WESTERN LARCH 



(Larix Occidentalis) 



THIS is a magnificent tree of the Northwest, and its range lies 

 principally on the upper tributaries of the Columbia river, in 

 Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia, but it occurs also among the Blue 

 Mountains of Washington and Oregon. It is the largest member of the 

 larch genus, either in the old world or the new. The finest trees are 250 

 feet high with diameters of six or eight feet, but sizes half of that are 

 nearer the average. The trunk is of splendid form. In early life it is 

 limby, but later it prunes itself, and a long, tapering bole is developed 

 with a very small crown of thin foliage. No other tree of its size, with the 

 possible exception of old sequoias, has so little foliage in proportion to 

 the trunk. 



The result is apparent in the rate of growth after the larch has 

 passed its youth. Sometimes such a tree does not increase its trunk 

 diameter as much in seventy-five years as a vigorous loblolly pine or 

 willow oak will in one year. The trunk of a tree, as is well known, 

 grows by means of food manufactured by the leaves and sent down to be 

 transformed into wood. With so few leaves and a trunk so large, the 

 slowness of growth is a natural consequence. Though the annual rings 

 are usually quite narrow, the bands of summerwood are relatively 

 broad. That accounts for the density of larchwood and its great weight. 

 It is six per cent heavier than longleaf pine, and is not much inferior in 

 strength and elasticity. The leaves are from one to one and three- 

 quarter inches long, the cones from one to one and a half inches, and the 

 seeds nearly one-quarter inch in length. They are equipped with wings 

 of sufficient power to carry them a short distance from the parent tree. 



The bark on young larches is thin, but on large trunks, and near 

 the ground, it may be five or six inches thick. When a notch is cut in 

 the trunk it collects a resin of sweetish taste which the Indians use as 

 an article of food. 



The western larch reaches its best development in northern Idaho 

 and Montana on streams which flow into Flathead lake. The tree 

 prefers moist bottom lands, but grows well in other situations, at alti- 

 tudes of from 2,000 to 7,000 feet. The figures given above on the wood's 

 weight, strength, and stiffness show its value for manufacturing purposes. 

 Its remoteness from markets has stood in the way of large use, but it has 

 been tried for many purposes and with highly satisfactory results. In 

 1910 sawmills in the four western states where it grows cut 255,186,000 

 feet. Most of this is used as rough lumber, but some is made into 



85 



