88 AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



will kill the larch by shading it. The latter's thin foliage renders it 

 incapable of casting a shadow dense enough to hurt the pine. The best 

 areas for larch are those so thoroughly burned as to preclude the im- 

 mediate heavy reproduction of lodgepole pine. 



Much of the natural ranges of larch and lodgepole pine lie in the 

 national forests owned by the government, and careful studies have 

 been made in recent years to determine the requirements, and the actual 

 and comparative values of the two species. It has been shown that 

 larch is one of the most intolerant of the western forest trees. It cannot 

 endure shade. Its own thin foliage, where it occurs in pure stands, is 

 sufficient to shade off the lower limbs of boles, and produce tall, clean 

 trunks; but if a larch happens to stand in the open, where light is 

 abundant, it retains its branches almost to the ground. It is more 

 intolerant, even, than western yellow pine, which so often grows in open, 

 parklike stands. 



ALPINE LARCH (Larix lyallii) never grows naturally below an 

 altitude of 4,000 feet, and near the southern border of its range it climbs 

 to 8,000, where it stands on the brink of precipices, faces of cliffs, and on 

 windswept summits. It is too much exposed to storms, and has its 

 roots in soil too sterile to develop symmetrical forms. It is found in 

 Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. The finest trees are some- 

 times seventy-five feet high and three or four in diameter, but the 

 average height ranges from forty to fifty, with diameters of twenty 

 inches or less. Its leaves are one and a half inches or less in length; 

 cones one and a half inches long, and bristling with hair; seeds one-eighth 

 of an inch long with wings one-fourth inch; wood heavy, hard, and of 

 a light, reddish brown color. It is seldom used except about mountain 

 camps where it is sometimes burned for fuel or is employed in construct- 

 ing corrals for sheep and cattle. It is impossible for lumbermen ever 

 to make much use of it, because it is scarce and hard to get at. 



