Chapter V: Part 5

Trunks are large but not shapely. They are generally fluted, and greatly swelled at the base. These deformities develop rather late in the tree’s life; at least, they are not prominent in young timber. Western cedar poles of large size are beautiful in outline; but when maturity approaches, the trunk grows faster near the ground than some distance above; the annual rings are wider near the base than twenty feet above, resulting in great enlargement near the ground. At the same time ribs and creases slowly develop, and by the time the tree is old, it is as ungainly as one of the giant sequoias. Its appearance is hurt by characteristics other than the swelled base and the buttresses. While the tree is small, the limbs ascend, and maintain a graceful upright position. Toward middle life they begin to droop, and the limbs of old trees hang down the trunks--the reverse of their attitude in early life.

The western red cedar lives to an old age, from 600 to 1,000 years. The oldest are liable to be hollow near the ground. The tree is remarkable for what happens after it falls. Often the trunk crashes down in a bed of moss, which in a few years buries it from sight. The moss holds so much water that the buried log is constantly too wet for fungous attack. Consequently decay does not take place. Fallen trees have lain for hundreds of years--as much as 800 having been claimed in one instance--and at the end of that time they are sound enough for shingles. The position of living trees growing upon buried logs furnishes the key to the length of time since the trunks fell. The long period during which the moss-buried wood has remained sound has led to the claim that western red cedar is the most enduring wood in America. Such is not necessarily the case. A good many others would probably last as long if protected in the same way.

Western red cedar is strong and stiff but falls from twenty to thirty per cent below white oak in these factors. It is light, and the texture of the wood is rather coarse. The springwood and summerwood are distinct, the latter constituting one-half or less of the annual ring. The medullary rays are numerous and obscure. The wood’s color is dull brown, tinged with red. The thin sapwood is nearly white.

The ease with which western red cedar may be worked led the Indians to use it in their most ambitious woodcraft. The gigantic totem poles which have excited the curiosity and admiration of travelers near the coast in Alaska and southward have nearly all been of this wood. Some of them are the largest single pieces of wood carving in the world. Trunks three or four feet in diameter and forty or fifty feet long have been hewed and whittled in weird, uncouth, and fantastic forms, decorated with eagle heads, bear mouths, and with various creatures of the forest or sea, or from the realms of imagination. Before the northern Pacific coast Indians procured tools from white men they executed their carving by means of bone, stone, shell, and wooden tools, assisted by fire.

The making of canoes was in some ways a work more laborious for the Indians than the manufacture of totem poles. Their canoes were dugouts of all sizes, from the small trough which carried one or two persons, to the enormous canoe which carried fifty warriors with all their equipment. Such a canoe, now in the National Museum at Washington, D. C., is fifty-nine feet long, seven feet, three inches deep at the bow, five feet three inches at the stern, and three feet seven inches in the middle, and eight feet wide. It was made on Vancouver island, and is capable of carrying 100 persons. The capacity of the canoe is thirty-five tons. Civilized man has produced no vessel with lines more perfect than are seen in some of these canoes made by savages; but all the canoes are not alike: some are crude and clumsy. It is claimed that large cedar canoes of Indian manufacture were early carried from the Pacific coast by fur traders, and New York and Boston shipbuilders took them as models in constructing the celebrated clipper ships which formerly sailed between New York and San Francisco.

The Indians formerly made much use of western red cedar bark which they twisted into ropes and cords, braided for mats, wove for cloth, used in making baskets, roofing wigwams, constructing fish nets and bird snares, ladders for climbing cliffs, and they even pulped the inner bark by pounding it in mortars, and mixed it with their food.

White men have put western red cedar to many uses, as shingles, lumber, cooperage, poles, posts, piles, car siding and roofing, boat building from skiffs to ships, and general furniture and interior finish.

WESTERN JUNIPER (_Juniperus occidentalis_) is a high mountain tree with all the characteristics belonging to that class of timber. The trunks are short and strong, the limbs wide-spreading, the wood of slow growth, and dense. The tree attains a diameter of ten inches in about 130 years. Trunks ten feet in diameter have been reported, but trees that large would be hard to find now. John Muir said that the western juniper lives 2,000 years, and that the tree is never uprooted by wind. The trunk is usually short, six or eight feet being a fair average, and very knotty. However, when a block of clear wood is found, it is high class, the heaviest of the cedars, straight grain, soft, compact, brittle. The summerwood is so narrow that it resembles a fine, black line. The medullary rays are numerous and very obscure. The wood is slightly aromatic, splits easily, works nicely, and in color is brown, tinged with red. In appearance, the sapwood suggests spruce. The average height of the trees is from twenty-five to forty-five feet, diameter two to four feet. The range of this tree is in Idaho, eastern Oregon, and through the Cascades and Sierras to southern California. It seldom occurs below an altitude of 6,000 feet, and ascends to 10,000 or more. On the highest summits it is deformed and stunted. Its fruit is eaten by Indians, and it furnishes fuel for mountain camps and ranches, timber for mines, and sometimes a little lumber. The crooked limbs and trunks are made into corral fences where better material cannot be had. The wood has been found suitable for lead pencils, but that of proper quality is too scarce to attract manufacturers. Other names for this tree are juniper cedar, yellow cedar, western cedar, western red cedar, and western juniper. Some of these names are applied to other species of the same region.

