. In Massachusetts it is called
hard pine, in Pennsylvania yellow pine, in North Carolina and
eastern Tennessee black pine, and black Norway pine in New York. The
botanical name is translated “rigid pine,” but the rigid refers to
the leaves, not the wood. Its range covers New England, New York,
Pennsylvania, southern Canada, eastern Ohio, and southward along the
mountains to northern Georgia. It has three leaves in a cluster,
from three to five inches long, and they fall the second year. Cones
range in length from one to three inches, and they hang on the
branches ten or twelve years. The wood is medium light, moderately
strong, but low in stiffness. It is soft and brittle. The annual
rings are wide, the summerwood broad, distinct, and very resinous.
Medullary rays are few but prominent; color, light brown or red, the
thick sapwood yellow or often nearly white. The difference in the
hardness between springwood and summerwood renders it difficult to
work, and causes uneven wear when used as flooring. It is fairly
durable in contact with the soil.

The tree attains a height of from forty to eighty feet and a
diameter of three. This pine is not found in extensive forests, but
in scattered patches, nearly always on poor soil where other trees
will not crowd it. Light and air are necessary to its existence. If
it receives these, it will fight successfully against adversities
which would be fatal to many other species. In resistance to forest
fires, it is a salamander among trees. That is primarily due to its
thick bark, but it is favored also by the situations in which it is
generally found--open woods, and on soil so poor that ground litter
is thin. It is a useful wood for many purposes, and wherever it is
found in sufficient quantity, it goes to market, but under its own
name only in restricted localities. Its resinous knots were once
used in place of candles in frontier homes. Tar made locally from
its rich wood was the pioneer wagoner’s axle grease, and the
ever-present tar bucket and tar paddle swung from the rear axle.
Torches made by tying splinters in bundles answered for lanterns in
night travel. It was the best pine for floors in some localities.
It is probably used more for boxes than for anything else at
present. In 1909 Massachusetts box makers bought 600,000 feet, and a
little more went to Maryland box factories. Its poor holding power
on spikes limits its employment as railroad ties and in
shipbuilding. Carpenters and furniture makers object to the numerous
knots. Country blacksmiths who repair and make wagons as a side
line, find it suitable for wagon beds. It is much used as fuel where
it is convenient.

TORREY PINE (_Pinus torreyana_), called del mar pine and Soledad
pine, is an interesting tree from the fact that its range is so
restricted that the actual number of trees could be easily known to
one who would take the trouble to count them. A rather large
quantity formerly occupied a small area in San Diego county,
California, but woodchoppers who did not appreciate the fact that
they were exterminating a species of pine from the face of the
earth, cut nearly all of the trees for fuel. Its range covered only
a few square miles, and fortunately part of that was included in the
city limits of San Diego. An ordinance was passed prohibiting the
cutting of a Torrey pine under heavy penalty, and the tree was thus
saved. A hundred and fifty miles off the San Diego coast a few
Torrey pines grow on the islands of Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa, and
owing to their isolated situation they bid fair to escape the
cordwood cutter for years to come. Those who have seen this tree on
its native hills have admired the gameness of its battle for
existence against the elements. Standing in the full sweep of the
ocean winds, its strong, short branches scarcely move, and all the
agitation is in the thick tufts of needles which cling to the ends
of the branches. Trees exposed to the seawinds are stunted, and are
generally less than a foot in diameter and thirty feet high; but
those which are so fortunate as to occupy sheltered valleys are
three or four times that size. The needles are five in a cluster.
The cones persist on the branches three or four years. The wood is
light, soft, moderately strong, very brittle; the rings of yearly
growth are broad, and the yellow bands of summerwood occupy nearly
half. The sapwood is very thick and is nearly white.

WESTERN YELLOW PINE

WESTERN YELLOW PINE

(_Pinus Ponderosa_)

The range of western yellow pine covers a million square miles. Its eastern boundary is a line drawn from South Dakota to western Texas. The species covers much of the country between that line and the Pacific ocean. It is natural that it should have more names than one in a region so extensive. It is best known as western yellow pine, but lumbermen often call it California white pine. The standing timber is frequently designated bull pine, but that name is not often given to the lumber. Where there is no likelihood of confusing it with southern pines, it is called simply yellow pine. The name heavy-wooded pine, sometimes applied to the lumber in England, is misleading. When well seasoned it weighs about thirty pounds per cubic foot, and ordinarily it would not be classed heavy. In California it is called heavy pine, but that is to distinguish it from sugar pine which is considerably lighter. The color of its bark has given it the name Sierra brownbark pine. The same tree in Montana is called black pine.

