THE DOUGLAS FIR AS A COMMERCIAL TIMBER-TREE. 35 



with soil, and for such purposes as gate-making, fencing, etc., 

 where the ability to stand tear and wear is a desideratum, it is 

 inferior to larch, but there are many other purposes for which 

 it is infinitely superior, and for the supply of which a much 

 greater volume of timber is required. For constructive 

 purposes of all kinds it is especially suited, and, owing to the 

 beauty of its grain and the ease with which it can be worked, 

 it is valuable for the finished work of interiors. The timber 

 stains well, and, when varnished, takes on and retains a 

 beautiful gloss. Outlying and badly grown trees, when sawn up, 

 are liable to warp, but this defect is not apparent when dealing 

 with trees of clean straight growth, and with home timber more 

 freedom may be used in regard to nailing. In a younger 

 state the timber has been tried and found useful as curing- 

 barrel staves and heading, and for box wood, for which, in this 

 locality, there is an unlimited demand. 



What the most profitable length of rotation may be is a 

 question which will have to be determined by trade demands, 

 but to provide timber of a class, fitted for house construction, 

 any period short of one hundred years need not, I feel convinced, 

 be contemplated, and on deep rich soils probably other ten or 

 twenty years will require to be added to that period. No 

 doubt trees of sufficient size to produce beams and scantlings of 

 any size desired may be grown in fifty to sixty years, but it 

 would be nonsensical to speak of timber of that age as matured, 

 and, judging by the vigorous state of the oldest trees in the 

 country, the prospects are that a long rotation may yield better 

 financial returns than a short one. 



For simple high-forest, pure cropping will be found in every 

 way the most practical system. In mixed plantations an even 

 height cannot possibly be maintained, owing to the dominating 

 character of the Douglas fir, and the canopy, which in its case is 

 always necessary to check the growth of the persistent side 

 branches, cannot be kept intact. Formerly the high price of 

 seeds and plants was a sufficient bar to pure planting on an 

 extensive scale, but now that seedling Douglas fir may be 

 purchased at prices not greatly in excess of those ruling for 

 other coniferous forest trees, pure planting is quite defensible 

 on economic grounds, and at any rate, any saving effected in 

 the planting, by mixing with other trees, will be more than lost 

 sight of in the cost of pruning, which at a subsequent date will 