PORT ORFORD CEDAR

PORT ORFORD CEDAR

(_Chamæcyparis Lawsoniana_)

Port Orford cedar of the northwestern coast is an interesting member of the cedar group with a very limited range. Specimens are found throughout an area of about 10,000 square miles, but the district moderately heavily timbered does not exceed 300 or 400 miles in area. It lies near Coos bay in southwestern Oregon. The tree is found as far south in California as the mouth of Klamath river, and it was once reported on Mt. Shasta, but it is very scarce there if it exists at all. In the best of its range Port Orford cedar runs 20,000 feet to the acre, and a single acre has yielded 100,000 feet. Trees run from 135 to 175 feet in height and three to seven in diameter. The largest on record were about 200 feet high and twelve in diameter. Few trees of any species have smaller leaves. They often are only one-sixteenth of an inch in length. They die the third year and change to a bright brown. The cones are about one-third of an inch in diameter. Two or four seeds lie under each fertile cone scale, and ripen in September and October. The seeds are one-eighth inch in length, and are winged for flight. The bark of the tree is much thicker than of most cedars, being ten inches near the base of large trees. This ought to protect the trunks against fire but it falls short of expectations. About sixty years ago much of the finest timber was killed by a great fire which swept the region. Some of the dead trunks stood forty years without exhibiting much evidence of decay, and those that fell remained sound many years.

The whole history of this interesting tree, from its first announced discovery by white men until the present time, is embraced in the memory of living men. It had not been heard of prior to 1855. Though fire and storm have destroyed large quantities, it has been estimated that 4,000,000,000 feet of merchantable timber remain, an average of 15,000 feet per acre for an area of 400 square miles. The wood is moderately light, is nearly as strong as white oak, and falls only sixteen per cent below it in stiffness. The annual rings are generally narrow, but distinct. The summerwood is narrow, but dark in color in the heartwood. The medullary rays are numerous and obscure. The wood abounds in odorous resin. The odor persists long after the wood has ceased to be fresh. Workmen in mills where this cedar is cut, and on board of vessels freighted with it, are sometimes seriously affected by the odor. It is reputed to repel insects, and is made into clothes chests, wardrobes, and shelves, with the expectation that moths will be kept at a distance. Several other cedars bear similar reputations.

One of the first uses to which the people of the Pacific coast put Port Orford cedar was boat building. The industry was important at Coos bay at an early day, and vessels constructed there sailed the seas thirty or forty years. Trunks of this cedar turn out a high percentage of clear lumber. The wood takes a good polish, and is manufactured into furniture, doors, sash, turnery, and matches. The latter article is esteemed by many persons for the peculiar odor of the burning wood. It has been found practicable to finish this cedar in imitation of mahogany, oak, and several other cabinet woods. In its natural state it sometimes bears some resemblance to yellow pine, and sometimes to spruce, there being considerable variation in the appearance of wood from different trees. When the visible supply of Port Orford cedar has been cut, the end will be reached, for not much young growth is coming on. Sixty-eight varieties of Port Orford cedar are recognized in cultivation.

YELLOW CEDAR (_Chamæcyparis nootkatensis_) describes this tree quite well. The small twigs are of that color, and so is the heartwood. Many give it the name yellow cypress. Others know it as Alaska cypress, Alaska ground cypress, Nootka cypress, or Nootka sound cypress. The name of the species, _nootkatensis_, was given it by Archibald Menzies, a Scotch botanist who discovered it on the shore of Nootka sound in Alaska.

Yellow cedar’s geographic range extends from southeastern Alaska to Oregon, a distance of 1,000 miles. It does not usually go far inland, and consequently the range is narrow in most places. North of the international boundary the tree seldom reaches an altitude of more than 2,000 or 3,000 feet, but in Washington and Oregon it is occasionally met with at elevations of 4,000 and 5,000 feet. The species reaches its best development on the islands off the coast of southern Alaska and British Columbia, where the air is moist, the winds warm in winter, the rainfall abundant, and the snowfall often deep. Well developed trees under such circumstances are from ninety to 120 feet high, from two to six in diameter. The blue-green leaves remain active two years, and then die, but they do not usually fall until a year later. The presence of the dead leaves on the twigs tones down the general color of the tree crowns.

The cones are about half an inch long and have four, five, or six scales. From two to four seeds lie beneath each scale until September or October when they ripen and escape. Their wings are large enough to carry them away from the immediate vicinity of the parent tree, and reproduction under natural conditions is generally good. Yellow cedar is abundant within its range, but nature has circumscribed its range, and it shows no disposition to pass the boundary line.

The bark is thin and exhibits cedar’s characteristic stringiness. It is shed in thin strips.

The wood is moderately light, and is strong and stiff. It is probably the hardest of the cedars, and the grain is so regular that high polish is possible. Under favorable circumstances trees grow with fair rapidity, but when conditions are unfavorable, as on high mountains where summers are short and winters severe, growth is remarkably slow, and twenty years or more may be required for one inch increase in trunk diameter. The wood of such trees is hard, dense, and strong.

