THE DOUGLAS FIR AS A COMMERCIAL TIMBER-TREE. 3 I 



6. The Douglas Fir as a Commercial Timber-Tree. 



{With Two Plates.) 

 By John D. Crozikr. 



It is now eighty years since the Douglas fir was first intro- 

 duced into Britain, and although during the first forty years 

 or so of its existence in the country it was not generally 

 recognised as an economic species, the latter half of that period 

 witnessed a remarkable forward movement in the estimation of 

 planters regarding the suitability of the tree for cultivation for 

 profit. 



At the date of its introduction, no doubt, the timber of the 

 larch had come to be appraised at its true value, and planters 

 could hardly be expected to launch out on large experiments 

 with a new and comparatively unknown tree. Still the planting 

 of Douglas fir went steadily on ; and when, in later years, the 

 larch showed unmistakable signs of deterioration, and the 

 question of a more reliable substitute forced itself on the 

 attention of those connected with woodlands, the Douglas fir 

 was thought by many to be the only tree capable of filling the 

 breach. Certainly no other tree, native or imported, possessed 

 in so remarkable a degree the characteristics necessary to place 

 it at the head of our list of coniferous timber-trees. Possessed 

 of a robust constitution, a first class quality of timber, and a 

 power of adaptation to soils and situations possessed by few other 

 trees, the good opinion formed of the tree by early planters 

 is not likely to be belied by the results of later experience. 



A native of western North America, where many of our most 

 promising exotics are found indigenous, and where also much 

 of the lower flora is identical with that of Britain, showing the 

 similarity of the climate of the two countries, it is found over an 

 area of about fifty thousand square miles, and is perhaps the 

 most widely distributed of all the American trees. It is found 

 in the higher reaches of the Fraser river and the Cascade 

 Mountains, in latitude 55°. From thence it extends along the 

 coast and Rocky Mountain ranges to a point in Mexico, just 

 within the northern Tropic. At its northern limit the climate is 

 moist and the rainfall heavy ; while at its southern extremity 

 the climate is dry and arid, and the sunshine almost perpetual. 



