AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



pine. The wood is light, soft, rather strong, brittle. The annual rings are generally 

 wide, indicating rapid growth. Very old gray pines arc not known. 'An age of 185 

 years ***** to be the highest on record. The wood is resinous, and it has helped in a 

 tmn way to supply the Pacific coast markets with high-grade turpentine, distilled 

 from roots. It yields resin when boxed like the southern longleaf pine. There are 

 two flowing seasons One is very early, and closes when the weather becomes hot; 

 the other is in full current by the middle of August. It maintains life among the 

 California foothills during the long rainless seasons, on ground so dry that semi- 

 desert chaparral sometimes succumbs; but it is able to make the most of favorable 

 conditions, and it grows rapidly under the slightest encouragement. The seedlings 

 are more numerous now than formerly, which is attributed to decrease of forest fires. 

 The tree has enemies which generally attack it in youth. Two fungi, Peridermiwn 

 harknessi, and Dcedalia vorax, destroy the young tree's leader or topmost shoot, 

 causing the development of a short trunk. The latter fungus is the same or is closely 

 related to that which tunnels the trunk of incense cedar and produces pccky cypress. 



Gray pine has been cut to some extent for lumber, but its principal uses have 

 been as fuel and mine timbers. Many quartz mines have been located in the region 

 where the tree grows; and the engines which pumped the shafts and raised and crushed 

 the ore were often heated with this pine. Thousands of acres of hillsides in the vicin- 

 ity of mines were stripped of it, and it went to the engine house ricks in wagons, on 

 sleds, and on the backs of burros. In two respects it is an economical fuel for remote 

 mines: it is light in weight, and gives more heat than an equal quantity of the oak 

 that is associated with it. 



CHIHUAHUA PINE (Pinus chihuahuana) is not abundant, but it exists in small 

 commercial quantities ia southwestern New Mexico and southern Arizona. Trees are 

 from fifty to eighty feet high, and from fifteen to twenty inches in diameter. The 

 wood is medium light, soft, rather strong, brittle, narrow ringed and compact. The 

 resin passages are few, large, and conspicuous; color, clear light orange, the thick 

 sapwood lighter. The tree reaches best development at altitudes of from 5,000 to 

 7,000 feet. When the wood is used, it serves the same purposes as western yellow 

 pine; but the small size of the tree makes lumber of large size impossible. The 

 leaves are in clusters of three, aud fall the fourth year. The cones have long stalks 

 and are from one and a half to two inches long. 



