«w»ww'W^ww;ii^M)i^.w taw iw^.TO OTgj^^ 



American Forest Trees 



This tree of the northern Eockv Mountain region is of splendid' 

 size and symmetrical proportions. Specimens sometimes are two 

 hundred and fifty feet high and six or eight feet in diameter, 

 but the average size is less than half of these figures. Its range 

 lies in Oregon, Washington, and on the upper tributaries of the 

 Columbia river in Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia. It is a 

 limby tree early in life, but later 

 it successfully shades off its lower 

 limbs and a long tapering bole is 

 developed with a very small crown 

 of this foliage. No other tree of 

 its size, with the possible excep- 

 tion of old sequoias, has so little 

 foliage in proportion to the size of 

 the trunk. 



The larch is a needle-leaf tree 

 but not an evergreen. Like its 

 eastern cousin, the tamarack, its 

 leaves fall in autumn and the 

 branches are bare until the next 

 spring when little tufts of soft, 

 green needles put in an appear- 

 ance, springing from wart-like ex- 

 crescences on the branches. These 

 knobs or warts, about a quarter of 

 an inch across, assist in identify- 

 ing the tree when the leaves are 

 down. The little excrescences are 

 interesting objects of study. They 

 are stunted twigs which are unable 

 to increase in length but remain as 

 buttons, with all the needles 

 crowded at the ends. The twig 

 which develops on the larch is the 

 terminal shoot. It is clothed all 

 the way down with leaves, there 

 being no occasion for them to 

 crowd on the end as is the ease 

 with those which are unable to 

 attain a length of more than a 

 quarter of an inch. 



The larch's very small crown, in 

 comparison with the size of its 

 trunk, shows results in the rate of 

 growth after the period of youth 

 has passed. Sometimes such a tree 

 does not increase its trunk 

 diameter as much in forty years as 

 a vigorous loblolly pine or willow 

 oak will in one year. The trunk 

 of a tree, as is Veil known, grows 

 by means of food manufactured by 

 the leaves and sent down to be 

 transformed into wood. With so 

 few leaves and a trunk so -large, 



the slowness of growth is a natural consequence. Though the an- 

 nual rings are usually quite narrow, the bands of summerwood 

 are relatively broad. That accounts for the density of larch 

 wood and its great weight. It is six per cent heavier than long- 

 leaf pine, and is not much inferior in strength and elasticity. 

 The leaves are from one to one and three-fourths inches long, 

 the cones from one to one and one-half inches; and the seeds nearly 

 one-fourth inch in length. The latter are equipped with wings of 



—20— 



UNE IIUXDRED-SIXTII PAPER 



WESTERN LARCH 



{Larix OccidentaUs-Nutt) 



sufficient power to carry them a short distance from the parent tree. 



The bark on young larches is thin, but on large trunks, and 

 near the ground, it may be five or six inches thick. When a 

 notch is cut in the trunk it collects a resin of sweetish taste 

 which the Indians use as an article of food. 



The western larch reaches its best development in northern 



Idaho and Montana on streams 



TYPICAE FOREST GROWTH, WESTERN LARCH, WHITE 

 FISH. MONTAXA 



which flow into Flathead lake. The 

 tree prefers moist bottom lands, 

 but grows well in other situations, 

 at altitudes of from 2,000 to 7,000 

 feet. The figures given above on 

 this wood's weight, strength and 

 stiffness show its value for manu- 

 facturing purposes. Its remote- 

 ness from markets has stood in the 

 way of large use, but it has been 

 tried for manj' purposes and with 

 highly satisfactory results. In 

 1910 sawmills in the four western 

 states where it grows, cut 255,186,- 

 000 feet. Most of this is used as 

 rough lumber, but some is made 

 into furniture, finish, boxes, and 

 boats. The wood has several 

 names, though larch is the most 

 common. It is otherwise known 

 as tamarack and hackmatack, 

 which names are oftener applied 

 to the eastern tree, red American 

 larch, western tamarack, and great 

 western larch. 



Some of the annual cut of lum- 

 ber credited to western larch does 

 not belong to it. Lumbermen have 

 confused names and mixed figures 

 liy applying this tree 's name to 

 noble fir, which is a different tree. 

 If the fir lumber listed as larch 

 were given its proper name, it 

 would result in lowering the output 

 of larch as shown in statistical 

 figures. In spite of this, however, 

 larch lumber fills an important 

 place in the trade of the northern 

 Rocky Mountain region. 



There is little doubt that it 

 will fill a much more important 

 place in the future, for a beginning 

 has scarcely been made in market- 

 ing this timber. The available 

 supply is large, but exact figures 

 are not available. Some stands are 

 dense and extensive and the trees 

 are of large size and fine form. 

 It is not supposed, however, that there will be much after the 

 present stand has been cut, because a second crop from trees of so 

 slow growth will be far in the future. Sudworth says that larch 

 trees from eighteen to twenty inches in diameter are from 250 to 

 300 years old, and that the ordinary ages of these trees in the 

 forests of the Northwest are from 300 to 500 years; while larger 

 trees are 600 or 700. Much remains to be learned concerning the 

 ages of these trees in different situations and in different parts of 