The tree has developed two forms. Some botanists have held there are two species, but that is not the general opinion. In the warm, damp climate of the Pacific slope the tree is larger, and somewhat different in appearance from the form in the Rocky Mountain region. The same observation holds true of Douglas fir.

The wood of western yellow pine is medium light, not strong, is low in elasticity, medullary rays prominent but not numerous; resinous, color light to reddish, the thick sapwood almost white. The annual rings are variable in width, and the proportionate amounts of springwood and summerwood also vary. It is not durable in contact with the ground.

The wood is easy to work and some of the best of it resembles white pine, but as a whole it is inferior to that wood, though it is extensively employed as a substitute for it in the manufacture of doors, sash, and frames. It is darker than white pine, harder, heavier, stronger, almost exactly equal in stiffness, but the annual rings of the two woods do not bear close resemblance.

The tree reaches a height of from 100 to 200 feet, a diameter from three to seven. It is occasionally much larger. Its size depends much on its habitat. The best development occurs on the Sierra Nevada mountains in California and the best wood comes from that region, though certain other localities produce high-grade lumber.

Western yellow pine holds and will long hold an important place in the country’s timber resources. The total stand has been estimated at 275,000,000,000 feet, and is second only to that of Douglas fir, though the combined stand of the four southern yellow pines is about 100,000,000,000 feet larger. It is a vigorous species, able to hold its ground under ordinary circumstances. Next to incense cedar and the giant sequoias which are associated with it in the Sierra Nevada mountains, it is the most prolific seed bearer of the western conifers, and its seeds are sufficiently light to insure wide distribution. It is gaining ground within its range by taking possession of vacant areas which have been bared by lumbering or fire. In some cases it crowds to death the more stately sugar pine by cutting off its light and moisture. It resists fire better than most of the forest trees with which it is associated. On the other hand, it suffers from enemies more than its associates do. A beetle (_Dendroctonus ponderosæ_), destroys large stands. In the Black Hills in 1903 its ravages killed 600,000,000 feet.

This splendid pine has run the gamut of uses from the corral pole of the first settler to the paneled door turned out by the modern factory. It has almost an unlimited capacity for usefulness. It grows in dry regions of the Rocky Mountains where it is practically the only source of wood supply; and it is equally secure in its position where forests are abundant and fine. It has supplied props, stulls, and lagging for mines in nearly every state touched by its range. Without its ties and other timbers some of the early railroads through the western mountains could scarcely have been built. It has been one of the leading flume timbers in western lumber and irrigation development. It fenced many ranches in early times and is still doing so. It is used in general construction, and in finish; from the shingle to the foundation sill of houses. It finds its way to eastern lumber markets. Almost 20,000,000 feet a year are used in Illinois alone. Competition with eastern white pine is met in the Lake States because, grade for grade, the western wood is cheaper, until lower grades are reached. The western yellow pine, in the eastern market, is confused with the western white pine of Idaho and Montana (_Pinus monticola_) and separate statistics of use are impossible.

The makers of fruit boxes in California often employ the yellow pine in lieu of sugar pine which once supplied the whole trade. It is also used by coopers for various containers, but not for alcoholic liquors.

The leaves are in clusters of twos and threes, and are from five to eleven inches long. Most of them fall during the third year. The cones are from three to six inches long, and generally fall soon after they reach maturity.

COULTER PINE (_Pinus coulteri_) is also known as nut pine, big cone
pine, and long cone pine. It is a California species, scarce, but of
much interest because of its cones. They are larger than those of
any other American pine and are armed with formidable curved spines
from half an inch to an inch and a half in length. The cones are
from ten to fourteen inches long. The tree is found on the Coast
Range mountains from the latitude of San Francisco to the boundary
between California and Mexico. It thrives at altitudes of from 3,000
to 6,000 feet. It never occurs in pure stands and the total amount
is small. It looks like the western yellow pine, but is much
inferior in size. Trunks seldom attain a length of fifteen feet or a
diameter of two. There is no evidence that Coulter pine is
increasing its stand on the ground which it already occupies, or
spreading to new ground. The wood is light, soft, moderately strong,
and very tough. The annual rings are narrow and consist largely of
summerwood. The heartwood is light red, the thick sapwood nearly
white. It is a poor tree for lumber, and it has been little used in
that way, but has been burned for charcoal for blacksmith shops, and
much is sold as cordwood. The leaves of Coulter pine are in clusters
of three, and they fall during the third and fourth years.

