FOREST TREES 



red fir is an important and exceedingly 

 useful tree, especially for the purposes 

 of practical and scientific forestry. Like 

 the white pine it was planted long ago 

 by those pioneers in forestry, the Ger- 

 mans, and has proved itself among them 

 to be one of the few trees of foreign 

 extraction that can be called successful. 

 When young, the red fir grows rap- 

 idly and symmetrically, and has a 

 fresh, vigorous, healthy look. It then 

 already possesses the bluish depth to 

 its foliage that it preserves throughout 

 life, a color that is comparable in its 

 purity only to that of the white pine. 

 In several of its other features, how- 

 ever, it changes with the lapse of 

 years. It gradually loses the graceful 

 lower boughs that feather to the 

 ground in the young tree; its bark 

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