BULLETIN OF THE 



No. 55 



Contribution from the Forest Service, Henry S. Graves, Forester. 

 March 25, 1914. 



(PROFESSIONAL PAPER.) 



BALSAM FIR. 



By Raphael Zon, 

 Chief of Forest Investigations. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The enormous expansion of the pulp industry in this country during 

 the last two decades, with its present annual demand for not less than 

 three and a quarter miUion cords of coniferous wood, has stimulated 

 the use of balsam fir, which but a few years ago was considered of 

 Uttle value. With the increase in the price of spruce for pulpwood, 

 balsam fir has begun to take its place for rough lumber, laths, shingles, 

 and box shocks. The cutting of balsam fir to any extent for pulp or 

 Imnber began only about 20 years ago, as the more valuable species of 

 the northern forests became scarce and as its suitabiHty for many pur- 

 poses for which only white pine or spruce were originally used became 

 recognized. 



Balsam fir, though in general inferior to white pine and red spruce, 

 is now a tree of considerable economic importance in the northeastern 

 forests. It constitutes numerically about 20 per cent of the coniferous 

 forests in northern New York and Maine, and is abundant in many 

 parts of New Hampshne, Vermont, and in the swamps of northern 

 Michigan, northern Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Through prolific 

 seeding and rapid growth it readily reforests cut-over areas and attains 

 sizes suitable for pulpwood in a short time. 



The uses for which balsam fir is suited and the appearance of barked 

 wood, especially after it has remained for any length of time in water, 

 are so much hke those of spruce that it is commonly sold in mixture 

 with and under the name of spruce, because of a fingering prejudice 

 against balsam fir among pulp manufacturers and lumbermen. This 

 prejudice, formed at the time of still abundant suppfies of spruce and 



Note. — This bulletin deals with all aspects of balsam fir, its distribution, the forest types in which it 

 occurs, the present stand and cut, its economic importance, especially in relation to the paper-pulp in- 

 dustry, methods and cost of lumbering, life history of the tree, characteristics of the wood, rate of 

 growth and yield, and proper methods of management. Balsam lir is found in commercial quantities in 

 the northeastern border States from Maine to Minnesota. 



20137°— Bull. 55—14 1 