CALIFORNIA SWAMP PINE (_Pinus muricata_) clearly belongs among minor
species listed as timber trees. It meets a small demand for skids,
corduroy log roads, bridge floors, and scaffolds in the redwood
logging operations in California. It is scattered along the Pacific
coast 500 miles, beginning in Lower California and ending a hundred
miles north of San Francisco. It is known as dwarf marine pine,
pricklecone pine, bishop pine, and obispo pine. The last name is the
Spanish translation of the English word bishop. The largest trees
seldom exceed two feet in diameter, and a height of ninety feet. The
average size is little more than half as much. The wood is very
strong, hard, and compact, and the annual growth ring is largely
dense summerwood. Resin passages are few, but the wood is resinous,
light brown in color, and the thick sapwood is nearly white. The
needles are in clusters of two, and are from four to six inches
long. They begin to fall the second year. Some of the trees retain
their cones until death, but the seeds are scattered from year to
year. Under the stimulus of artificial conditions in the redwood
districts this pine seems to be spreading. Its seeds blow into
vacant ground from which redwood has been removed, and growth is
prompt. The seedlings are not at all choice as to soil, but take
root in cold clay, in peat bogs, on barren sand and gravel, and on
wind-swept ridges exposed to ocean fogs. Its ability to grow where
few other trees can maintain themselves holds out some hope that its
usefulness will increase.

MONTEREY PINE (_Pinus radiata_). This scarce and local species is
restricted to the California coast south of San Francisco, and to
adjacent islands. Under favorable circumstances it grows rapidly and
promises to be of more importance as a lumber source in the future
than it has been in the past. It is, however, somewhat particular as
to soil. It must have ground not too wet or too dry. If these
requirements are observed, it is a good tree for planting. Its
average height is seventy or ninety feet, diameter from eighteen to
thirty inches. Trunks six feet in diameter are occasionally heard
of. The wood is light, soft, moderately strong, tough, annual rings
very wide and largely of springwood; color, light brown, the very
thick sapwood nearly white. The leaves are from four to six inches
long, in clusters of two and three, and fall the third year. Cones
are from three to five inches long. The lumber is too scarce at
present to have much importance, but its quality is good. In
appearance it resembles wide-ringed loblolly pine, and appears to be
suitable for doors and sash, and frames for windows and doors. Its
present uses are confined chiefly to ranch timbers and fuel. If it
ever amounts to much as a lumber resource, it will be as a planted
pine, and not in its natural state.

JACK PINE (_Pinus divaricata_) is a far northern species which
extends its range southward in the United States, from Maine to
Minnesota, and reaches northern Indiana and Illinois. It grows
almost far enough north in the valley of Mackenzie river to catch
the rays of the midnight sun. It must necessarily adapt itself to
circumstances. When these are favorable, it develops a trunk up to
two feet in diameter and seventy feet tall; but in adversity, it
degenerates into a many-branched shrub a few feet high. The average
tree in the United States is thirty or forty feet tall, and a foot
or more in diameter. Its name is intended as a term of contempt,
which it does not deserve. Others call it scrub pine which is little
better. Its other names are more respectful, Prince’s pine in
Ontario, black pine in Wisconsin and Minnesota, cypress in Quebec
and the Hudson Bay country, Sir Joseph Banks’ pine in England, and
juniper in some parts of Canada. “Chek pine” is frequently given in
its list of names, but the name is said to have originated in an
attempt of a German botanist to pronounce “Jack pine” in dictating
to a stenographer. The tree straggles over landscapes which
otherwise would be treeless. It is often a ragged and uncouth
specimen of the vegetable kingdom, but that is when it is at its
worst. At its best, as it may be seen where cared for in some of the
Michigan cemeteries, it is as handsome a tree as anyone could
desire. The characteristic thinness and delicacy of its foliage
distinguish it at once from its associates. The peculiar green of
its soft, short needles wins admiration. The wood is light, soft,
not strong; annual rings are moderately wide, and are largely
composed of springwood. The thin bands of summerwood are resinous,
and the small resin ducts are few. The thick sapwood is nearly
white, the heartwood brown or orange. It is not durable.

