THE WESTERN FIRS 191 



is probable that planting in a close stand would make its 

 artificial cultivation possible ; but there is little reason for 

 undertaking it. Natural regeneration will take place if op- 

 portunity is offered, and should be encouraged on ground 

 where it will grow and where better species will not. 



THE WESTERN FIRS 



THE Western Firs 1 indigenous to the United States are 

 mainly confined to the Olympic, Coast, and Cascade ranges 

 of mountains in Washington and Oregon and the Sierra 

 Nevada in northern California, although they extend as 

 far east along our northern border as the western slope of 

 the Continental Divide in Montana. Of the seven species 

 found there, six are of sufficient economic importance as 

 timber trees to warrant consideration, although nothing 

 based upon experiment or experience can be said concern- 

 ing their propagation. It cannot be learned that anything 

 has been done in that line beyond what nurserymen have 

 attempted in order to determine their fitness for orna- 

 mental purposes, the results of which, it must be confessed, 

 have been anything but favorable for their propagation 

 east of their natural range. Late reports show that some 

 of them are thriving in Europe and indications are that 

 they will do well there as forest trees. Therefore all that 

 can be said here intelligently respecting them must relate 

 to their locality, general characteristics, and value as tim- 

 ber trees. Probably not until a much greater exhaustion 

 of all the Pacific Slope and Rocky Mountain conifers takes 

 place will anything be done towards propagating or even 

 protecting these valuable species of trees. 



1 Until recently little has been known in the Eastern States concerning 

 the Firs of the Pacific Slope. This lack of knowledge has now been sup- 

 plied by Mr. George B. Sudworth, dendrologist of the United States Forest 

 Service, in a publication entitled Forest Trees of the Pacific Slope, issued 

 October 1, 1908, and I am largely indebted to him for what is here said 

 concerning the Firs of that region, to which I have added my own ob- 

 servations when studying the western trees. The criticisms of manufacturers 

 and dealers are wholly mine. 



