Issued January 19, 1907'. 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



FOREST SERVICE Circular 73. 



GIFFORD PINCHOT, Forester. 



FOREST PLANTING LEAFLET. 



RED CEDAR (Juniperus virginiana). 



FORM AND SIZE. 



The red cedar presents a wide contrast in form, varying in different 

 parts of its range from the low, bushy type of the West to the conical 

 and spire-shaped crowns of New England, Virginia, and Maryland. 

 It grows to considerable size within the deep swamp lands of the east- 

 ern Gulf States, and attains its greatest dimensions on rich, alluvial 

 bottomlands, where it occasionally has a height of 120 feet and a 

 diameter of 3 feet. Its average size, however, is much less. It is a 

 long-lived tree, and often reaches an age of several hundred years. 



RANGE. 



Few American conifers are more widely distributed than red cedar. 

 Its range extends from southern Nova Scotia and southern New 

 Brunswick to Florida, and from North Dakota southward to the 

 Colorado River Valley in Texas, though over much of this territory 

 only scattered individuals or small groups occur. It reaches its best 

 development south of the Ohio River, where dense stands formerly 

 occurred in the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains, and in the 

 valley of the Tennessee River in Tennessee and Alabama. Red cedar 

 usually grows in mixture, but on the cedar barrens of middle Ten- 

 nessee pure stands occur. 



For economic planting the range is restricted to localities where 

 protection is needed and where there is demand for fence posts. 

 These include the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, 

 eastern New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. In addition, it is 

 advisable and economical to plant red cedar in the regions of its best 

 development wherever natural reproduction is not satisfactory. 



HABITS AND GROWTH. 



Few trees of the eastern part of the United States exhibit a greater 

 indifference to soil and climate than the red cedar. It thrives in the 

 17069 No. 7307 M 



