1900. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



33 



growing in gardens. They want a botani- 

 cal dictionary w r ith colored plates, accurate, 

 because Nature would provide them, and 

 properly named with their uses, all of 

 which an economic plant station alone can 

 give. 



As every public body in Los Angeles, 

 feeling the importance of building up the 

 agricultural regions extending to Arizona 

 and New Mexico, of which, from her 

 geographic position, she will become the 

 gateway for the exchange of these prod- 



ucts w r ith the Oriental markets of the 

 world, and believing that the agricultural 

 prosperity of this vast region will help 

 much to build up the greater prosperity of 

 the United States, has endorsed the pro- 

 posed plan, we earnestly urge the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture to accept and main- 

 tain this national arboretum and economic 

 plant station. 



A. CAMPBELL-JOHNSON, 

 u Garvanza," 



Los Angeles, Cal. 



The Value of Lodgepole Pine. 



To one accustomed to logging in big 

 timber only the mention of Lodgepole Pine 

 (Pinus miirrayana), or of its eastern rela- 

 tive, the Jack Pine (Pinus divaricata) ^ as 

 valuable trees may be amusing, for these 

 trees are despised and usually considered 

 a nuisance. It is therefore a pleasure to 

 help them to their proper place in forest 

 economy. 



It is not generally known that these 

 Pines have a place in the lumber market. 

 Although they are not quoted they are 

 sawed and sold under other names. The 

 Jack Pine of the lake region goes for 

 " Norway," the Lodgepole of the moun- 

 tains going as " White Pine." Both are 

 extensively used for fuel and both com- 

 mand, where accessible, a stumpage of 

 twenty-five cents per cord. 



Ties are made in large quantities from 

 both and bring a stumpage price of three 

 to five cents. The straight, slender, smooth 

 trunks of the smaller sizes make excel- 

 lent fence poles, or, sawed without edg- 

 ing, boards. As material for the pioneer 

 its very extensive use for house and barn, 

 corral and fuel bears modest evidence that 

 it is very often overlooked. 



In addition to the uses made of the 

 Lodgepole Pine at present, some of its 

 qualities promise to increase the demand 

 for it in the future. A large proportion 

 of it has a pitted grain that gives a beau- 

 tiful surface when polished and may have 

 much value for ornamental work. 



In silviculture its value is remarkable. 

 No other species is so ready to occupy the 

 ground after a fire. No other, when young, 

 can endure the sun and the drought of 

 newly-burned land as this can. During 

 the very dry time of 1889 and 1890 fire 

 swept large areas along the continental 

 divide between the Great Northern and the 

 Northern Pacific railways in Montana, and 

 now wherever that fire was not so severe 

 as to destroy the seed and was not followed 

 by a second fire, the burned ground is 

 densely restocked with seedlings of this 

 species, many of them five feet high. 

 Areas are frequently found that have 4000 

 seedlings to the acre. The species has 

 great value as a mountain cover. After 

 the first five years the seedlings grow 

 rapidly and soon form a dense shade to 

 retard the melting of snow and an obstruc- 

 tion to delay the run-off of water. 



It has been said the Lodgepole Pine is 

 a nuisance, that were it not for its per- 

 sistent occupancy of the land more valu- 

 able species would come in. Many places 

 can be found where such is the case, but 

 this is not the average effect. In the broad 

 economy of nature this humble species is 

 doing its work and doing it well. In gen- 

 eral it covers land no other species wants 

 and most faithfully keeps doing something 

 and producing something on land that 

 would otherwise be waste. 



As aids or nurses to other species, also, 

 Lodgepole has an unappreciated value. It 



