30 A MANUAL OF FORESTRY 



become established before encountering hot weather. On wet 

 or cold sites, on the other hand, spring planting should be adopted. 



BALSAM FIR (Abies balsamea). 



This tree is a northern species extending from Labrador to the 

 Rockies, and southward in the Appalachians to West Virginia. 

 It is not native in southern New England, though in the west it 

 extends through the Berkshires into northern Connecticut. It 

 is chiefly confined to regions where the average summer tempera- 

 ture does not exceed 70 degrees F., 1 and reaches its best develop- 

 ment in Maine where there is an average rainfall of 43 inches. 

 Conditions of moisture and temperature are often similar in 

 swamps and on the upper mountain slopes, and the ground in 

 both cases is apt to be covered with sphagnum moss. On the 

 mountains, however, the fir, like other trees, does not attain as 

 large size as at lower elevations. 



The balsam fir is short lived and consequently never reaches 

 the proportions often attained by spruce. Trees two feet in 

 diameter and ninety feet high are rare. The foliage persists 

 from eight to thirteen years, considerably longer than that of 

 white pine. The root system is shallow, being similar to that of 

 spruce. The lateral roots extend out in all directions a distance 

 of five feet or more. 



Fir cones ripen in one year, while those of pine require two 

 growing seasons. Ordinarily the tree begins to seed when twenty 

 years old and the size of a good Christmas tree. Good seed years 

 occur at intervals of two, three or four years, according to the 

 locality. The seed requires more moisture for germination than 

 spruce, and where moisture conditions are suitable they germi- 

 nate freely on rotten logs, mineral soil, moss, or even on hardwood 

 leaf litter. In pure stands of balsam there are often from 200,000 

 to 300,000 seedlings to the acre. 



The balsam requires less light than tamarack, white pine and 

 arborvitae, but more light than either spruce or hemlock. Small 



1 Zon, Balsam Fir, U. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 55 (1914). 