The grain of yellow cedar is usually straight. The bands of summerwood are narrow, the annual rings are indistinct, and an attempt to count them is often attended with considerable difficulty. The wood is easily worked, satiny, susceptible of a beautiful polish, and possesses an agreeable resinous odor. The heartwood is bright, clear yellow, and the thin sapwood is a little lighter in color. In common with all other cedars, yellow cedar resists decay many years. Logs which have lain in damp woods half a century remain sound inside the sapwood. Sometimes fallen timber in that region is quickly buried under deep beds of moss which preserves it from decay much longer than if the logs lie exposed to alternate dampness and dryness.

Statistics of sawmill operations in the Northwest do not distinguish between the different cedars, and the cut of yellow cedar is unknown. It is considerable, but of course not to be compared with the more abundant western red cedar. Statistics of uses are as meager as of the lumber output. In Washington the factories which use wood as raw material report only 7,500 feet of yellow cedar a year. Doubtless much more than that is used, but under other names. There is no occasion to disguise this wood under other names. It has a striking individuality and deserves a place of its own. In some respects it is one of the best woods of the Pacific Northwest. In nearly every situation where it has been tried, it has been found satisfactory. Its rich yellow presents a fine appearance in furniture and interior finish, and the polish which it takes surpasses that possible with any other cedar, with the probable exception of some of the scarce, high mountain junipers. It has been used for pyrography and patterns, two hard places to fill, and for which few woods are suitable. Indians long ago in Alaska learned that it was the best material for boat paddles which their forests afforded. It possesses the requisite stiffness and strength, and it wears to a smoothness almost like ebony. Boat factories have many uses for the wood, decking, railing, and interior finish being among the most important. It is said to be a satisfactory substitute for Spanish cedar in the manufacture of cigar boxes, but its use for that purpose is not yet large.

It is said that occasional exports of this wood go to China where it is finished in imitation of scarce and expensive woods of that country.

Yellow cedar is a wood with a future. Its splendid properties cannot fail to give it a place of no small importance in factories and in general building operations. The supply has scarcely yet been touched, but it cannot much longer remain an undeveloped asset. It is apparently a high-class cooperage material, but it does not seem to have been used much if at all in that industry. The same might be said of it for doors. It is heavier than spruce, white pine, and redwood, but where weight is not a matter for objection, it ought to equal them in all desirable qualities.

In much of its range it is generally exempt from forest fire injury, because its native woods are nearly always too wet to burn.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN JUNIPER (_Juniperus scopulorum_) is scattered over
the mountains from Dakota and Nebraska to Washington and British
Columbia, and southward to western Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
Except near the Pacific coast, it is usually found at altitudes
above 5,000 feet. It clings closely to dry, rocky ridges where it
attains a height of thirty or forty feet, and a diameter of three
feet or less. The trunk usually divides near the ground into several
stems. The bright blue berries ripen the second year. The wood
resembles that of red cedar, and is used in the same way, as far as
it is used at all. It is not a source of lumber. A little is sawed
occasionally on mountain mills, and the lumber is used locally in
house building, particularly for window and door frames; but sawlogs
are short, and because of their poor form, the output of lumber is
negligible. Some of it finds its way into Texas where it is
manufactured into clothes chests and wardrobes, and these are sold
as red cedar. A choice mountain juniper log, with large, sound
heartwood, produces lumber with a delicate grain and is more
attractive than red cedar when made into chests and boxes. By habit
of growth, it includes patches of white sapwood in the darker
heartwood. When these are sawed through in converting the logs into
boards, the islands of white wood scattered over the surface produce
a unique effect not wanting in artistic value. Some of the other
western junipers possess similar characteristics. Sometimes patches
of bark are also found imbedded in the interior of the trees.

RED SPRUCE

RED SPRUCE

(_Picea Rubens_)

In New York the tree is called yellow spruce, while in foreign literature it is known as North American red spruce. The tree is sometimes difficult to distinguish from black spruce (_Picea nigra_), the main points of difference in the appearance of the two trees being the size and shape of the cones and of the staminate blossoms. The cones of red spruce are larger than those of black, and they mature and drop from the branches during their first winter, while those of the latter named species frequently remain on the trees for several seasons. Certain eminent botanists incline to the belief that the two are different varieties of one species, inasmuch as even the timber of red spruce bears a close resemblance to that of the black spruce. Other botanists dispute this theory, saying that the trees are entirely different in appearance; that the red spruce is a light olive-green, while black spruce is inclined to a darker olive with perhaps a purplish tinge, so that when seen together they have no resemblance in point of color. They further say that the cones are not only different in size but that the scales are quite unlike in texture, those of black spruce being much thinner and more brittle. The same authorities maintain that the tiny twigs of red spruce are more conspicuous on account of their reddish tinge.

Generally speaking the principal spruce growth of northern New England and New York is black spruce, although interspersed with it in some localities is a considerable quantity of red spruce. On the contrary the chief stand of spruce in West Virginia, Virginia, western North Carolina, and eastern Tennessee and the other high altitudes over the South Carolina line, is largely red spruce. This botanical analysis of the two species of wood is based entirely on the authority of botanists, but from the viewpoint of the average lumberman there is absolutely no difference between red and black spruce and none in the physics of the two woods except that which rises from varying conditions of growth as soil, rainfall, altitude or latitude, or general environment. The larger spruce of West Virginia and the mountain region farther south, has certain qualities of strength and texture, combined with a large percentage of clear lumber that is not approximated by the spruce of New England and the British maritime provinces. In shape the tree is pyramidal, with spreading branches. It reaches a height of from seventy to a hundred feet. Its bark is reddish brown, slightly scaly. The twigs are light colored when young and are covered with tiny hairs. The leaves are thickly clustered along the branches, and are simple and slender, pointed at the apex. They become lustrous at maturity. The staminate flowers are oval, bright red in color; the pistillate ones are oblong, with thin rounded scales. The fruit of the red spruce is a cone, from one to two and a half inches in length; it is green when young, turning dark with age, and falling from the branches when the scales open. The seeds are dark brown, and winged.

