66 USES OF COMMEKCIAL WOODS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



If that turns out to be correct, it would supply for 250 years the 

 output at the present rate. Those, however, who have witnessed the 

 cutting of sugar pine during the past 20 or 30 years express doubts as 

 to the continuance of the supply far into the future. 



Sugar pine does not reproduce with vigor. The yellow pine (Pinus 

 ponderosa), with which it is associated throughout nearly all of its 

 range, is often able to crowd it out in clean cuttings, or in other 

 places where young growth is taking the place of the old. The sugar 

 pine's seeds ripen the second year, and the cones, which sometimes 

 exceed 20 inches in length, fall the third year or later. The short 

 wing with which the seed is equipped is too small to carry the burden 

 far, and a sugar pine seldom scatters its seeds more than 200 feet. 

 The failure of the sugar pine to reproduce is no doubt often due to 

 squirrels, since in average years they consume most of the seeds, leav- 

 ing few to germinate. The young trees endure considerable shade, 

 which makes it possible for them to get a start when mixed with 

 other species; but as they attain greater size they become intolerant, 

 demand much light, and decline in growth if they do not receive it. 

 Mature trees have a long, smooth trunk, with comparatively little 

 taper and from which a high percentage of clear lumber may be cut. 

 Young trees are liable to be injured or killed if they pass through a 

 forest fire, but older timber is protected by its thick bark. Repeated 

 fires, however, ultimately injure the trunks. Occasionally 5 or 10 

 per cent of a tree is wasted on account of a fire-hollowed butt. 



Few sugar pines are uprooted by the wind, and the tree is com- 

 paratively free from attack by fungus. Very small trees occasionally 

 suffer from mistletoe (Arceutkobium occidentale}. The tree attains 

 large size ; specimens have been reported 20 feet in diameter and 300 

 feet high, but a sugar pine 10 feet in diameter is seldom seen even in 

 forests that have never been culled, and a height of 250 feet is rare. 



EARLY USES. 



The use of sugar pine in California began soon after the discovery 

 of gold. The early stockmen and ranchers did not draw much upon 

 the mountain forests, for the double reason that they used little lum- 

 ber upon their fenceless domain and that few roads then Ted into the 

 mountains. Sugar pine grew well back in the ranges and was incon- 

 venient if not inaccessible. The rapid increase of population follow- 

 ing the discovery of gold called for buildings, and roof material was 

 in demand. In California there were only two woods which answered 

 the latter purpose well redwood and sugar pine. The two timbers 

 grew in widely separated regions, the redwood along the northwest- 

 ern coast and the sugar pine on the mountains from 100 to 200 miles 

 inland. The region near enough to the redwoods to draw supplies 

 from them without railroads was beyond the reach of sugar pine; 



