THE SUGAR PINE 



281 



world had become forest, we could see off so far through 

 the vistas between the tall, straight, branchless trunks. 

 The great sugar pines were from one hundred to two 

 hundred and twenty feet high, and their lowest branches 

 were sixty to eighty feet from the ground. The 

 cedars and firs and yellow pines were not much shorter. 



VETERAN' SUGAR PINE NEAR PROSPECT, OREGON 



A giant sugar pine, seven feet ten inches in diameter at breast height, growing 

 in the Crater National Forest, Oregon. The clear, straight trunk is characteris- 

 tic of sugar pines, and is one of the reasons why this species ranks as the most 

 valuable timber tree of the Pacific Coast. 



The grandeur of these innumerable colonnades can- 

 not be conceived. It can hardly be realized, even while 

 they are majestically opening, receding, closing, in 

 your very sight. Sometimes a sunbeam will strike on a 

 point so many rods away, down one of these dark aisles, 

 that it is impossible to believe it sunlight at all. Some- 

 times, through a break in the tree-tops, will gleam snowy 

 peaks of Sierras, hundreds of miles away; but the path to 

 their summits will seem to lead straight through these 

 columns of vivid green. Perspective becomes transfig- 



CONE AND NEEDLES OF THE 

 SUGAR PINE 



It requires two years for the seed of the 

 sugar pine to mature, and when fully 

 developed the cones are of startling 

 size sometimes nearly two feet long, 

 the average length being from 12 to 18 

 inches. The needles are dark- green, 

 stout and stiff and from 2% to 4 

 inches long. 



uration, miracle when it 

 deals with such distance, 

 such color and such giant 

 size. It would not have 

 astonished me at any mo- 

 ment, as I gazed reverently 

 out into these measureless 

 cloisters, to have seen be- j\2>\^ v> v' r ^ 

 ings of Titanic stature mov- 'y\^\ /*! 

 ing slowly along, chanting 

 service and swinging in- 

 cense in some supernatural 

 worship." 



Sugar pine is the tallest 

 and largest of all the pines. 

 It sometimes grows to a 

 height of 240 feet with a 

 breast -height diameter of 

 1 1 feet. The average sugar 

 pine is 175 feet high and 

 Ayi feet in diameter. The 

 mature trees have straight, 

 cylindrical trunks and fre- 

 quently are clear of branches 

 for 50 to 80 feet. Young 

 trees have a tapering stem, 

 and the branches develop 

 in whorls of five, so that at 

 first the trees, although 

 graceful and flexible, have the regular, spire-like outline of 

 most young conifers. Old patriarchs resemble the old white 

 pine trees of our Eastern forests in developing a marked 

 individuality of form. The tops become flattened' and 

 often develop more on one side than the other because of 

 the constant pressure of the prevailing winds. Here and 

 there great branches feathered with short, pliant tassel- 

 like twigs, reach out. at nearly right angles to the trunk, 

 sometimes to a distance of 30 to 40 feet. The title " Priest 

 of Pines" is appropriate for this tree whose giant plumes, 

 aloft upon their mighty shafts, are most suggestive of 

 sublime beauty and tranquillity. 



The bark of young trees is thin, smooth and ash- 

 gray in color. Later 

 the bark is thick, 

 deeply and irregularly 

 furrowed into long, 

 narrow plates. The 

 old bark is of an at- 

 tractive purplish hue 

 which becomes red- 

 brown where the wind 

 blows away the small 

 scales on the surface 

 of the bark. Sugar 

 pine is a member of 

 the white pine group, 

 hence the needle- 

 shaped leaves occur 

 in clusters of five, en- 



AREA OF SUGAR PINE GROWTH 



California contains the principal wealth of 

 sugar pine, although commercial stands are 

 found m southwestern Oregon. The extreme 

 geographic range of sugar pine is shown in the 

 outline. The great bulk of the timber is 

 found on the western slopes of the Sierra 

 Nevada Mountains, especially from Tulare to 

 Eldorado Counties, California. 



