UTILIZATION AND MANAGEMENT OF LODGEPOLE PINE. 5 



of which lodgepole pine is the only wood treated and at the other 

 forms the bulk of the material handled. Both plants use zinc chlo- 

 ride as the preservative, injecting a solution into the timber under 

 pressure. Census figures show that in 1911 92,158 ties were treated 

 by this process in Wyoming. One of the railroads estimates the 

 life of a treated lodgepole-pine tie at 10 years, as compared with 5 

 years when untreated. 



The wood is not used for ties to any extent in Colorado, and the 

 material employed is untreated. 



LUMBER. 



Lodgepole pine finds a relatively small use as lumber, forming only 

 0.1 per cent of the total lumber cut of the United States. Even in 

 mature stands only about 20 per cent of the material is large enough 

 for saw timber, and the logs taken out run from 20 to 30 to the thou- 

 sand board feet. Such sizes do not yield wide lumber, and are more 

 expensive to log than larger stuff. The mills in the lodgepole region, 

 moreover, are as a rule not equipped to turn out a high-grade product. 

 Yet, when carefully manufactured, lodgepole pine lumber is by no 

 means as inferior as many persons seem to believe. In quality it 

 ranks between western yellow pine and western white pine (Pinus mon- 

 ticola) , and in fact, is usually mixed with the former, and sometimes 

 with the latter. While the small sound knots which are characteristic 

 of lodgepole pine make it difficult to turn out any large quantity of clear 

 lumber, they do not prevent a high percentage from going into No. 1 

 and No. 2 common of the narrower widths. At present most of the 

 lodgepole pine lumber is used locally for rough construction and re- 

 pairs, though in some places where other species are not available it is 

 also used for flooring, siding, and finish. 



Table 3, which is based upon figures gathered by the census, 

 shows that the use of lodgepole pine for lumber, though restricted, is 

 steadily increasing. As a matter of fact, the annual increase in the 

 lumber cut is probably even greater than the table indicates, since 

 the figures for 1909 are based on reports from a larger number of 

 mills, and so more nearly represent the total cut for the year than 

 those for 1910 and 1911. It is also probable that the cut of lodgepole 

 pine in the "Inland Empire" (northwestern Montana, northern 

 Idaho, and eastern Washington) is larger than that shown, due to the 

 fact that many mills in the region market lodgepole pine with lumber 

 of other species under the name of the latter, and report it as such. 