Jack pine can never be an important timber tree, because too small;
but a considerable amount is used for bed slats, nail kegs,
plastering lath, barrel headings, boxes, mine props, pulpwood, and
fuel. Aside from its use as lumber and small manufactured products,
it has a value for other purposes. It can maintain its existence in
waste sands; and its usefulness is apparent in fixing drifting dunes
along some of the exposed shores of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior.
It lives on dry sand and sends its roots several feet to water; or,
under circumstances entirely different, it thrives in swamps where
the watertable is little below the surface of the ground. It fights
a brave battle against adversities while it lasts, but it does not
live long. Sixty years is old age for this tree. It grows fast while
young, but later it devotes all its energies to the mere process of
living, and its increase in size is slow, until at a period when
most trees are still in early youth, it dies of old age, and the
northern winds quickly whip away its limbs, leaving the barkless
trunk to stand a few years longer.

LODGEPOLE PINE

LODGEPOLE PINE

(_Pinus Contorta_)

The common name of this tree was given it because its tall, slender, very light poles were used by Indians of the region in the construction of their lodges. They selected poles fifteen feet long and two inches in diameter, set them in a circle, bent the tops together, tied them, and covered the frame with skins or bark. The poles were peeled in early summer, when the Indians set out upon their summer hunt, and were left to season until fall, when they were carried to the winter’s camping place, probably fifty miles distant. Tamarack is a common name for this pine in much of its range; it is likewise known as black pine, spruce pine, and prickly pine. Its leaves are from one to two inches long, in clusters of two. The small cones adhere to the branches many years--sometimes as long as twenty--without releasing the seeds, which are sealed within the cone by accumulated resin. The vitality of the seeds is remarkable. They don’t lose their power of germination during their long imprisonment.

The lodgepole pine has been called a fire tree, and the name is not inappropriate. It profits by severe burning, as some other trees of the United States do, such as paper birch and bird cherry. The sealed cones are opened by fire, which softens the resin, and the seeds are liberated after the fire has passed, and wing their flight wherever the wind carries them. The passing fire may be severe enough to kill the parent tree without destroying or bringing down the cones. The seeds soon fall on the bared mineral soil, where they germinate by thousands. More than one hundred thousand small seedling trees may occupy a single acre. Most of them are ultimately crowded to death, but a thick stand results. Most lodgepole pine forests occupy old burns. The tree is one of the slowest of growers. It never reaches large size--possibly three feet is the limit. It is very tall and slender. A hundred years will scarcely produce a sawlog of the smallest size.

The range of this tree covers a million square miles from Alaska to New Mexico, and to the Pacific coast. Its characters vary in different parts of its range. A scrub form was once thought to be a different species, and was called shore pine.

The wood is of about the same weight as eastern white pine. It is light in color, rather weak, and brittle, annual rings very narrow, summerwood small in amount, resin passages few and small; medullary rays numerous, broad, and prominent. The wood is characterized by numerous small knots. It is not durable in contact with the ground, but it readily receives preservative treatment. In height it ranges from fifty to one hundred feet.

The government’s estimate of the stand of lodgepole pine in the United States in 1909 placed it at 90,000,000,000 feet. That makes it seventh in quantity among the timber trees of this country, those above it being Douglas fir, the southern yellow pines (considered as one), western yellow pine, redwood, western hemlock, and the red cedar of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

Lodgepole pine has been long and widely used as a ranch timber in the Far West, serving for poles and rails in fences, for sheds, barns, corrals, pens, and small bridges. Where it could be had at all, it was generally plentiful. Stock ranges high among the mountains frequently depend almost solely upon lodgepole pine for necessary timber.

Mine operators find it a valuable resource. As props it is cheap, substantial, and convenient in many parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Montana. A large proportion of this timber which is cut for mining purposes has been standing dead from fire injury many years, and is thoroughly seasoned and very light. It is in excellent condition for receiving preservative treatment.