Formerly spruce was little thought of for lumber and manufacturing purposes in this country, though some use was made of it from the earliest settlements in the regions where it grew. White pine could generally be had where spruce was abundant, and the former wood was preferred. As pine became scarce, spruce was worked in for a number of purposes. The tree’s form is all that a sawmill man could desire. The trunk has more knots than white pine, for the reason that limbs are a longer time in dying and in dropping off; but knots are small and generally sound. By careful culling, a moderate amount of clear lumber may be obtained. The wood is light, soft, narrow-ringed, strong in proportion to its weight, elastic, and its color is pale with a slight tinge of red, the sapwood whiter and usually about two inches thick. The contrast between heart and sapwood is not strong. The medullary rays are numerous, but small and obscure. The summerwood is thin and not conspicuous. It is the wood’s red tinge which gives the tree its commercial name.

It is believed that the yearly cut of red spruce in the United States for lumber is about 500,000,000 feet, one-half of which comes from West Virginia and southward, where this species reaches its highest development; and the pulpwood cut in the same region is about one-tenth as much in quantity. The long fiber and white color of spruce make it one of the most satisfactory woods for pulp in this country. Red spruce is only one of several species of spruce which contribute to the supply. The total output of spruce pulpwood in the United States yearly is equivalent to about 1,000,000,000 feet of lumber.

Red spruce lumber has a long list of uses. Much flooring is made of it, and it wears well, but not as well as hard pine from the South. It is more used for shipping boxes in the northeastern part of the United States than any other wood, except white pine. Its good stenciling qualities recommend it. Manufacturers of sash, doors, and blinds find it excellent material, combining lightness, strength, and small tendency to warp, shrink, or swell. Coopers make buckets, tubs, kegs, and churns of it; manufacturers of refrigerators use it for doors and frames; and makers of furniture use it for many interior parts of bureaus, tables, and sideboards. Textile mills use spruce clothboards as center pieces round which to wind fabrics; and a further use in mills is for bobbins. It has many places in boat building, notably as spars and yards; and for window and door frames.

The makers of piano frames employ red spruce for certain parts; but as material for musical instruments its most important use is as sounding boards. All the commercial spruces are so used. Wood for this purpose must be free from defects of all kinds, and of straight and even grain. The sounding board’s value lies in its ability to vibrate in unison with the strings of the instrument. Spruce has no superior for that place.

Red spruce bears abundance of seeds, the best on the highest branches. The seeds are winged, and the wind scatters them. They germinate best on humus. In spruce forests, clumps of seedlings are often seen where logs have decayed and fallen to dust. Seedlings do not thrive on mineral soil, and for that reason red spruce makes a poor showing where fires have burned. It does not spread vigorously in old fields as white pine does. It must have forest conditions or it will do little good. For that reason it does not promise great things for the future. It grows very slowly, and land owners prefer white pine, where that species will grow. If spruce is to be planted, most persons prefer Norway spruce (_Picea excelsa_) of Europe. It grows faster than native spruces. It is the spruce usually seen in door yards and parks.

BLACK SPRUCE (_Picea mariana_) grows much farther north than red
spruce, but the two species mingle in a region of 100,000 square
miles or more northward of Pennsylvania and in New England and
southern and eastern Canada. Black spruce grows from Labrador to the
valley of the Mackenzie river, almost to the arctic circle. It is
found as far south as the Lake States where it constitutes the
principal spruce of commerce. In some of the swamps of northern
Minnesota and in the neighboring parts of Canada it is little more
than a shrub, and trees three or four feet high bear cones. On
better land in that region the tree is large enough for sawlogs. It
passes under several names, among which are double spruce, blue
spruce, white spruce, and water spruce. The common name black spruce
probably refers to the general appearance of the crown. The small
cones (the smallest of the spruces) adhere to the branches many
years, and give a ragged, black appearance to the tree when seen
from a distance. The wood is as white as other spruces. Trees vary
greatly in size. The best are 100 feet high and two and a half feet
in diameter; but the average size is about thirty feet high and
twelve inches in diameter. That size is not attractive to lumbermen;
but cutters of pulpwood find it valuable and convenient, and much of
it is manufactured into paper. The wood weighs 28.57 pounds per
cubic foot, and is moderately strong, and high in elasticity. It is
pale yellow-white with thin sapwood. In Manitoba, lumber is sawed
from black spruce, and it is cut also in the Lake States, but it is
preferred for pulp. It gives excellent service as canoe paddles.
Spruce chewing gum is made of resinous exudations from this tree,
and is an article of considerable importance. Spruce beer is another
by-product which has long been manufactured in New England and the
eastern Canadian provinces. It was made in Newfoundland three
hundred years ago and has been bought and sold in the markets of
that region ever since. Fishing vessels carry supplies of the
beverage on long voyages as a preventive of scurvy. The beer is
made by boiling leaves and twigs, and adding molasses to the
concoction which is allowed to pass through mild fermentation.
Foresters will probably never pay much attention to black spruce
because other species promise more profit. It is little planted for
ornamental purposes, as it does not grow rapidly, is of poor form,
and the accumulation of dead cones on the branches gives it a poor
appearance. Besides, planted trees do not live long.

