4IO 



George E. Nichols, 



The balsam fir commonly possesses a short, stocky trunk from 

 three to six feet high, according to the depth of the snow blanket. 

 This trunk ranges in diameter up to more than a foot (in one 

 case sixteen inches), and some of the trees must be well over 

 two hundred years old (one six inch trunk showed more than 150 

 annual rings), an unusual age for the balsam in northern Cape 

 Breton. The total height of tlie tree may be little greater than 

 that of its stubby trunk: the lateral branches, usually borne in 



Figure 57. — Habit sketch of balsam fir growing in forest scrub associa- 

 tion-type; barrens in mountains west of Ingonish. This particular tree 

 is ten feet high (overall) and has a spread of more than a dozen feet 

 with a trunk diameter of nearly a foot. 



profusion near its summit, spread out widely, giving rise to a 

 dense, flat-topped crown, low but commonly ten or a dozen feet 

 broad and drooping nearly to the ground. But as a rule, upon 

 the death of the primary leader, a new leader is developed which 

 tends to continue the upward growth of the trunk. After a few 

 years, the length of the interval depending on the severity of 

 the winters, this leader may be killed and replaced by a third, 

 and so on. More than twenty dead leaders have frequently been 

 counted on a single tree. Often several leaders may be active at 

 the same time, but usually one of them soon gains a marked 



