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American Forest Trees 



IINK lirMll!EIl-Si:ci)NIi I'Al 

 OREGON MAPLE 



(Acer ilacropliiiUuiii — Pursr 



Botanists prefer to call this tree broadlpaf maple. The name is 

 not inappropriate, as its extraordinarly broad leaves eonstitnte the 

 most striking feature of the tree where it stands in the woods. The 

 leaf is usually wider than it is long. Some exceed a foot in both 

 measurements. Bigleaf maple is not an uncommon name for the 

 tree in Oregon, where it attains its highest development in ilamp 

 valleys where the soil is good. The 

 name white maple is not particu- 

 larly descriptive of any feature of 

 the tree, though the name is ap- 

 plied in both Oregon and Washing- 

 ton. In California it is known sim- 

 ply as maple. There is small likeli- 

 hood in that region that it will be 

 confused with any other member 

 uf the maple household; nor is there 

 much danger of such a thing in 

 any part of the Pacific coast, for, 

 though four species of maple occur 

 there, no one of them bears close 

 enough resemblance to this one to 

 be mistaken for it. 



The Oregon maple's range uortli 

 and south covers twenty degrees of 

 latitude. In that particular it is 

 not much surpassed, if surpassed at 

 all, by any maple of this country. 

 Its northern limit lies in Alaska, its 

 southern close to the Mexican 

 boundary, in San Diego county, 

 California. Its range east and west 

 is restricted. It has a width of 

 about one hundred and fifty miles 

 in California, where it grows from 

 the coast to the foothills of the 

 Sierra Nevada mountains. An alti- 

 tude of 5,600 feet appears to be 

 the limit of its range upward. It 

 attains altitudes above .5,000 feet 

 at several jioints in the Sierra Ne- 

 vada range. It descends nearly to 

 sea level. Its geographical range 

 is similar to the ranges of several 

 other Pacific coast species which 

 occupy long ribbons of territory 

 stretching north and south parallel 

 with the coast of the Pacific ocean. 



This maple 's leaves change to a 

 clear reddish yellow before falling. 

 Flowers appear after the leaves are 

 grown, and the seeds ripen late in 

 iiutumn. Some of them hang until 

 late in winter, but the habit varies 

 in different parts of the range, as 

 is natural in view of its great ex- 

 tension north and south. The trees which stand in open ground are 

 very abundant seeders, but those in dense stands produce sparingly, 

 in that particular following the habit of most trees. This maple 

 often grows in dense, nearly pure stands in Oregon and Wasliington 

 where soil and conditions are favorable. 



The sizes and forms of Oregon maple vary greatly. .John iluir 

 spoke of forests whose trees were eighty to one hundred feet high, 

 so dense with leaves and so abundantly supplied with branches that 

 moss and ferns formed a canopy with foliage and limbs high over 



FOREST (iltowni 



OKEUON JI.M'LE. 

 W.VSIIlNtJTON 



head, like an aerial garden; while George B. Sudworth described 

 it in certain situations as a short-stemmed, crooked tree from 

 twenty-five to thirty feet high and under a foot in diameter. The 

 the forms are the extremes, and there are all sizes and kinds ranging 

 between. 



This maple has been called the most valuable hardwood of the 



Pacific coast, but that claim is made 



also for others. Some persons rate 

 it with the liard maple of the 

 East, in projierties which commend 

 it for use. It is doubtful if the 

 claim can be substantiated. Ac- 

 cording to Sargent's figures for 

 strength, stiffne.ss, weight, and full 

 value, it lacks much of equalling 

 the eastern tree. It is twelve 

 pounds per cubic foot lighter; has 

 not three-fourths the fuel value ; 

 and is little more than half aa 

 strong or as stiff. The comparison 

 is more in favor of the western 

 tree when color of wood and ap- 

 ]iearance of grain are considered. 

 The wood is light brown with pale 

 tint of red. The rings of 'annual 

 growth are tolerably distinct, with 

 >a thin, dash line separating the 

 summerwood of one year from the 

 springwood of tlie next.- The pores 

 are scattered with fair evenness in 

 all parts of the ring. They are 

 small and numerous. The medullary 

 rays are thin and abundant. In 

 quarter-sawed wood they show much 

 the same as in hard maple, but are 

 rather darker in color. The mir- 

 rors are decidedly tinged with 

 brown. The wood is reported poor 

 in resisting decay when in contact 

 with the soil; and in that respect 

 it is like tlic otlicr. 



The largest use of Oregon maple 

 .ipliears to be for furniture, second, 

 for interior finisli. and following 

 these 'are numerous miscellaneous 

 uses. Statistics of the cut of this 

 wood, as shown by sawmill reports, 

 are unsatisfactory. Census returns 

 include it with all other maples of 

 the country, without figures for 

 species. The cut of maple for all 

 the w-estern states seems too small 

 to give this wood justice. The 

 amount reported used in Washing- 

 ton, Oregon, and California exceeds 

 the total reported sawmill cut in the West. 



The wood of the Oregon maple is an important handlewood. The 

 smooth grain appeals to broom makers. The wood is made into 

 axe handles, but for that use it is much below hickory, or even hard 

 maple or white oak. It is converted into pulleys in Washington, 

 also into saddle trees, and tent toggles. Boat makers employ it 

 for finish material, in which capacity it fills the same place, and 

 must meet the same requirements, as in interior finish for houses. 

 Curly or wavv wood is occasionallv found and this is worked into 



i'lEIiCE COUNTY, 



