^ WESTERN YELLOW PINE IN OREGON. 17 



Since yellow-pine forests are grazed over by sheep and cattle, the 

 reproduction is somewhat exposed to damage by these animals, par- 

 ticularly by sheep, which trample a good many seedlings when close 

 herded. Sheep also, when short of forage, as along driveways or 

 near bed grounds, browse on them in such a way as to deform the 

 seedlings permanently. If the range is not overstocked and the sheep 

 are properly handled, they will not, in Oregon, do any appreciable 

 damage to the yellow-pine young growth in the forest at large ; trees 

 over 6 feet high are practically immune from damage. 



In some parts of the State, particularly in Klamath County, are 

 found here and there large trees upon which are great scars, from 3 to 

 7 feet above the ground, half encircling the tree. (See PL III.) These 

 scars were caused years ago by Indians who, in the springtime, stripped 

 the bark in order to get at the mucilaginous layer of forming wood, 

 which they scraped off and used as food.^ The scars make the trees 

 vulnerable to light surface fires and detract considerably from their 

 merchantable value. 



CHARACTER OF THE STANDS. 



Yellow pine is fundamentally a gregarious tree; that is, it is a tree 

 which does best and is found most commonly in pure or nearly pure 

 stands. Most of the forests of Oregon in which it occurs commercially 

 are at least 75 per cent yellow pine, and the other trees that are pres- 

 ent in the mixture are apt to grow in groups by themselves and not 

 in intimate mixture with the pine. One reason why yellow pine 

 occurs so largely in pure stands is that it will grow and form fine 

 forests in situations on the plateaus aud south slopes that are too dry 

 and hot for other species, and being a rather unsuccessful competitor 

 of the more tolerant species, Douglas fir, white fir, and lodgepole 

 pine, it is largely excluded from soils moist enough for these species 

 to thrive in. It does occur, however, in mixture with other species 

 in almost every degree. 



In most of the pure yeUow-pme forests of the State the trees are 

 spaced rather widely, the ground is fairly free from underbrush and 

 debris, and travel through them on foot or horseback is interrupted 

 only by occasional patches of saplings and fallen trees. (See PL IV.) 

 The forests are usually not solid and continuous for great distances, 

 except along the eastern base of the Cascades, but are broken by 

 treeless "scab-rock ridges," or natural meadows. On the north 

 slopes, in draws, or in other places where mixed with other species, 

 the yeUow-pine forests are usually denser, more brushy, and therefore 

 harder to traverse. Toward the limits of the forests adjoining the 

 desert the stand is confined usually to a fringe of trees along the 



' Sargent's Silvii, XI, p. 82. 

 54891°— Bull. 418—17 3 



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