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 circ.u.mstances. Next to incense cedar and the giant sequoias which are a.s.sociated 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 a.s.sociated.
On the other hand, it suffers from enemies more than its a.s.sociates do.
A beetle (_Dendroctonus ponderosae_), 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. Compet.i.tion 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 cl.u.s.ters 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 lat.i.tude of San Francisco to the boundary between California and Mexico. It thrives at alt.i.tudes 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 cl.u.s.ters 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, p.r.i.c.klecone 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 pa.s.sages are few, but the wood is resinous, light brown in color, and the thick sapwood is nearly white. The needles are in cl.u.s.ters 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 circ.u.mstances 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 cl.u.s.ters 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 circ.u.mstances. 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 p.r.o.nounce "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 a.s.sociates. 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 sh.o.r.es of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior.
It lives on dry sand and sends its roots several feet to water; or, under circ.u.mstances 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.
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LODGEPOLE PINE
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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 p.r.i.c.kly pine. Its leaves are from one to two inches long, in cl.u.s.ters 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 acc.u.mulated 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 pa.s.sed, and wing their flight wherever the wind carries them. The pa.s.sing 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 sh.o.r.e 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 pa.s.sages 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 quant.i.ty 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 quant.i.ty 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 c.o.ke 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 cla.s.sed 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 cl.u.s.ters 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 cla.s.s 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 succ.u.mbs; 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 _Daedalia 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 princ.i.p.al 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 quant.i.ty of the oak that is a.s.sociated with it.
CHIHUAHUA PINE (_Pinus chihuahuana_) is not abundant, but it exists in small commercial quant.i.ties 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 pa.s.sages are few, large, and conspicuous; color, clear light orange, the thick sapwood lighter. The tree reaches best development at alt.i.tudes 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 cl.u.s.ters of three, and fall the fourth year. The cones have long stalks and are from one and a half to two inches long.
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TAMARACK
[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 n.o.ble fir (_Abies n.o.bilis_) is occasionally called larch by lumbermen. It is not ent.i.tled 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.