Sawmills do not list lodgepole pine separately in reports of lumber cut, and it is impossible to determine what the annual supply from the species is. It is well known that the quantity made into lumber in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho is large. Its chief market is among the newly established agricultural communities in those states. They use it for fruit and vegetable shipping boxes, fencing plank, pickets, and plastering lath.

Railroads buy half a million lodgepole pine crossties yearly. When creosoted, they resist decay many years. Lodgepole pine has been a tie material since the first railroads entered the region, and while by no means the best, it promises to fill a much more important place in the future than in the past. It is an ideal fence post material as far as size and form are concerned, and with preservative treatment it is bound to attain a high place. It is claimed that treated posts will last twenty years, and that puts them on a par with the cedars.

In Colorado and Wyoming much lodgepole was formerly burned for charcoal to supply the furnaces which smelted ore and the blacksmith shops of the region. This is done now less than formerly, since railroad building has made coal and coke accessible.

In one respect, lodgepole pine is to the western mountains what loblolly pine is to the flat country of the south Atlantic and other southern states. It is aggressive, and takes possession of vacant ground. Although the wood is not as valuable as loblolly, it is useful, and has an important place to fill in the western country’s development. Its greatest drawback is its exceedingly slow growth. A hundred years is a long time to wait for trees of pole size. Two crops of loblolly sawlogs can be harvested in that time. However, the land on which the lodgepole grows is fit only for timber, and the acreage is so vast that there is enough to grow supplies, even with the wait of a century or two for harvest. The stand has increased enormously within historic time, the same as loblolly, and for a similar reason. Men cleared land in the East, and loblolly took possession; fires destroyed western forests of other species and lodgepole seized and held the burned tracts.

If fires cease among the western mountains, as will probably be the case under more efficient methods of patrol, and with stricter enforcement of laws against starting fires, the spread of lodgepole pine will come to a standstill, and existing forests will grow old without much extension of their borders.

JEFFREY PINE (_Pinus jeffreyi_) is often classed as western yellow pine, both in the forest and at the mill. Its range extends from southern Oregon to Lower California, a distance of 1,000 miles, and its width east and west varies from twenty to one hundred and fifty miles. It is a mountain tree and generally occupies elevations above the western yellow pine. In the North its range reaches 3,600 feet above sea level; in the extreme South it is 10,000 feet. The darker and more deeply-furrowed bark of the Jeffrey pine is the usual character by which lumbermen distinguish it from the western yellow pine. It is known under several names, most of them relating to the tree’s appearance, such as black pine, redbark pine, blackbark pine, sapwood pine, and bull pine. It reaches the same size as the western yellow pine, though the average is a little smaller. The leaves are from four to nine inches long, and fall in eight or nine years. The cones are large, and armed with slender, curved spines. The seeds are too heavy to fly far, their wing area being small. It is a vigorous tree, and in some regions it forms good forests. Some botanists have considered the Jeffrey pine a variety of the western yellow pine.

GRAY PINE (_Pinus sabiniana_), called also Digger pine because the
Digger Indians formerly collected the seeds, which are as large as
peanuts, to help eke out a living, is confined to California, and
grows in a belt on the foothills surrounding the San Joaquin and
Sacramento valleys. Its cones are large and armed with hooked
spines. When green, the largest cones weigh three or four pounds.
Leaves are from eight to twelve inches long, in clusters of two and
three, and fall the third and fourth years. The wood is remarkable
for the quickness of its decay in damp situations. It lasts one or
two years as fence posts. A mature gray pine is from fifty to
seventy feet high, and eighteen to thirty inches in diameter. Some
trees are much larger. It is of considerable importance, but is not
in the same class as western yellow and sugar pine. The wood is
light, soft, rather strong, brittle. The annual rings are generally
wide, indicating rapid growth. Very old gray pines are not known. An
age of 185 years seems to be the highest on record. The wood is
resinous, and it has helped in a small way to supply the Pacific
coast markets with high-grade turpentine, distilled from roots. It
yields resin when boxed like the southern longleaf pine. There are
two flowing seasons. One is very early, and closes when the weather
becomes hot; the other is in full current by the middle of August.
It maintains life among the California foothills during the long
rainless seasons, on ground so dry that semi-desert chaparral
sometimes succumbs; but it is able to make the most of favorable
conditions, and it grows rapidly under the slightest encouragement.
The seedlings are more numerous now than formerly, which is
attributed to decrease of forest fires. The tree has enemies which
generally attack it in youth. Two fungi, _Peridermium harknessi_,
and _Dædalia vorax_, destroy the young tree’s leader or topmost
shoot, causing the development of a short trunk. The latter fungus
is the same or is closely related to that which tunnels the trunk of
incense cedar and produces pecky cypress.

