Part 17

ALPINE FIR (Abies lasiocarpa) is so called because it thrives on high mountains and in the far North. It grows in southern Alaska, up to latitude 60°, and southward to Oregon and Colorado. Its other names are balsam, white balsam, Oregon balsam, mountain balsam, white fir, pumpkin tree, down-cone, and downy-cone subalpine fir. It grows from sea level in Alaska up to 7,000 feet or more in the South. It is not abundant, and not very well known. However, its slender, spirelike top distinguishes it from all associates and it may be recognized at long distances by that characteristic. It endures cold at 40 degrees below zero, and summer climate at 90 degrees. Trees are usually small, and the trunks are covered with limbs to the ground. On high mountains the lower limbs often lie flat on the ground, and the twigs sometimes take root. Under very favorable circumstances this fir may reach a height of 160 feet and a diameter of four, but the usual size is less than half of it, even when conditions are fair, while on bleak mountains mature trees may be only three or four feet high, with most of the limbs prostrate. The sprawling form of growth makes the tree peculiarly liable to be killed by fire. The bark is thin, smooth, and flinty; and in color it is ashy gray or chalky white. Leaves are one and a half inches or less long; the purple cones from two to four inches. Trees bear cones at about twelve years of age. The seeds are equipped with violet or purplish wings, and they fly far enough to find the best available places to plant themselves. The wood is narrow-ringed, light, soft, and in color from pale straw to light yellowish-brown. It is fairly straight grained, and splits and works easily; but trunks are very knotty. Its best service in the past has consisted in supplying fuel to mining camps and mountain stock ranges.

DOUGLAS FIR

DOUGLAS FIR

(Pseudotsuga Taxifolia)

During one hundred and ten years, from 1803 until the present time, botanists and others have proposed and rejected names for this tree. It has been called a fir, pine, and spruce, with various combinations, but the name now seems to be fixed. Laymen have disputed almost as much as botanists as to what the tree should be named. It has been called red fir, Douglas spruce, Douglas fir, yellow fir, spruce, fir, pine, red pine, Puget Sound pine, Oregon pine, cork-barked Douglas spruce, and Douglas tree. More than a dozen varieties are distinguished in cultivation.

The range of Douglas fir covers most of the Rocky Mountain region in the United States and northward to central British Columbia; on the coast from the latitude of southern Alaska to the Sierra Nevada mountains in central California. It reaches its maximum development in western Washington and Oregon, particularly between the Cascade mountains and the Pacific ocean. In these Cascade forests, stands are found which yield from 50,000 to 100,000 feet per acre, and mills in that region cut the longest timbers in the world, some two feet square and 100 feet long.

Two forms of Douglas fir are recognized by botanists, not essentially different except in size and habit of growth. One is the finely developed form on the Pacific coast where the climate is warm and the air moist. The other is the Rocky Mountain form which is smaller and shows the effect of cold, dryness, and other adverse circumstances. When the seeds of the two forms are planted in nurseries, where they enjoy identical advantages, the coast form outgrows the other in Europe, but the Rocky Mountain form thrives best in the eastern part of the United States.

Douglas fir needles are from three-quarters to one and a quarter inches long, and of a dark, yellow-green color. They remain on the twigs about eight years. Cones are from two to four and a half inches long, and are borne on long stems. The seeds, which ripen in August, are of light, reddish-brown color with irregular white spots on the lower side; are about a quarter of an inch long, and are provided with wings. Trees of this species in the moist climate of the Pacific slope average much larger than those in the mountains farther east. The largest are 300 feet high, occasionally more, and from eight to ten in diameter. The average among the Rocky Mountains is from eighty to 100 feet high, and two to four in diameter. Young trees are slender with crowded branches. In thick stands the lower limbs die and the trunks remain bare, except an occasional small branch. Douglas fir at its best grows in thick stands, with crowns forming a canopy so dense that sunlight can scarcely reach the ground. The result of this is that other species have little show where Douglas fir prevails.

The bark of large trunks attains a thickness of eight or ten inches near the base. Young bark contains blisters filled with resin, similar to those of balsam and other species of fir.

The wood is light red or yellow, the sap much whiter. Lumbermen recognize two kinds of wood, yellow and red. The former is considered more valuable. Both may come from the same trunk, and the reason for the difference in color and quality is not well understood. It cannot be attributed to soil or climate, or to the age of the tree, and it does not seem to depend upon rate of growth. The bands of summerwood are broad and quite distinct. A few scattered resin ducts are visible under a magnifying glass of low power. The medullary rays are numerous, rather large, frequently yellow, conspicuous when wood is split radially. The wood’s average weight is given by Sargent at 32.14 pounds per cubic foot, yet some specimens exceed forty pounds. It is hard, strong, and stiff. In mechanical properties it rates about the same as longleaf pine of the South. Elaborate tests have been made to determine which of these woods is the better for heavy construction, and neither appears to win over the other. In one respect, however, Douglas fir has a clear advantage over its southern rival: it may be had in much larger pieces. No other commercial wood of the world equals it in that particular. The Douglas fir flagstaff at the Kew gardens in England was 159 feet long, eight inches in diameter at the top, more than three feet at the base. The extraordinary size of squared beams cut from this species has led to great demand for it for heavy construction in Europe and this country. The pines from the Baltic sea region of northern Europe, which held undisputed place in heavy work during centuries, has now yielded that place to Douglas fir and longleaf pine.

