344 



feet. Specimens up to 5 feet in diam- 

 eter are sometimes seen, but the 

 average tree is shorter and smaller. 



The Rocky Mountain juniper 

 (Juniperus scopulorum) is of a more 

 conventional tree form. Occasionally it 

 grows 30 to 40 feet tall and up to 3 feet 

 in diameter. It has a straight but rap- 

 idly tapering trunk. 



The piny on- juniper forest is usually 

 open, and the openings among the 

 trees are occupied by the grasses and 

 shrubs. The short stems and broad 

 crowns of the individual trees, usually 

 of one species of pinyon and one or 

 more species of juniper, give to the 

 forest a pleasing appearance. 



EXPLORATIONS of early Indian habi- 

 tations show that many were located in 

 valleys, in or near the pinyon- juniper 

 forest. The reasons why they selected 

 those places are not known, but many 

 factors favored them for home sites 

 an agreeable climate, a growing season 

 long enough for farm crops, and an 

 abundance of fuel for cooking and 

 heating. The wood, especially juniper 

 wood, was light to handle an impor- 

 tant detail because before Spanish ex- 

 ploration the Indians had no beasts of 

 burden and had to carry things them- 

 selves. The wood was easy to work with 

 the primitive stone axes and hammers 

 or by hand. 



The forest supplied pinyon nuts for 

 food; archeologists have found pin- 

 yon nuts in ruins. Early Spanish ex- 

 plorers, Cabeza de Baca among them, 

 noted the small pine trees, whose seed 

 they considered better than those of 

 Spain. The thin husks, he said, were 

 beaten while green, made into balls, 

 and eaten. The dry nuts were pounded 

 in the husks and used as flour. Coro- 

 nado told of the extensive areas of 

 pines, which, he remarked, were only 

 two or three times as high as a man 

 before they sent out branches, and the 

 great quantities of pine nuts they pro- 

 duced. He stated that the Indians col- 

 lected and stored the nuts each year. 



Fuel wood for cooking and heating 

 was no doubt the forest product most 



Yearboo^ of Agriculture 1949 



valuable to the early Indians. They 

 used some wood in constructing tem- 

 porary shelter and permanent housing; 

 some wood, found in ruins, was used 

 for terracing logs, roof beams, and door 

 lintels, and incorporated in masonry 

 walls. Some material up to 14 feet long 

 and 12 inches thick has been found 

 what a job they must have had in work- 

 ing sticks of that size with stone tools. 

 The wood of all the junipers is fairly 

 light and soft, however; that of the pin- 

 yon is also soft, but brittle. 



The early Indians made some use of 

 the juniper berry for food; the bark 

 was used for cradles, sandals, torches, 

 and similar products. 



The early Indians also got much of 

 their food from corn, beans, squash, 

 and other cultivated crops; the pin- 

 yons, acorns, and seeds, which could 

 be had for the taking; deer, antelope, 

 elk, ground sloth, camel, and Taylor 

 buffalo. Good forage for game was pro- 

 vided by the grasses and shrubs found 

 in the openings in the pinyon-juniper 

 forests ; turkeys fattened on the pinyon 

 nuts and juniper berries. All in all, 

 therefore, the woodland forest pro- 

 vided most of the basic needs of the 

 earliest inhabitants in the region; it 

 may not have been absolutely essential, 

 but it was of great value. 



THE SAME PATTERN of use continued 

 after the coming of the Spanish. Their 

 settlements were in the larger valleys, 

 where irrigation water was available. 

 They also depended on the forest for 

 fuel and some building material. The 

 Spaniards, besides, needed fences for 

 their domestic stock, and that the pin- 

 yon-juniper amply provided. The 

 burro and the horse that they brought 

 with them saved human labor in get- 

 ting those supplies. ( The burro, with a 

 pack load of fuel wood, remained a 

 familiar sight for a long time through- 

 out the Southwest. ) Because the Span- 

 iards had better tools for working 

 wood, they made much wider use of 

 the products of the forest. 



So it is natural that the Spanish- 

 Americans of the Southwest still have 