WHITE SPRUCE (_Picea canadensis_) is of more importance in Canada
than in the United States, because more abundant. It is one of the
most plentiful timber trees of Alaska, and it is found west to
Bering strait and north of the arctic circle. It is said to approach
within twenty miles of the Arctic ocean. Its eastern limit is in
Labrador, its southern in the northern tier of states from Maine to
Idaho. A little of this species is cut for lumber in northern New
England and in upper Michigan, and westward, just south of the
Canadian line. The light blue-green foliage gives the tree its name.
It is known by other names as well, single spruce, bog spruce, skunk
spruce, cat spruce, double spruce, and pine. Some of its names are
due to the odor of its foliage. The largest trees are 100 feet high
and three in diameter, but most are smaller. Having a range so
extensive, and in climates and situations so different, the tree
naturally varies greatly in size and form. The wood of
well-developed trees is white and handsome, the thin, pencil-like
bands of summerwood having a slightly darker tone than the
springwood. The two parts of the annual ring possess different
degrees of hardness. The springwood is softer than the summerwood.
The medullary rays are numerous, and the surface of quarter-sawed
lumber has a silvery appearance, due to the exposed flat surfaces of
the rays. In the markets, no distinction is made between white
spruce lumber, and that cut from other species. The uses of the
different species are much the same. As a pulpwood, white spruce is
in demand wherever it is available. The largest output in the United
States comes from northern New England. The tree is often planted
for ornamental purposes in Europe and in northern states. When grown
in the open, the crown is pyramidal, like that of balsam fir. It
does not thrive where summers are warm and dry.

SITKA SPRUCE

SITKA SPRUCE

(_Picea Sitchensis_)

This is largest of the spruces. In height and in girth of trunk no other approaches it. The moist, warm climate of the north Pacific slope is its favorite home, though its range extends far northward along the islands and coast of Alaska. Toward the extreme limit of its habitat it loses its splendid form and size and degenerates into a sprawling shrub. The limit of the species southward lies in Mendocino county, California. Its range in a north and south direction is not less than 2,000 miles; but east and west the growth covers a mere ribbon facing the sea. It climbs some of the British Columbia mountains, 5,000 feet, but it prefers the low, wet valleys and flatlands, or the rainy and snowy slopes set to catch the sea winds. There it is at its best, and the largest trunks are 200 feet high, fifteen feet in diameter, and about 850 years old. All sizes less than this are found. It is not easy to name an average size when variation runs from giants to dwarfs; but in regions where this spruce is cut for lumber, the average height of mature trees is about 125 feet, with a diameter of four feet.

Tideland spruce is one of its names. That has reference to its habit of sticking close to the sea. Its other names are Menzies’ spruce, great tideland spruce, and western spruce. The last may be considered its trade name in lumber markets, for it is seldom called anything else when it is shipped east of the Rocky Mountains. The name is appropriate, except that other spruces grow in the West, and are equally entitled to the name. This applies particularly to Engelmann spruce of the northern Rocky Mountain region; but its lumber and that cut from Sitka spruce are not liable to be confused in the mind of anyone who is acquainted with the two woods. The name Sitka refers to the town of that name in Alaska.

The leaves of this species are usually less than one inch in length, and in color are light yellowish green. They stand out like bristles on all sides of the twigs. Cones are from two to four inches long, and hang by short stems, usually at the ends of twigs. They ripen the first year, release their seeds, which fly away on small but ample wings, and the cones drop during the fall and winter. Sitka spruce bark is generally less than half an inch in thickness. Trunks which grow in forests prune themselves well, and are usually clear of limbs from forty to eighty feet. The bases of trees which grow on wet land are much enlarged like cypress and tupelo, and lumbermen frequently cut above the swell, leaving from 1,000 to 5,000 feet or more of lumber in the stump. Sitka spruce’s characteristic root system is shallow; but on mountain sides where soil is dry, roots penetrate deep in search of moisture.

The wood of this spruce varies greatly in color, but it is usually a very pale brown, with the faintest tinge of red. It is a little heavier than white pine, considerably weaker, and with less elasticity. The size of the trunks, with their freedom from limbs, insures a high percentage of clear lumber when Sitka spruce is manufactured. The tree grows slowly, the annual rings are narrow, and the bands of summer growth are comparatively broad, to which fact the rather dark color of the wood of the spruce is due.

Sitka spruce is an important source of lumber. The total cut in Washington, Oregon, and California in 1910 was about 255,000,000 feet. It is below red spruce in quantity of sawmill cut, but above all other spruces in the United States. The people of the Pacific coast use much of it at home, but large quantities are shipped to markets in eastern states, and some to foreign countries. Nearly 4,000,000 feet were bought by Illinois manufacturers in 1909, in addition to what was used rough in the state. The commodities manufactured of this spruce in Illinois indicate with a fair degree of accuracy the uses made of the wood in most parts of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains and north of the Ohio river and the Potomac. Among articles so manufactured in Illinois are playground apparatus, porch and stair balusters, doors, blinds, sash and frames, poultry brooders, sounding boards for pianos and other musical instruments, parts of mandolins and guitars, pipes for organs, cornice brackets, store and office fronts, decking and spars for boats, wagon beds and windmill wheel slats, refrigerators and cold storage rooms, ironing boards and other wooden ware.

