APPENDI X. 



NOTES ON INDIVIDUAL SPECIES. 



AUSTRIAN PINE (Pinus laricis austriaca). 



This species has been planted in the United States, chiefly for ornamental 

 purposes and shelter belts, from Massachusetts to California. It yields strong, 

 coarse-grained, resinous wood, useful principally for all sorts of rough con- 

 struction. It is hardy and rapid growing when young, but in the United States 

 seems to be short lived. 1 It is able to thrive on very poor, thin, dry soils, but it 

 requires warm and sunny situations and will not grow where the atmosphere 

 is misty and damp. In Europe it is considered the best tree for planting in 

 shallow, hot, limestone soils. It has been used extensively for planting in the 

 Karst region. Austria, where the climate is similar to the southwestern United 

 States, much of the planting being on nearly bare, calcareous rock. It is 

 reproduced abroad by using 2-year-old nursery stock planted in pure stands. 

 Experiments in direct seeding with this species in the yellow-pine region of the 

 Rocky Mountains suggest the possibility of its being successfully established by 

 this method. 



BIGTREE (Sequoia washingtoma) . 



The bigtree is remarkable in that it reaches the largest dimensions and 

 attains the greatest age of any tree in the United States. Its natural range is 

 limited to a stretch of about 2(50 miles along the west slope of the Sierra 

 Nevadas in central California. It is found usually at an elevation of about 

 6,500 feet, though it sometimes grows as low as 4,800 feet and as high as 8,400 

 feet above the sea. The climate in which it grows indicates that it may be 

 extensively used in reforestation work outside of its natural range, where the 

 precipitation exceeds 20 inches annually and the temperature does not fall 

 below 12 F. It can stand long winters with abundant snow, provided they are 

 comparatively mild. It requires a moist, well-drained soil, plenty of light, and 

 grows rapidly and persistently. In its natural range it is practically free 

 from fungi. 



Bigtree bears some seed every year, but years of abundant seeding occur only 

 at intervals of from four to five years. The cones are mature and the seed ripe 

 by the latter part of July and fall in October and November. The seed is much 

 eaten by squirrels, which begin to cut off the cones in August as soon as ripe 

 a point to be considered in seed collecting. 



It is believed that the bigtree will do well in certain of the coast forests of 

 both California and Oregon. 



1 For information concerning liability to insect attack of this and other trees mentioned 

 in the Appendix, see Bureau of Entomology Bulletin 80, Part 1, and other publications of 

 that bureau dealing with forest insects. Further information may be obtained upon appli- 

 cation to the Bureau of Entomology. 



51 