Gray pine has been cut to some extent for lumber, but its principal
uses have been as fuel and mine timbers. Many quartz mines have been
located in the region where the tree grows; and the engines which
pumped the shafts and raised and crushed the ore were often heated
with this pine. Thousands of acres of hillsides in the vicinity of
mines were stripped of it, and it went to the engine house ricks in
wagons, on sleds, and on the backs of burros. In two respects it is
an economical fuel for remote mines: it is light in weight, and
gives more heat than an equal quantity of the oak that is associated
with it.

CHIHUAHUA PINE (_Pinus chihuahuana_) is not abundant, but it exists
in small commercial quantities in southwestern New Mexico and
southern Arizona. Trees are from fifty to eighty feet high, and from
fifteen to twenty inches in diameter. The wood is medium light,
soft, rather strong, brittle, narrow ringed and compact. The resin
passages are few, large, and conspicuous; color, clear light orange,
the thick sapwood lighter. The tree reaches best development at
altitudes of from 5,000 to 7,000 feet. When the wood is used, it
serves the same purposes as western yellow pine; but the small size
of the tree makes lumber of large size impossible. The leaves are in
clusters of three, and fall the fourth year. The cones have long
stalks and are from one and a half to two inches long.

TAMARACK

TAMARACK

(_Larix Laricina_)

There are three species of tamarack or larch in the United States, and probably a fourth is confined to Alaska. One has its range in the northeastern states, extending south to West Virginia and northwestward to Alaska. Two are found in the northwestern states. Other species are native of the eastern hemisphere, and some of them have been planted to some extent in this country. A species of Europe is of much importance in that country. The tamaracks lose their leaves in the fall and the branches are bare during the winter. The name tamarack or larch should be applied only to trees of the genus _larix_. This rule is not observed in some parts of the West where the noble fir (_Abies nobilis_) is occasionally called larch by lumbermen. It is not entitled to that name, and confusion results from such use.

The larches are easily identified. They have needle leaves like those of pines and firs, but they are differently arranged. They are produced in little brush-like bundles, from twelve to forty leaves in each, on all the shoots, except the leaders. On these the leaves occur singly. The little brushes are so conspicuous, and so characteristic of this genus, including all its species, that there should be little difficulty in identifying the larches when the leaves are on. In winter, when the branches are bare, there are other easy marks of identification.

The little brushes are interesting objects of study. Botanists tell us that the excrescence or bud-like knob from which the leaves grow is really a suppressed or aborted branch, with all its leaves crowded together at the end. If it were developed, it would bear its leaves singly, scattered along its full length, as they occur on the leading shoots. The warty appearance of the branches in winter is a very convenient means of identification when the leaves are down.

The cones of larches mature in a single season, and often hang on the trees several years. They are conspicuous in winter when the branches are bare of foliage. The adhering cones are generally seedless after the first season, since they quickly let their winged seeds go. The male and female flowers are produced singly on branches of the previous year.

The eastern and northern larch (_Larix laricina_) has a number of names. It is commonly known as tamarack in the New England states and in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and in Canada. The name larch is applied in practically all the regions where it grows, but it is not used as frequently as tamarack. Hackmatack, which was the Indian name for the tree in part of its eastern range, is still in use in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, and Ontario. Nurserymen call it American larch to distinguish it from other larches on the market, particularly the European larch. Michaux, an early French botanist who explored American forests, called it American larch (_Larix americana_), and the name which he gave has been retained by many scientists to this day. In the Canadian provinces north of the Great Lakes, and also in Maine and New Brunswick, it is frequently called juniper, but without good reason, for it has little of the appearance and few of the qualities of the junipers. In some localities it is called black larch, and in others red larch. The first name refers to the color of its bark, the last to the leaves when about to fall, for they then change to a brown or reddish color. They fall in the autumn, and the branches are bare until the next spring. Some of the New York Indians observed that peculiarity of the tree which they thought should be an evergreen like the balsam and pines with which it was often associated, and they named it kenehtens, meaning “the leaves fall”. Indians did not, as a rule, give separate names to tree species, and when they did so, it was because of food value, or from some peculiarity which could not fail to attract the notice of a savage.