Twenty times as much Sitka spruce is made into finished commodities in Washington as in Illinois. That is to be expected, since Washington is the home of the tree and the center of supply. A partial list of its uses in that state will show that the wood is liked at home. Douglas fir was the only wood bought in larger amounts by Washington manufacturers. They made 55,429,000 feet of it into boxes, and coopers employed 12,000,000 more. The next largest users were pulpmills, while 2,000,000 feet went into sounding boards, many of which were for shipment abroad. Other users were basket makers, and the manufacturers of furniture, fixtures, finish, caskets, veneer, trunks, pulleys, vehicles, boats, and patterns. Sitka spruce decays quickly when exposed to rain and weather.

Sitka spruce can be depended upon for the future. Though it grows slowly it may be expected to keep growing. Its range lies in regions generally too wet for woods to burn, and it will suffer less from forest fires than trees of inland regions. It is an abundant seeder, and its favorite seedbed is moss, muck, decayed wood, and wet ground litter of various kinds. For the first few years seedlings are sensitive to frost, but not in later life.

Sitka spruce is often planted as an ornamental tree in western Europe, and occasionally in the middle Atlantic states. The New England climate is too severe for it.

ENGELMANN SPRUCE (_Picea engelmanni_) was named for Dr. George Engelmann. It has other names. In Utah it is called balsam, white spruce in Oregon, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho, mountain spruce in Montana, Arizona spruce farther south, while in Idaho it is sometimes known as white pine. That name is misleading, for Idaho has a species of white pine (_Pinus monticola_). In eastern markets the wood is known as western spruce; but that, also, is indefinite, for Sitka spruce is also a western species and is found in the same markets as Engelmann spruce. This tree’s range extends from Yukon territory to Arizona, fully 3,000 miles. It is a mountain species and is found in elevated ranges. In the southern part of its habitat it ascends mountains to heights of nearly 12,000 feet. It grows in the Cascade mountain ranges in Washington and Oregon. The species’ best development occurs in British Columbia. At its best, trees are 150 feet high and four or five in diameter; but every size less than that occurs in different parts of its range, down to a height of two or three feet for fully matured trees. Such are found on lofty and sterile mountains where frost occurs practically every night in summer, and winter snows bury all objects for months at a time. Though the stunted spruce trees may be only two or three feet high, their branches spread many feet, and lie flat on the rocks. Though such situations are exceedingly unfavorable to tree growth, the stunted spruces survive sometimes for two hundred years, and during that long period may not grow a trunk above five inches in diameter and four feet high. The Engelmann spruce is naturally a long-lived tree, and large trunks are 500 or 600 years old; and trees ordinarily cut for lumber are 300 or 400 years old. When the tree is young, its form is symmetrical, the longest branches being near the ground, the shortest near the top; but in crowded stands the trunk finally clears itself. Engelmann spruce lumber is usually full of small knots, each of which represents a limb which was shaded off as the tree advanced in age. The wood is lighter than white pine, and is the lightest of the spruces, the weight being 21.49 pounds per cubic foot. It is not strong, and it rates low in elasticity. The wood is pale yellow, tinged with red. The thick sapwood is hardly distinguishable from the heart. It would be difficult to compile a list of this tree’s uses, because in markets it hardly ever carries its right name. It is used for fuel and charcoal in the region of its growth; also as farm timber, and as props and lagging in mines. When it goes to market, it is manufactured into doors, window frames, sash, interior finish for houses, and for purposes along with other spruces. Large quantities of this wood will be accessible when lumbermen penetrate remote mountain regions where it grows. It may be expected to increase in importance. It is occasionally planted in eastern states as an ornament.

BLUE SPRUCE (_Picea parryana_) is found among mountains in Colorado,
Utah, and Wyoming, from 6,500 to 10,000 feet above sea level. It
attains a height of 150 feet and a diameter of three under favorable
circumstances, but its usual size is little more than half of that.
Its name is given on account of the color of its foliage, but it has
other names, among them being Parry’s spruce, balsam, white spruce,
silver spruce, Colorado blue spruce, and prickly spruce, the last
name referring to the sharp-pointed leaves which are an inch or more
in length. Cones are three inches long, and usually grow near the
top of the tree. It is not unusual for blue spruce trees to divide
near the ground in three or four branches. In its youth,
particularly in open ground, blue spruce develops a conical crown.
The wood is lighter than white pine, is soft, weak, and pale brown
or nearly white in color. The sapwood is hardly distinguishable from
the heart. This is a valuable tree for ornamental planting; but in
later years it loses its lower limbs, and becomes less desirable.

WEEPING SPRUCE (_Picea breweriana_) is of little commercial
importance because of scarcity. It grows among the mountains of
northern California and southern Oregon, at elevations of from 4,000
to 8,000 feet above sea level. The leaves are an inch or less in
length, the cones from two to four inches long. They fall soon after
they scatter their seeds. This tree is named on account of its
drooping branchlets, some of which hang down eight feet. The wood
seems not to have been investigated, but its color is pale yellowish
to very light brown, and the annual rings are rather narrow. The
tree ought to be valuable for ornamental planting, but nurseries
have experienced much difficulty in making it grow. It grows on high
and dry mountains where few ever see it, but refuses to become
domesticated or to grace eastern parks.

