SCIENCE— SUPPLEMENT 



mas trees as a (farm crop are springing up to help 

 supply the future demand. 



These conifers or cone^bearing trees that hold 

 the bright gifts and cheerful tinsel of this reli- 

 gious festival and -winter holiday were the earliest 

 of trees, and their direct ancestors were the first 

 flowering plants on earth. They probably orig- 

 inated during a iperiod of rigorous climate and 

 their thin needle-leaves present less surface to cold 

 and exposure than the broad-leaved trees which 

 represent a later staige in plant evolution. 



And these needles are probably responsible for 

 the use of the conifers as Christmas trees. They 

 present only a small surface to the effect of evap- 

 oration and so enable the tree to retain its mois- 

 ture and keep green. This greenness added a 

 touch of life to the dullness of winter and made 

 the evergreens popular as decorations. Legends 

 and custom did the rest. 



There are many kinds of these evergreens, but 

 the principal ones used for Christmas trees in 

 various parts of the United States are the pines, 

 spruces, firs and cedars. If you do not know what 

 kind of a tree it is that bears your gifts, you can 

 easily tell by looking at the needles on the 

 branches. In the pines, the needles grow in 

 bunches of from one to five needles to the bunch. 

 If the individual needles in these bunches are 

 pressed together they form a complete cylinder. 

 Some kinds of pine have two needles to the bunch, 

 ibut these two are each half cylinders, while dn 

 those having three needle bunches the three 

 needles form a cylinder, and so on. 



If the tree is a fir, the needles grow out froim 

 the two sides of the stem, while in the spruce the 

 needles grow out in all diretions around the stems. 

 In the cedar, the needles are like little tmgs 

 pressed compactly together in a sort of shingle- 

 Uke formation. 



Joy-killers frequently arise and bewail the cut- 

 ting of these trees for Christmas use as wasteful. 

 But aside from the joy they bring the kiddies, 

 XT. S. Forest Service officials believe that properly 

 done the cutting of Christmas trees can really 

 be made a Christmas gift to the forests them- 



In Madne and the Adirondaeks, the principal 

 localities that supply Christmas trees, there are 

 frequently as many as 50,000 to 100,000 seedlings 

 to the acre. Few of these can reach maturity. 

 It is essential for the production of tall, clean 

 timber that there should be at the beginning many 

 trees to the acre, but unless these are thinned out, 

 the poorer trees may hamper the development of 

 tlie better ones. 



Man, by interfering in the struggle and thin- 

 ning out of all lagging trees, can hasten the 

 growth of the remaining trees. In many locali- 

 ties, this work depends on the possibility of find- 

 ing a market for the small trees to pay for the 

 cost of the thinning, and the Christmas market 

 solves the problem. 



In Michigan, however, the state agricultural 

 station several years ago started raising Christmas 

 trees as a farm crop. They have just issued in- 

 formation telling how this can be done commer- 

 cially and encouraging, farmers to plant for this 

 purpose. 



WAITING FOR TREE PLANTERS 



Neiv YorTc State College of Forestry 



Every home o-vVner in New York State is pay- 

 ing heavy freight on the lumlber of which his 

 house is made. Every lessee of an apartment or 

 dwelling is paying in rent large amounts for 

 freight on the lumber used in the construction of 

 the building in which he Hves, according to the 

 New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse 

 University. The people of the Empire State — 

 relative figures apply to all the eastern states — 

 are taxed for freight approximately $22 a thou- 

 sand on yellow pane, $27 on Douglas fir, $12 on 

 North Cariolina pine, $12 on white pine, and $20 

 on imported hardwoods. The freight rate on 

 Douglas fir which comes from the Pacific Coast is 

 more than the lumber costs at the mill. 



Thirty-five million dollars are taken from the 

 pockets of the citizens of New York every year 

 for freight on imported lumber. In addition to 

 this freight bill of $35,000,000 on lumber must 

 be added the -cost of shipping 55 per cent, of our 

 pulpwood into the state from Canada and other 

 points. The transportation costs are bound to 

 grow as the depletion of the nearest lumber and 

 wood supply continues and the demand increases. 



Much of the lumber consumed in the east is 

 shipped from the south. It is estimated that in 

 the course of ten to fifteen years the southern 

 field will be exhausted insofar as outside con- 

 sumption is concerned. Then Oregon, Washington 

 and California will have a practical monopoly of 

 the lumber business which will bring aftiout mate- 

 rially increased freight charges to eastern con- 

 sumers. 



Measures should be taken to overcome this con- 

 dition as far as it is now possible. A large por- 

 tion of the lumber and other wood products used 

 in New Y''ork could and should be grown within 

 the state, and forests should be planted wherever 

 land is suitable for that purpose. More th-an 