The tamarack’s geographical range is remarkable. It is said to be best developed in the region east of Manitoba, but it extends southward into West Virginia and northward to the land of the midnight sun. It maintains its place almost to the arctic snows, and the willow is about the only tree that pushes farther north. It is found from Newfoundland and Labrador far down toward the mouth of the Mackenzie river, north of the arctic circle. It grows on dry land as well as wet, but is oftenest found in cold swamps, particularly in the southern part of its range. Silted-up lakes are favorite situations, and on the made-land above old beaver dams.

Tamarack forests frequently stand on ground so soft that a pole may be thrust ten feet deep in the mud. The moist, monotonous sphagnum moss generally furnishes ground cover in such places. A tamarack swamp in summer is cool and pleasant--provided there is not too much water on the ground--but in winter a more desolate picture can scarcely be imagined. The leafless trees appear to be dead, and covered with lifeless cones; but the first warm days bring it to life.

The average height of tamarack trees is from forty to sixty feet, diameter twenty inches or less. Leaves are one-half or one and a half inches long; cones one-half or three-quarter inches, and bright chestnut brown at maturity. They fall when two years old. The winged seeds are very small. The tree is neither a frequent nor abundant seeder. The foliage is thin, and is not sufficient to shut much sunlight from the ground.

The wood is heavy, hard, very strong, and is durable in contact with the soil. The growth is slow, annual rings narrow, summerwood occupies nearly half the ring, and is dark-colored, resinous, and conspicuous; resin passages few and obscure; medullary rays numerous and obscure; color of wood light brown, the sapwood nearly white.

The uses of tamarack go back to prehistoric times. The Indians of Canada and northeastern United States drew supplies from four forest trees when they made their bark canoes. The bark for the shell came from paper birch, threads for sewing the strips of bark together were tamarack roots, resin for stopping leaks was a product of balsam fir, and the light framework of wood was northern white cedar.

The roots which best suited the Indian’s purpose came from trees which grew in soft, deep mud, where lakes and beaver ponds had silted up. Such roots are long, slender, and very tough and pliant, and may be gathered in large numbers, particularly where running streams have partly undermined standing trees.

White men likewise made use of tamarack roots in boat building, but the roots were different from what the Indians used. “Instep” crooks were hewed for ship knees. These were large roots, the larger the better. Trees which produced them did not grow in deep mud, for there the roots did not develop crooks. The ship knee operator hunted for tamarack forests growing on a soft surface soil two or three feet deep, underlaid by stiff clay or rock which roots could not penetrate. In situations like that the roots go straight down until they reach the hard stratum, and then turn at right angles and grow in a horizontal direction. The turning point in the root develops the crook of which the ship knee is made.

Tamarack is seldom of sufficient size for the largest ship knees. Such were formerly supplied by southern live oak; and in that case crooks formed by the union of trunk and large branches were as good as those produced by the union of trunk and large roots.

Tamarack is still employed in the manufacture of boat knees, but not as much as formerly. Steel frames have largely taken the place of wood in the construction of ship skeletons. Boat builders use tamarack now for floors, keels, stringers, and knees.

Tamarack has come into much use in recent years. Sawmills cut from it more than 125,000,000 feet of lumber a year. Fourteen states contribute, but most of the lumber is produced in Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Railroads in the United States buy 5,000,000 or more tamarack ties a year, which reduced to board measure amount to over 150,000,000 feet. Fence posts and telegraph poles come in large numbers from tamarack forests.

The wood is stiff and strong, its stiffness being eighty-four per cent of that of long leaf pine, and its strength about eighty per cent. Unusual variations in both strength and stiffness are found. One stick of tamarack may rate twice as high as another.

The wood-using factories of Michigan consume nearly 20,000,000 feet of this wood yearly. It is made into boxes, excelsior, pails, tanks, tubs, house finish, refrigerators, windmills, and wooden pipes for waterworks and for draining mines.