CYPRESS

CYPRESS

(_Taxodium Distichum_)

The name cypress has been used quite loosely in this country and the old world, and botanists have taken particular care to explain what true cypress is. It is of no advantage in the present case to join in the discussion, and it will suffice to give the American cypresses according to the authorized list published by the United States Forest Service. Two genera, one having two and the other six species, are classed as cypress. These are Bald Cypress (_Taxodium distichum_), Pond Cypress (_Taxodium imbricarium_), Monterey Cypress (_Cupressus macrocarpa_), Gowen Cypress (_Cupressus goveniana_), Dwarf Cypress (_Cupressus pygmæa_) Macnab Cypress (_Cupressus macnabiana_), Arizona Cypress (_Cupressus arizonica_), and Smooth Cypress (_Cupressus glabra_). The first two grow in the southern states, and the others in the Far West. Bald cypress, which is generally known simply as cypress in the region where it grows, is more important as a source of lumber than are all the others combined. It probably supplies ninety-nine per cent of all cypress sold in this country. Its range is from southern Delaware to Florida, westward to the Gulf coast region of Texas, north through Louisiana, Arkansas, eastern Mississippi and Tennessee, southeastern Missouri, western Kentucky and sparsely in southern Illinois and southwestern Indiana. It is a deep swamp tree, and it is never of much importance far from lagoons, inundated tracts, and the low banks of rivers. Water that is a little brackish from the inwash of tides does not injure the tree, but the presence of a little salt is claimed by some to improve the quality of the wood. It is lumbered under difficulties. The deep water and miry swamps where it grows best must be reckoned with. Some of the ground is not dry for several years at a time. Neither felling nor hauling is possible in the manner practiced in the southern pineries. Owing to the great weight of the green wood, it will not float unless killed by being girdled for a year or more in advance of its being felled. In the older logging operations, cypress was girdled and snaked out to waterways and floated to the mills. Lately many cypress operations are carried on by the building of railroads through the swamps, which are largely on piling and stringers, although occasionally earth fills are utilized. The usual size of mature cypress ranges from seventy-five to 140 feet in height and three to six in diameter.

The wood is light, soft, rather weak, moderately stiff, and the grain is usually straight. The narrow annual rings indicate slow growth. The summerwood is comparatively broad and is slightly resinous; medullary rays are numerous and obscure. The wood is light to dark brown, the sapwood nearly white. At one time specimens of the wood in the markets of the world were known as black or white cypress, according as they sank or floated. Much of the dark cypress wood is now known as black cypress in the foreign markets, where it is employed chiefly for tank and vat building. Individual specimens of the wood in some localities are tinted in a variety of shades and some of the natural designs are extremely beautiful.

The wood is reputed to be among the most durable in this country when exposed to soil and weather. Some of it deserves that reputation, but other does not. Well-authenticated cases are cited where cypress has remained sound many years--in some instance a hundred or more--when subjected to alternate dampness and dryness. Such conditions afford severe tests. In other cases cypress has been known to decay as quickly as pine.

Historical cases from the old world are sometimes cited to show the wonderful lasting properties of cypress. Doors and statues, exposed more or less to weather, are said to have stood many centuries. The evidence has little value as far as this wood is concerned. In the first place, the long records claimed are subjects for suspicion; and in the second place, it was not the American cypress that was used--and probably no cypress--but the cedar of Lebanon.

Sound cypress logs have been dug from deep excavations near New Orleans, and geologists believe they had lain there 30,000 years. That would be a telling testament to endurance were it not that any other wood completely out of reach of air would last as long.

The estimated stand of cypress in the South is about 20,000,000,000 feet. The annual cut, including shingles, exceeds 1,000,000,000 feet. New growth is not coming on. The traveler through the South occasionally sees a small clump of little cypresses, but such are few and far between. It was formerly quite generally believed that cypress in deep swamps, where old and venerable stands are found, was not reproducing, and that no little trees were to be seen. It was argued from this, that some climatic or geographic change had taken place, and that the present stand of cypress would be the last of its race. More careful investigation, however, has shown that the former belief was erroneous. Seedling cypresses are found occasionally in the deepest swamps. Probably cypress which has not been disturbed by man is reproducing as well now as at any time in the past. The tree lives three or four centuries, and if it leaves one seedling to take its place it has done its part toward perpetuating the species. Fire, the mortal enemy of forests, seldom hurts cypress, because the undergrowth is not dry enough to burn.

The uses of cypress are so nearly universal that a list is impossible. In Illinois alone it is reported for seventy-eight different purposes. There is not a state, and scarcely a large wood-using factory, east of the Rocky Mountains which does not demand more or less cypress.

The tree is graceful when young, but ragged and uncouth when old. Though a needleleaf tree, it yearly sheds its foliage and most of its twigs. The fruit is a cone about one inch in diameter; and the seed is equipped with a wing one-fourth inch long and one-eighth inch wide.

