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Douglas Fir in Hawaii 



By C. S. JuDD, Superintendent of Forestry. 



We, in Hawaii, live in houses built mostly of Douglas fir lum- 

 ber, and over 85 per cent of the $1,525,418 worth of wood im- 

 ported into the Territory during- the last fiscal year and used for 

 almost every conceivable purpose, was of this species, but we do 

 not know it by this name. To most of us, it is known as Xor'- 

 west, or Oregon pine. Although we have long been accus- 

 tomed to this name, there is no longer reason for this appella- 

 tion and, as 1 shall point out later, there is a very good reason 

 why we should call it Douglas fir, the accepted name by which 

 it is now known in all the lumber markets on the mainland. 



The tree is not a pine at all, but stands in a distinct class by 

 itself with one allied species. As the botanical, generic name, 

 which, by the way, is a barbarous combination of a Greek with 

 a Japanese word — Pseudotsuga — denotes, it is a "false hem- 

 lock," and the specific name — taxi folia — signifies that it has 

 leaves like the yew tree, from which Robin Hood used to make 

 his bows. Botanically, the tree is radically different from a 

 pine in that it does not have needles and very different from 

 the true firs in that the cones, instead of being- erect and falling 

 to pieces on the tree, are pendant like those of the spruce and 

 fall entire from the tree, and in that the leaves, instead of l^ein;:^- 

 broad and usually indented on the ends, are narrow and sharp. 



Xo other important American tree is more widely distributed 

 or grows under a greater range of climatic conditions than does 

 Douglas fir, for it is found throughout the Pacific Coast region 

 and the Rocky Mountains from British Columbia to North- 

 western Texas, Mexico, and the mountains of California. With 

 the exception of the giant sequoias, no other tree on the main- 

 land attains larger size. The tallest Douglas fir on record has a 

 lieight of 380 feet, and single trees of this species have measured 

 15 feet in diameter and contain enough lumber to build two 

 good-sized houses. 



The average yield of Douglas fir on the Northwest coast is 

 from 35,000 to 60,000 board feet per acre, and more than one- 

 half of the timber at present standing- in western Washington 

 and Oregon and southwestern British Columbia is Douglas fir. 

 It takes a Douglas fir tree about 7S years to grow to the most 

 profitable merchantable size, and the usual annual cut of approxi- 

 mately five and one-half billion board feet gives this species 

 second rank in the amount of timber cut annually in the United 

 States. 



Douglas fir is the strongest wood for its weight of any wood 

 found in the United States, and because of the immense size of 

 the timber a Douglas fir log v/ill produce a very high percentage 



