AMERICAN FOREST TREES 159 



so employed for steamboats and for houses, and many shipments of it 

 have been made to boat builders on the Atlantic coast. It is used for 

 shipping boxes, and its light color fits it for that purpose, as the wood 

 shows painting and stenciling to good advantage. 



European nurseries have propagated noble fir with success, but it 

 does not do so well in the eastern part of the United States, though it 

 lives through winters as far north as Massachusetts. It is not known 

 to have been planted for other than ornamental purposes. Unless it 

 would grow much faster in plantations than in its wild state, it will be 

 too long in maturing to make it attractive to the timber planter. 



WHITE FIR (Abies concolor). The whiteness of the wood and the silver color of 

 the young branches give this species its name, but it is not the sole possessor of that 

 name, but shares it with three other firs. In California, Idaho, and Utah it is 

 called balsam fir. The branches and upper parts of the trunk where the bark is thin, 

 are covered with blisters which contain white resin. In Utah it is known as white 

 balsam, as silver fir in some parts of California, and as black gum in Utah. The reason 

 for that name is not apparent, unless it refers to the black bark on old trees. It has 

 several other names which are combinations of white and silver with some other term. 

 Its range is mostly in the Sierras and in the Rocky Mountain ranges, extending 

 from southern Colorado to the mountains of California, north through Oregon, and 

 south through New Mexico and Arizona. The immense proportions are reached only 

 in the Sierra growth, those trees in the Rockies being hardly above ordinary size. In 

 its free growth the tree is reputed to be the only one of its genus found in the arid 

 regions of the Great Basin, and similar localities in Arizona and New Mexico. It is 

 not distinguished by all botanists from the similar species, Abies grandis. 



White fir attains a height of 250 feet and a diameter of six in some instances, 

 but the average size of mature trees among the Sierra Nevadas is 150 feet tall and 

 three or four in diameter. In the Rocky Mountain region the tree is smaller. It 

 grows from 3,000 to 9,000 feet above sea level. The leaves are long for the fir genus, 

 and vary from two to three inches. The tree's bark is black near the base of large 

 trunks but of less somber color near the top. Near the base of large trees the bark is 

 sometimes six inches thick. The wood of this species is light and soft. Carpenters 

 consider it coarse grained, by which they mean that it does not polish nicely. It is 

 brittle and weak. The rings of annual growth are generally broad, with the bands 

 of darker colored summerwood prominent. In lumber sawed tangentially, rings 

 produces distinct figure, but it is not generally regarded as pleasing. The medullary 

 rays are prominent for a softwood, but quarter-sawing does not add much to the 

 wood's appearance. It decays quickly in alternate wet and dry situations. Trees 

 are apt to be affected with wind shake, and the wood's disposition to splinter in 

 course of manufacture has prejudiced many users against it. However, it has some 

 good qualities. The wood is free from objectionable odor, and this qualifies it as box 

 material. Fruit shippers can use it without fear of contaminating their wares. It is 

 light in color, and stenciling looks well on it. Its weight is likewise in its favor. 



Trees of this species seldom occur in pure stands of large extent, but are 

 scattered among forests of other kinds. Sawmills cut the fir as they come to it, but 

 seldom go much out of their way to get it. The United States census for 1910 

 showed that 132,327,000 feet of white fir lumber were cut in the whole country, but as 

 several species pass by that name it is not possible to determine how much belonged 