There is little likelihood that the supply of tamarack will run short in the near future. While it is not in the first rank of the important trees in this country, it is useful, and it is fortunate that it promises to hold its ground against fires which do grave injury to northern forests. In the swamps where the most of it is found the ground litter is too damp to burn. The tree does not grow rapidly, but it usually occupies lands which cannot be profitably devoted to agriculture, and it will, therefore, be let alone until it reaches maturity.

Tamarack is a familiar tree in parks, and it grows farther south than its natural range extends. It is not as desirable a park tree as hemlock, spruce, fir, the cedars, and some of the pines, because its foliage is thin in summer and wanting in winter. It is in a class with cypress. In the early spring, however, while its soft green needles are beginning to show themselves in clusters along the twigs, its delicate and unusual appearance attracts more attention than its companion trees which are always in full leaf and for that reason are somewhat monotonous.

WESTERN LARCH

WESTERN LARCH

(_Larix Occidentalis_)

This is a magnificent tree of the Northwest, and its range lies principally on the upper tributaries of the Columbia river, in Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia, but it occurs also among the Blue Mountains of Washington and Oregon. It is the largest member of the larch genus, either in the old world or the new. The finest trees are 250 feet high with diameters of six or eight feet, but sizes half of that are nearer the average. The trunk is of splendid form. In early life it is limby, but later it prunes itself, and a long, tapering bole is developed with a very small crown of thin foliage. No other tree of its size, with the possible exception of old sequoias, has so little foliage in proportion to the trunk.

The result is apparent in the rate of growth after the larch has passed its youth. Sometimes such a tree does not increase its trunk diameter as much in seventy-five years as a vigorous loblolly pine or willow oak will in one year. The trunk of a tree, as is well known, grows by means of food manufactured by the leaves and sent down to be transformed into wood. With so few leaves and a trunk so large, the slowness of growth is a natural consequence. Though the annual rings are usually quite narrow, the bands of summerwood are relatively broad. That accounts for the density of larchwood and its great weight. It is six per cent heavier than longleaf pine, and is not much inferior in strength and elasticity. The leaves are from one to one and three-quarter inches long, the cones from one to one and a half inches, and the seeds nearly one-quarter inch in length. They are equipped with wings of sufficient power to carry them a short distance from the parent tree.

The bark on young larches is thin, but on large trunks, and near the ground, it may be five or six inches thick. When a notch is cut in the trunk it collects a resin of sweetish taste which the Indians use as an article of food.

The western larch reaches its best development in northern Idaho and Montana on streams which flow into Flathead lake. The tree prefers moist bottom lands, but grows well in other situations, at altitudes of from 2,000 to 7,000 feet. The figures given above on the wood’s weight, strength, and stiffness show its value for manufacturing purposes. Its remoteness from markets has stood in the way of large use, but it has been tried for many purposes and with highly satisfactory results. In 1910 sawmills in the four western states where it grows cut 255,186,000 feet. Most of this is used as rough lumber, but some is made into furniture, finish, boxes, and boats. The wood has several names, though larch is the most common. It is otherwise known as tamarack and hackmatack, which names are oftener applied to the eastern tree; red American larch, western tamarack, and great western larch.

Some of the annual cut of lumber credited to western larch does not belong to it. Lumbermen have confused names and mixed figures by applying this tree’s name to noble fir, which is a different tree. If the fir lumber listed as larch were given its proper name, it would result in lowering the output of larch as shown in statistical figures. In spite of this, however, larch lumber fills an important place in the trade of the northern Rocky Mountain region.

There is little doubt that it will fill a much more important place in the future, for a beginning has scarcely been made in marketing this timber. The available supply is large, but exact figures are not available. Some stands are dense and extensive, and the trees are of large size and fine form. It is not supposed, however, that there will be much after the present stand has been cut, because a second crop from trees of so slow growth will be far in the future. Sudworth says that larch trees eighteen or twenty inches in diameter are from 250 to 300 years old, and that the ordinary age of these trees in the forests of the Northwest is from 300 to 500 years; while larger trees are 600 or 700. Much remains to be learned concerning the ages of these trees in different situations and in different parts of its range. It is apparent, however, that when a period covering two or three centuries is required to produce a sawlog of only moderate size, timber owners will not look forward with much eagerness to a second growth forest of western larch.