AMERICAN FOREST TREES 39 



but on account of the whiteness of the sapwood. It is strictly a high 

 mountain tree, running up to the timber line at 12,000 feet, and seldom 

 occurring below 6,000 or 7,000 feet. It maintains its existence under 

 adverse circumstances, its home being on dry, stony ridges, cold and 

 stormy in winter, and subject to excessive drought during the brief 

 growing season. Trees of large trunks and fine forms are impossible 

 under such conditions. The bristlecone pine's bole is short, tapers 

 rapidly and is excessively knotty. The species reaches its best develop- 

 ment in Colorado. Though it is seldom sawed for lumber, it is of much 

 importance in many localities where better material is scarce. In central 

 Nevada many valuable mines were developed and worked by using the 

 wood for props and fuel. Charcoal made of it was particularly important 

 in that region, and it was carried long distances to supply blacksmith 

 shops in mining camps. Railways have made some use of it for ties. 

 Though rough, it is liked for fence posts. The resin in the wood assists 

 in resisting decay, and posts last many years in the dry regions where 

 the tree grows. Ranchmen among the high mountains build corrals, 

 pens, sheds, and fences of it; but the fibers of the wood are so twisted 

 and involved that splitting is nearly impossible, and round timbers 

 only are employed. The bristlecone pine can never be more important 

 in the country's lumber supply than it is now. It occupies waste land 

 where no other tree grows, and it crowds out nothing better than itself. 

 It clings to stony peaks and wind-swept ridges where the ungainly 

 trunks are welcome to the traveler, miner, or sheepherder who is in 

 need of a shed to shelter him, or a fire for his night camp. In situations 

 exposed to great cold and drying winds, the bristlecone pine is a shrub, 

 with little suggestion of a tree, further than its green foliage and small 

 cones. The needles are in clusters of five. They cling to the twigs for 

 ten or fifteen years. The seeds are scattered about the first of October, 

 and the wind carries them hundreds of feet. They take root in soil so 

 sterile that no humus is visible. Young trees and the small twigs of old 

 ones present a peculiar appearance. The bark is chalky white, but when 

 the trees are old the bark becomes red or brown. 



FOXTAIL PINE (Pinus balfouriana) owes its name to the clustering of its needles 

 round the ends of the branches, bristling like a fox's tail. The needles are seldom 

 more than one and one-half inches in length, and are in clusters of fives. They 

 cling to the branches ten or fifteen years before falling. The cones are about three 

 inches long, and are armed with slender spines. The tree is strictly a mountain species 

 and grows at a higher altitude than any other tree in the United States, although 

 whitebark pine is not much behind it. It reaches its best development near Mt. 

 Whitney, California, where it is said to grow at an altitude of 15,000 feet above sea 

 level. It has been officially reported at Farewell Gap, in the Sierra Nevada moun- 

 tains, at an altitude of 13,000. At high altitudes it is scrubby and distorted, but in 