No other single species in the United States or in the world equals the annual sawmill cut of Douglas fir. The four species of southern yellow pines, if counted as one, surpass it; but singly, not one comes up to it. In 1910 the lumber cut from this fir amounted to 5,203,644,000 feet, which exceeded one-eighth of the total lumber cut in the United States. The importance of such a timber tree can scarcely be estimated. The available supply in the western forests is very large and will last many years, even if the demand for more than 5,000,000,000 feet a year continues to be met.

The timber is exported to practically every civilized nation in the world. Shipbuilding creates a heavy demand. Some of the leading European nations use it as deck lining for battleships, and except mahogany and teak, it is said to have no equal for that purpose. Its cheapness gives it a decided advantage over those woods.

Every important lumber market in the United States handles Douglas fir, and its uses are so many that it would be easier to list industries which do not use it than those which do. It is manufactured into more than fifty classes of commodities, in Illinois alone. Among these are boats, railroad cars, electrical apparatus, farm machinery, laundry supplies, ladders, refrigerators, musical instruments, fixtures for offices, stores, and banks, and sash, doors, and blinds. This list of uses shows that its place in the country’s industries includes much more than rough construction. It may be stained in imitation of valuable foreign and domestic woods, including walnut, mahogany, and oak. The natural grain and figure of the wood may be deepened and improved by stains, and this is much done by manufacturers of interior finish, panels, and store and office fixtures. There is practically no limit to the size of panels which may be cut in single pieces. It is easy to procure planks large enough for whole counter tops.

The best grain of Douglas fir is not brought out by quarter-sawing. The figures desired are not those produced by the medullary rays, but by the rings of annual growth. Therefore, the sawyer at the mill cuts his best logs--if intended for figured lumber--tangentially, as far as possible. In the state of Washington, which leads all other states in the production of Douglas fir, its chief use as a manufactured product is for doors, sash, and blinds, and the annual consumption in that industry exceeds 50,000,000 feet. It is cut in veneers, and it is likewise used as corewood to back veneers. Crossarms for telegraph and telephone poles demand 35,000,000 feet yearly in Washington alone, and many thousands of poles are of this wood. It is third among the crosstie woods of the United States, the combined cut of oaks standing first, and the pine second. It is rapidly taking high position as material for large water pipes and for braces, props, stulls, and lagging in mines and for paving blocks for streets.

BRISTLECONE FIR (Abies venusta) is pronounced by George B. Sudworth to be “the most curious fir tree in the world.” It is found almost exclusively in Monterey county, California, but a few trees grow outside of that circumscribed area. It has been called Santa Lucia fir, because it was once supposed to exist only in canyons of Santa Lucia mountains, but its range is now known to be more extensive. Monterey county, California, is of peculiar interest to dendrologists. Three species of trees are either confined to that area, or have their best development there. They are Monterey cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa), Monterey pine (Pinus radiata), and bristlecone fir. All are peculiar trees: the cypress because of its ragged form and extremely limited range, the pine because of its exceedingly rapid growth when given a chance, and the fir, because of its peculiar form of crown, odd appearance of cone, and extraordinary weight of wood. No reason is apparent why that particular point on the California coast should have brought into existence--or at least should have gathered to itself--three peculiar tree species. Bristlecone fir is well named from the bristles an inch long covering the cone. The leaves, too, are peculiar, bearing much resemblance to small willow leaves. Their upper sides are deep yellow-green and the under sides silvery. The largest leaves are two inches long, cones three inches. They ripen in August, and soon afterwards scatter their seeds. The tree is not a prolific seeder, and it is believed that its range is becoming smaller. Bristlecone’s form of crown has been compared to an Indian club, the large end on the ground and the handle pointing upward. Trees from sixty to eighty feet high have such “handles” twenty or thirty feet long. That peculiarity of shape makes the tree recognizable among associated species at a distance of several miles. The recorded weight of the wood is 42.27 pounds per cubic foot, which is nearly twice the weight of some other firs. The wood is moderately soft, but very firm. Few uses for it have been reported. Trunks are very knotty, and are too few in number to be of importance as a source of lumber. The tree has been planted successfully for ornament in the south of Europe.

BIGCONE SPRUCE (Pseudotsuga macrocarpa) is of the same genus as Douglas fir and bears much resemblance to it, but is smaller, and its range lies wholly outside that of its northern relative. It is a southern California species, occupying mountain slopes and canyons in Santa Barbara and San Diego counties. It is found from 3,000 to 5,000 feet above sea level. Trees average forty or fifty feet in height and two or three in diameter. The leaves are approximately of the same size as those of Douglas fir; but the cones are much larger, hence the name by which the tree is known. It is called hemlock as often as spruce. The cones are from four to seven inches long, hang down, and usually occupy the topmost branches of trees. The winged seeds are half an inch long. The bark is six inches or less in thickness. The wood is inferior in most ways to that of Douglas fir, lighter, weaker, and less elastic. Its color is reddish brown. It has never contributed much lumber to the market and never will. Its range is local and the form of the tree is not of the best. An occasional log reaches a sawmill, but the principal demand is for fuel.

