142 



ARBORICULTURE 



(Picea pungens), and silver fir (Abies 

 concolor) are found in favorable loca- 

 tions in which they have not been de- 

 stroyed by axmen. I was greatly inter- 

 ested in the high-line white pine. This 

 very beautiful and unique pine of high 

 altitudes, with its plume-like, flexible 

 branches, has proven its great value here 

 as a quick-growing tree for re-clothing 

 the higher slopes of the Rockies. 



In 1865-6 I first saw this tree in South- 

 ern Nevada, on the eastern slope of the 

 Sierra Nevada Range, or rather in the 

 White Alountains, which break away 

 from the Sierras, and in a beautiful grove 

 of these pines, about eighty-five hundred 

 feet altitude, we camped for one night 

 while surveying the State line between 

 California and Nevada. It was the only 

 group of this pine which we encountered, 

 and I did not see it again for forty years, 

 when I found it near Sierra Blanca, in 

 New Mexico and Colorado, and a few 

 years later at Ward, on the C. & N. W. 

 line, north of Boulder. Col. 



Now, a few miles west of Hagerman 

 Pass, and also at Leadville, we saw it, 

 where it has grown since the fires and 

 lumbering operations swept away every- 

 thing about twenty-four years ago. 



This is one of the species of conifers 

 which should be most extensively culti- 

 vated, as it grows at as high altitude as 

 any of the spruces and firs, is a much 

 more rapid grower, seeds well, and can 

 be readily propagated. 



The tree grows to a diameter of twenty 

 to twenty-four inches and a height of one 

 hundred and fifty feet, the wood being 

 of high value as the Eastern white pine, 

 P. strobus. 



For some reason, probably because the 

 seeds are devoured by birds and animals, 

 this tree does not spread naturally with 

 the rapidity desired, and hence the seed 

 should be gathered, and either nursery- 



grown or scattered where mountains are 

 bare of timber. 



About the western slopes of the Conti- 

 nental Divide there are many old charcoal 

 pits, where thirty years ago so much char- 

 coal was burned for the manufacture of 

 iron before the modern Bessemer process 

 of steel manufacture was discovered. 



In lumbering, the larger trees were cut 

 into lumber, some of the smaller trees 

 were used in the mines, and some vegeta- 

 tion was left to mature, but the devil in 

 human guise constructed these conical 

 pits, and every vestige of tree and shrub 

 was gathered from mountain slopes and 

 consumed in these furnaces. 



Very large areas remain to this time 

 absolutely barren of vegetation where the 

 charcoal burner operated, and unless some 

 human agency supplies the seed, they will 

 remain brown and bare for centuries. 



A moderate appropriation by Congress 

 and by the State Legislature for the spe- 

 cial purpose of collection and distribution 

 of seed would enable the authorities to 

 carry out a great scheme of afforestation, 

 which alone will provide the mountain 

 forests so essential to the future welfare 

 of this nation. 



It is of interest to see the reproduction 

 of spruce, fir and aspen on the slopes, 

 which were bared a third of a century 

 ago, among the stumps, fallen logs and 

 burned stubs still standing. These young 

 growths record the date of the forest fire, 

 enough trees having escaped destruction 

 to furnish seed in certain locations. 



Here, as in other mountain districts, 

 may be seen the invaluable protection 

 which is afiforded conifers by the aspens. • 



The seeds of the aspen, like those of the 

 Cottonwood and populus family, as well 

 as those of the willow, are borne by the 

 winds for great distances, germinating 

 where soil, moisture and congenial con- 



