AMERICAN FOREST TREES 27 



with factories and there is now less shipping of raw material out and 

 of finished products back than formerly. The development of the fruit 

 industry in the elevated valleys of Idaho, Montana, Washington, and 

 Oregon has called for shipping boxes in large numbers, and western 

 white pine has been found an ideal wood for that use. It is light in 

 weight and in color, strong enough to satisfy all ordinary requirements, 

 and cheap enough to bring it within reach of orchardists. It meets 

 with lively competition from a number of other woods which grow 

 abundantly in the region, but it holds its ground and takes its share of 

 the business. 



Estimates of the total stand of western white pine among its native 

 mountains have not been published, but the quantity is known to be 

 large. It is a difficult species to estimate because it is scattered widely, 

 large, pure stands being scarce. Some large mills make a specialty of 

 sawing this species. The annual output is believed to reach 150,000,- 

 000 feet, most of which is in Idaho and Montana. 



MEXICAN WHITE PINE (Pinus strobijormis) is not sufficiently 

 abundant to be of much importance in the United States. The best of it 

 is south of the international boundary in Mexico, but the species extends 

 into New Mexico and Arizona where it is most abundant at altitudes of 

 from 6,000 to 8,000 feet. The growth is generally scattering, and the 

 trunks are often deformed through fire injury, and are inclined to be 

 limby and of poor form. The best trees are from eighty to one hundred 

 feet high, and two in diameter; but many are scarcely half that size. The 

 lumbermen of the region, who cut Mexican white pine, are inclined to 

 place low value on it, not because the wood is of poor quality, but 

 because it is scarce. It is generally sent to market with western yellow 

 pine. Excellent grades and quality of this wood are shipped into the 

 United States from Mexico, but not in large amounts. An occasional 

 carload reaches door and sash factories in Texas, and woodworkers as 

 far east as Michigan are acquainted with it, through trials and experi- 

 ments which they have made. It is highly recommended by those who 

 have tried it. Some consider it as soft, as easy to work, and as free from 

 warping and checking as the eastern white pine. In Arizona and New 

 Mexico the tree is known as ayacahuite pine, white pine, and Arizona 

 white pine. The wood is moderately light, fairly strong, rather stiff, 

 of slow growth, and the bands of summerwood are comparatively 

 broad. The resin passages are few and large. The wood is light red, 

 the sapwood whiter. The leaves occur in clusters of five, are three or 

 four inches long, and fall during the third and fourth years. The seeds 

 are large and have small wings which cannot carry them far from the 

 parent tree. 



