WESTERN YELLOW PIirE IN OEEGON. 31 



inferior to its associates, western larch, Douglas fir, and lodgepole 

 pine. It is only the ''pitchy " parts of the tree that are durable in the 

 ground and are prized for posts. 



PULP. 



Western yellow-pine wood has never been used commercially for 

 paper. Experiments made with it at the Forest Products Laboratory 

 of the Forest Service indicate that it has decided possibilities for this 

 purpose. With the soda process it yielded per cord 1,470 pounds of 

 pulp, the fiber of which was strong and of brown color, and which 

 would probably make a good grade of wrapping paper. By the 

 mechanical process it yielded 2,290 pounds of pulp, which had long 

 fibers and was creamy in color, but coarse and suitable only for mak- 

 ing manila and other papers where color and coarseness are of no 

 importance. 



STOCK GRAZING. 



One minor use, grazing of stock, and a suggested use, the extraction 

 of naval stores, deserve especial mention in considering the utilization 

 of yellow-pine forests. 



In the yellow-pine forests of Oregon (except those on ooth slopes 

 of the Cascades south of Crater Lake and those on the Siskiyou 

 Mountains in southern Oregon and on some of the pumice-stone land 

 toward the head of the Deschutes Eiver) the trees are so open-grown 

 and the woods are so free of underbrush that a good herbaceous 

 vegetation suitable for forage springs up each year. The character 

 of the vegetation depends upon the region, but it usually consists in 

 part of a variety of grasses and in part of "weeds" (annual flowering 

 plants). In the Blue Mountains the herbage is rather more luxuriant 

 and varied than on the eastern slopes of the Cascades and their out- 

 standing ranges. In the early summer the open yellow-pine forests 

 of the former region are as green with fresh herbage as a lawn, except 

 here and there where the green is tinged with patches of yellow or 

 purple flowers. vSome of this luxuriant herbage is pine grass (Cala- 

 magrostis sp.), a plant which is not eaten by stock except very early 

 in the season; but much of the ground cover makes excellent range 

 for cattle and sheep. Nearly all the yellow-pine land in the State 

 which is not too brushy or too sandy is grazed by one or the other of 

 these classes of stock. It is thought that 3 acres will support a 

 grown sheep (or a ewe and lamb) during the summer season, and 15 

 acres will support a cow. This makes the forage worth annually 

 .5 or 10 cents an acre, which is a very decided additional revenue for 

 the owners of forest land. 



TURPENTimNG. 



In several particulars western yellow pine is similar to longleaf 

 pine (Pinus palustris) of the vSoulh Atlantic and Gulf States, which 

 is so valuable as a source of naval stores — turpentine and rosin. 



