BALSAM FIR. 9 



manufacturers can afford to pay stumpage prices for spruce which 

 places it almost beyond the reach of the lumbermen. The latter, 

 therefore, must turn more and more to other species, such as hemlock 

 and balsam fir, at least for those purposes for which they will serve 

 as well as spruce. 



The amount of balsam fir used by the sawmills has increased within 

 the last 10 years more than 50 per cent, and in some places even 75 or 

 100 per cent. Ten or 15 years ago, in fact, hardly any balsam fir not 

 large enough for saw logs was cut ; now it is taken almost as readily as 

 spruce. 



NEW YORK. 



In northern New York, balsam fir is abundant in Franklin, Warren, 

 Oneida, Lewis, and Clinton Counties, though it is not lacking in any 

 township throughout the whole Adirondack region. It constitutes 

 at present about 7 per cent of the "spruce" product and about 10 

 per cent of all the "spruce" pulpwood cut in the Adirondacks. Since 

 balsam fir is now cut for pulp as readily as spruce, and practically no 

 discrimination is made between the two, its proportion in the total 

 output of pulpwood serves to indicate its proportion in the standing 

 coniferous timber. Actual measurements over many acres in differ- 

 ent parts of the mountains confirm this representation of balsam fir 

 in the Adirondack forest. A distinction must be made, however, 

 between the numerical and the volume representation of balsam fir. 

 Numerically balsam fir constitutes from 20 to 50 per cent of the total 

 stand, yet, since it never reaches the same sizes as spruce, its propor- 

 tion by volume must necessarily be less. Based upon figures of the 

 United States Census for 1900 on the stand of coniferous timber in 

 the Adirondacks, the present stand of balsam fir in the Adirondack 

 forests must be between 250,000,000 and 300,000,000 board feet. 



The cut of balsam fir in the Adirondacks in 1910 amounted to 

 33,504,500 board feet, of which 9,248,000 ^ board feet were cut for 

 lumber and 24,256,500 board feet (48,513 cords) for pulp. The 

 greater use of balsam fir by the pulp manufacturers than by the saw- 

 mills in the Adirondacks is explaiaed by the leading place wh^'ch 

 New York State occupies in the pulp industry and by the decreased 

 supplies of spruce, necessitating the use of all coniferous timber avail- 

 able for pulpwood. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



In New Hampshire balsam fii is found mainly in the northern part 

 of the State — in the "V^Tiite Mountains and in upper Coos County. 

 In the southern part of the State it is found in any quantity only in 

 the large swamps around the sources of the Contoocook and Millers 



1 This figure is for 1909; as no figures are available regarding the balsam fir cut for lumber in 1910, it is 

 used as the nearest figure available. 



20137°— Bull. 55—14 2 