When cypress stands in soft ground which most of the time is under water, the roots send up peculiar growths known as knees. They rise from a few inches to several feet above the surface of the mud, and extend above the water at ordinary stages. They are sharp cones, generally hollow. It is believed their function is to furnish air to the tree’s roots, and also to afford anchorage to the roots in the soft mud. When the water is drained away, the knees die.

Cypress is widely planted as an ornament, and a dozen or more varieties have been developed in cultivation.

POND CYPRESS (_Taxodium imbricarium_) so closely resembles bald
cypress with which it is associated that the two were once supposed
to be the same. Pond cypress averages smaller and its range is more
circumscribed. The name pond cypress, by which it is popularly known
in Georgia, indicates the localities where it is oftenest found. It
is the prevailing cypress in the Okefenoke swamp in southeastern
Georgia. The general aspect of the foliage and fruit is the same as
of bald cypress. No detailed examination of the wood seems to have
been made, but in general appearance it is like the other cypress.
It is said that little of it ever gets to sawmills because it grows
in situations where logging is inconvenient.

MONTEREY CYPRESS (_Cupressus macrocarpa_). This tree has only one
name and that is due to its place of growth on the shores of
Monterey bay, California. Its range is more restricted than that of
any other American softwood. It does not much exceed 150 acres,
though the trees are scattered in a narrow strip for two miles along
the coast. They approach so close the breakers that spray flies over
them in time of storm. Trees exposed to the sweep of the wind are
gnarled and of fantastic shapes. Their crowns are broad and flat
like an umbrella, but ragged and unsymmetrical in outline. That form
offers least resistance to wind, and most surface to the sun. The
trees take the best possible advantage of their opportunities. Tall
crowns would be carried away by wind; and the flat tops, with a mass
of green foliage, catch all the sunlight possible. They need it, for
they grow in fog, and sunshine is scarce. Sheltered trees develop
pyramidal tops. It is widely planted in this and other countries,
and when conditions are favorable, it is graceful and symmetrical.
The largest trees are from sixty to seventy feet tall, others are
five or six in diameter; but the tallest trees and the largest
trunks seldom go together. The cones are an inch or more in length,
and each contains about 100 seeds. The leaves fall the third and
fourth years. Wood is heavy, hard, strong, and durable, but is too
scarce to be of value as lumber, even if the trunks were suitable
for sawlogs. The Monterey cypress is of peculiar interest to
botanists and also to physical geographers. The few trees on the
shore of Monterey bay appear to be the last remnant of a species
which was once more extensive. The ocean is eating away the coast at
that point. Fragments of hills, cut sheer down from top to the
breakers beneath, are plainly the last remnants of ranges which once
extended westward, but have been washed away by the encroaching
waves. No one knows how much of the former coast has been destroyed.
Apparently the former range of the cypress was principally on land
now swallowed up by the encroaching ocean. A mere fringe of the
trees--a belt about 200 yards wide along the beach--remains, and the
sea is undermining them one by one and carrying them down. So
rapidly is the undermining process going on that many large roots of
some of the trees are exposed to view.

ARIZONA CYPRESS (_Cupressus arizonica_), as its name implies, is an
Arizona tree. It forms considerable forests in the eastern, central,
and southern parts of the state, and is found also in Mexico. It
grows at elevations up to 6,000 feet. Because of the small
population in the region where this cypress grows, it has never been
much used, but the size of the trees and the character of the wood
fit it for many purposes. Its growth is often quite rapid, and the
timber is soft, light, and with well-defined summerwood. Its usual
color is gray, but occasionally faint streaks of yellow appear. The
leaves fall during the fourth and fifth years; cones are small and
flat; and the small seeds are winged. It is believed by persons
familiar with Arizona cypress that it will attain considerable
importance when the building of railroads and the settlement of the
country make the forests accessible. The wood is durable in contact
with the soil.

SMOOTH CYPRESS (_Cupressus glabra_) ranges in Arizona and is not
believed to have or to promise much importance as a source of lumber
supply. Its name was given on account of the smoothness of the bark.
It is one of the latest species to be given a place among the
cypresses, and was described and named by George B. Sudworth of the
United States Forest Service.

BALSAM FIR

BALSAM FIR

(_Abies Balsamea_)

Balsam fir is the usual name applied to this tree in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Ontario. The shorter name balsam suffices in some parts of that region, and particularly in New York, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Because it is common north of the international boundary, the name Canada balsam has been given it in some regions. In Delaware it is known as balm of Gilead, but that name belongs to a tree of the cottonwood group, (_Populus balsamifera_) which is a broadleaf species. In New York and Pennsylvania a word of distinction is added, and it is called balm of Gilead fir. Toward the southern limit of its range it is spoken of as fir pine and blister pine. New York Indians knew the tree as blisters. They referred to the pockets under the bark of young trees and near the tops of mature trunks, in which resin collected. The name balsam refers to that characteristic also, as does the word balm. In some parts of Canada the tree is known as silver pine, and as silver spruce. The secretion of resin in bark blisters is a characteristic of several firs.

The list of names and the locality of their use indicate fairly well the geographical range of balsam fir. Its northern limit forms a line across eastern Canada from Labrador to Hudson bay. From Hudson bay its northern boundary trends northwestward and reaches the vicinity of Great Bear lake. In the United States it grows westward to Minnesota and southward to Pennsylvania. It is cut for lumber in eleven states.