BIGTREE

BIGTREE

(Sequoia Washingtoniana)

Botanists have had a hard time giving this tree a Latin name which will meet the requirements of technical classification, but an English name acceptable everywhere was early found for it--bigtree. No fewer than a dozen names have been proposed by botanists. Most of them attempt to express the idea of vastness or grandeur; but the simple English name comes directly to the point and ends the controversy as far as the common name is concerned.

Everything connected with this tree is interesting. Geologically, it is as old as the yellow poplar. There were five species of sequoias in the northern hemisphere, in Europe and America, before the ice age. They grew in the North, nearly to the Arctic circle, at a time when the climate of those regions was milder than it is now. The later advance of the ice southward overwhelmed three species of bigtrees, and pushed two survivors into the region which is now California. These are the bigtree and the redwood. It is not known how long ago it was that the ice sheet did its destructive work, but it antedated human history, and the gigantic trees have been in California since that time.

Long after the ice age ceased generally in North America it continued among the high Sierras of California, and the bigtrees to this day give a hint of it in the peculiar outlines of their range. They are scattered north and south along the face of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California, a distance of 260 miles, and at elevations from 4,500 to 8,000 feet.

The aggregate of the total areas is about fifty square miles. The stand is not continuous, but consists of “groves,” that is, isolated stands with wide intervals between, where no trees of this species are found. The arrangement suggests that the bigtree forest was cut in sections by glaciers which descended from the high mountains to the plains, a distance of one hundred miles or more, crossing the belt of sequoias at right angles. The glaciers withdrew thousands of years ago, and their tracks down the mountain slopes have long been covered by forests; but the bigtree groves, for some unknown reason, never spread into the intervening spaces, but today are separated by wide tracts in which not a seedling or an old trunk or log of that species is to be found. This is one of the mysteries which add interest to those wonderful trees--why they cannot extend their range beyond the circumscribed limits which they occupied thousands of years ago.

It was claimed for a long time and was quite generally believed that bigtrees were not reproducing, that there “were no little bigtrees.” That was conclusively disproved by Fred G. Plummer, geographer of the United States Forest Service, who made a scientific study of a small grove, measured the trees, and actually counted and classified them. His work showed that there were in the area which he investigated:

Trees containing 100,000 to 120,000 feet each 2 Trees containing 80,000 to 100,000 feet each 13 Trees containing 60,000 to 80,000 feet each 49 Trees containing 40,000 to 60,000 feet each 112 Trees containing 20,000 to 40,000 feet each 251 Trees containing less than 20,000 feet each 353 “Little bigtrees” 2,682 ----- Total 3,462

Bigtree is distantly related to southern cypress, and the shapes of very old trees of both species bear some resemblance. Bigtree leaves do not fall annually as those of bald cypress do. They are from one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch long, and on the leading shoots they may be half an inch in length. Cones are from two to three and a half inches long, and they ripen their seeds the second year, but the empty cones may adhere to the branches several years. The seeds are a quarter of an inch long, and have wings sufficient to carry them a hundred yards or more. The trees bear abundance of seeds, in proportion to the small number of branches. Though shapely and well clothed with limbs when young, the crown contracts with age, and consists of a few enormous, crooked limbs, almost destitute of twigs and small branches. One of these trees may actually bear more twigs when the trunk is only a foot in diameter than will be on the same trunk when it is fifteen or twenty feet in diameter. The old tree trunks are often without limbs to a height of 100 or 150 feet.

The Douglas squirrel is the bigtree’s greatest enemy. In proportion to size, this little creature probably eats ten times as many tree seeds as the most ravenous hog that roams the forest. One of the first things that impresses a visitor in a grove of bigtrees is the rich brown of the bark of some of the trunks. All are not brown alike, or at all seasons. The trees on which the seed harvest is ready are the brownest, thanks to the sharp claws, the tireless energy, and keen appetite of the Douglas squirrel. He goes up and down the trunks for three square meals a day among the clusters of cone-bearing branches two hundred or three hundred feet above, and makes several extra trips for exercise; and at each scratch of his briery foot he kicks off scales of bark, until the whole trunk is “scratched raw.” The detached scales of bark accumulate in a mound about the base of the tree, where they have been so accumulating for centuries. It is fortunate that those old trees have bark from one to two feet thick. They can afford to be scratched for a month or two each year.

These are the heaviest trees in America, notwithstanding their wood is light. It weighs less than northern white cedar. The largest bigtree trunks weigh more than 2,000,000 pounds. In order to stand at all, they must stand plumb. It is a provision of nature that the old trees are almost branchless, otherwise the wind would force them out of plumb and they would go down. It has been claimed that the overthrow of one of these giants is always brought about by one of two causes. The development of larger limbs on one side than on another unbalances them; or the wash of gullies undermines the roots on one side, and draws the tree that way. It is currently believed that no bigtree ever dies from natural causes.