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Augum 23, ioir>. 



Study of Certain Western Trees ;|?^ if 



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George U. Siulworth, tlcudrologist of tlio Forest Servieo, liii» 

 publishetl a valimlile contribution to the tree litcratiiro of the coun- 

 try ns Bulletin 207 of the Department of Agriculture. It i» iin 

 account of "The Cypress anil .lunipor Trees of the Rocky Moun- 

 tain Uegion," and is a pamphlet of thirty six pages ami eleven 

 maps which show by colors the range of each of the several trees 

 in North America. 



Those considered iu this publication have never been of much 

 importance as saw timber, and most of them will never be. Many 

 of them grow on cold and sterile mountains and on dry plateaux, 

 and consequently the trunks are short, knotty and often deformed, 

 and are poorly suited for saw-logs. However, the trees of this 

 group, scattered over two million square miles, are often of great 

 importance in the various localities where they grow. The stock- 

 men and ranchers put the wood to many uses, in the absence of 

 other timber. The junipers and cypresses are all durable as posts, 

 poles, stakes, and where otherwise in contact with the ground. 

 They furnish posts for thousands of miles of wire fence, and few 

 woods give better service. They are also employed as telephone 

 poles on long lines crossing the mountain regions. Logs for barns 

 and sheds constitute another use; and the largest and cleanest 

 trunks are not infrequently split into long, thin shingles, known 

 locally as shakes, and they roof many a barn and cabin between 

 the Rocky mountains and the Pacic coast. 



Greater use is in prospect for these richlj'-colored softwoods. 

 The wood is exceedingly fine grained in most of the species. The 

 general appearance resembles that of the pencil cedar of Ten- 

 nessee and other parts of the South and East, and some of the 

 species in certain localities .show every indication that they will 

 sometime be valuable for pencils. It is not expected that they 

 will equal in value the pencil cedar now in use; because the trees 

 are scattered, occupy remote districts, and the trunks are usually 

 so knotty that the cost of cutting out pencil blocks will be high. 

 In spite of these drawbacks the pencil maker has prospective sup- 

 plies of wood in the Rocky mountain region. 



Prospects are equally promising for the dotluw chest industry. 

 The rough, knotty trunks of the western junipers will supply ideal 

 lumber for shirtwaist boxes, wardrobes and presses, because the 

 more knots and the more the sap and heartwood are intermingled, 

 the better. No one wants clear lumber for clothes chests. The 

 more variegated it is, the more artistic it is considered. The 

 knotty, twisted, distorted trunks of the western junipers will 

 exactly fill that bill. The chestmaker who wants plenty of knots 

 can get what he is looking for, with white sapwood and rich red 

 heart thrown in. 



It need not be expected that western juniper clothes chest indus- 

 try will ever be large in any particular locality, because the timber 

 is too scattered; but it will amount to something throughout a 

 very large region, and in the aggregate will attain considerable 

 importance. It will be an industry of the small shop rather than 

 of the large factory. 



Mr. Sudworth's book does not pretend to show how niiuh cypress 

 and juniper timber is available in the area of two million square 

 miles. The author has made a botanical rather than a commercial 

 survey. The regions are pointed out where such and such trees 

 may be found, but no attempt is made to show the quantity of 

 timber available. 



Two cypresses are studied, the Arizona cypress (Cupressus ari- 

 zonica), and smooth cypress (Cupressus glabra), and the following 

 junipers which are closely related to the pencil cedar: Common 

 juniper (Juniperus communis), western juniper (Juniperus oeci- 

 dentalis). Mountain red juniper {Juniperus scopulorum), one-seed 

 juniper (Juniperus monosperma), mountain cedar (Juniperus sabi- 

 noides), Utah juniper (Juniperus utaliensis), Knight juniper (Juni- 

 perus Icnightii), big-berried juniper (Juniperus megalocarpa) , alli- 



—18— 



gator juniper (Juniperus pachyphUra), and drooping juniper (Juni- 

 perus flaecida). 



The foregoing constitute (|uite an array of species. In some 

 cases the trees are few in number and small in size, and com- 

 mercially little is to be expected of tlicui. Three are new specicn, 

 which are not found in the old oflicial check list of trees published 

 by the I'orest Service in 1898. They do not so much ri'present an 

 actual recent discovery as a more conijilete identification of species 

 which were so imperfectly known when the oflicial tree list was 

 published in 1898 that they bad not yet received names. 



Mr. Sudworth has been working several years on a complete 

 description of all the tree species of the United States. The first 

 volume, covering the Pacific Coast, was publislieil some years ago. 

 .\ccording to announcement, the succeeding volumes will cover the 

 Rocky Mountain region, the Central region, and the Atlantic Coast. 

 Doubtless, the bulletin on the Rocky Mountain cypress and junipers 

 will form a part of the volume which ultimately will deal with 

 all the forests of that region. 



Mr. Sudworth's books are easy to read. They are written for the 

 general public and not exclusively for scientific men, as so many 

 works on botany are. He uses only enough technical language to 

 make his work scientifically correct, and he has shown how possible 

 it is to write on a scientific subject in language which any in- 

 ti'lligent reader can understand. 



War Tax on Canadian Lumber 



The Canadian government collects seven and a half per cent ail 

 valorem tax on lumber imported into Canada. This is a war tax. 

 When the law was passed it was supposed that the tax would be 

 collected only on foreign lumber entering the country, and no 

 one seems to have thought that Canadian lumbermen would be 

 caught in the net set for foreigners. It has turned out that way. 

 Shippers in British Columbia, with large buyers in Eastern Canada, 

 undertook to save freight by shipping through the Panama Canal, 

 and by way of New Kngland into the eastern parts of Canada. 

 The saving in freight was considerable, but a ruling by the 

 Dominion customs department has declared that when lumber has 

 once left Canada it cannot be brought back across the border with- 

 out paying the war tax. 



Walnut From Consumer's Standpoint 



Walnut lumbermen have been much interested to see the aggres- 

 sive way in which furniture manufacturers who have added walnut 

 to their lines have taken hold of the proposition of popularizing 

 the wood with their trade. A great many furniture dealers have 

 been featuring walnut goods, appreciating the strength which has 

 been added to the situation by the introduction of walnut furniture, 

 which has taken its place with the highest-grade mahogany and 

 oak; others, however, have only gradually realized the complete 

 "come-back" made by walnut in the domestic trade, and have been 

 slower to see the possibilities latent in the exploitation of an 

 attractive brown wood in addition to those of other colors, of which 

 the public is said to have become more or less tired. 



An interesting indication of the attitude of the furniture manu- 

 facturer is the advertising which thej- are doing in behalf of their 

 walnut goods. The Luce Furniture Company of Grand Rapids, one 

 of the leading houses in that market, has been using full pages in 

 dealers' papers to illustrate suites especially designed for American 

 walnut, which is described by the company as "the aristocrat of 

 cabinet woods." Berkey & Gay of Grand Rapids have been featur- 

 ing their Knowlcworth line, which is made exclusively in American 

 walnut, and other prominent houses have also been pushing the 

 wood vigorously, so that it is evident that consumers of note have 

 definitely determined to restore walnut to its rightful place among 

 domestic cabinet woods. 



