96 USES OF COMMEKCIAL WOODS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



FOXTAIL PINE (Pinus balfouriana). 

 PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. 



Weight of dry wood. 33.9 pounds per cubic foot (Sargent). 



Specific gravity. 0.54 (Sargent). 



Ash. 0.4 per cent of weight of dry wood (Sargent). 



Fuel value. 73 per cent that of white oak (Sargent). 



Breaking strength (modulus of rupture). 5,900 pounds per square inch, or 

 37 per cent that of longleaf pine (Sargent). 



Factor of stiffness (modulus of elasticity). 846,000 pounds per square inch, 

 or 40 per cent that of longleaf pine (Sargent). 



Character and qualities. Wood moderately light, soft, weak, brittle; annual 

 rings very narrow, compact ; summerwood very narrow, dark-colored ; resin 

 passages few, not conspicuous ; medullary rays numerous, obscure ; wood satiny 

 and susceptible of a good polish. 



Growth. Height, 30 to 50 feet : diameter, 10 to 16 inches. 



SUPPLY AND USES. 



This tree is occasionally called spruce pine. It is- confined to Cal- 

 ifornia and to a few of the high mountain regions. It is too scarce 

 to be of much importance as a source of lumber, yet it is sometimes 

 cut where it is associated with other species near the lower limits 

 of its range. Trees are small and knotty, but when a clear stick is 

 found the wood is compact and susceptible of a good polish. Its 

 growth is slow. Where the tree is at its best it attains a diameter 

 of about 18 inches in 300 years and a height of 60 feet or less. In 

 the higher parts of its range it is too small, ragged, and dispersed 

 to have value other than as fuel, and not much for that, since few 

 people live in those regions. It grows at an elevation of 13,000 

 feet near Farewell Gap, in the Sierras, and few species, if any, in 

 this country equal it for altitude. Within its range it is frequently 

 the upper fringe of the timber line, its nearest neighbors being the 

 white-bark pine and western juniper. This pine's seeds, unlike those 

 of the white-bark pine, escape with their wing from the cone and 

 are widely scattered by wind, thus assisting the tree to maintain its 

 position in regions which otherwise would have little or no timber of 

 any kind. Sheep herders, miners, tourists, and others who spend 

 the summer among California's highest mountains are often indebted 

 to the foxtail pine for their camp fuel. Near the upper limit of its 

 range the tree frequently dies at the top which is often not much 

 above a man's height and the dry wood, which is barked by the 

 wind and bleached and whitened by sun and age until it resembles 

 bone more than wood, is gathered by breaking off the dry branches, 



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