820 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



inches, and the thickness of the bark, which under such conditions is comparatively 

 smooth and greyish in colour, is about ^ inch. The timber of such trees would be 

 known as red fir. When the tree, however, becomes crowded by its neighbours, and 

 its girth increment is much slower, all the energy of the tree being devoted to 

 upward growth, the rings become much closer, and trees of fifty to sixty years of age 

 may be only i foot in diameter. The bark in such cases is much thinner, and the 

 quality of the timber from the point at which the slower growth began much 

 better, so that it would be classed as yellow fir when sawn up. Prof. 

 Sheldon gives figures showing sections of such trees, his Plate 6 showing the 

 influence of light, room, and nourishment on the growing tree. The tree from 

 which this section was made was 143 years old with a diameter of only i6j 

 inches. For 116 years it had stood in a crowded forest with large trees 4 and 5 feet 

 in diameter all round it. Twenty-seven years ago the large trees were felled, and 

 the growth immediately became much more rapid. The sap-wood in this case is 3|- 

 to 4 inches and the bark i^ inch thick. He says, " The result of this study is to 

 conclude that the rapid growth of Oregon fir in the open produces red fir, and the 

 subsequent growth when the trees begin to crowd each other produces yellow fir. 

 Trees grown in dense clumps crowded all their life produce solid yellow fir. The 

 growth of the upper portion of the tree may show larger annual growths in the centre 

 than are found near the butt of the same tree. This is of interest in accounting for 

 the immense height of the Oregon fir in many places, as trees 300 to 350 feet 

 high are found in the forests of Oregon and Washington." 



I asked experienced loggers whether they could distinguish red from yellow fir 

 as they grew, and my impression was that they could not, though they said a very 

 few blows of the axe would soon show the difference in the hardness of the wood. 

 With the object of finding out the age at which the tree comes to maturity, I measured 

 the rings of several trees recently felled at the logging camps which I visited. I am 

 much indebted to the managers of these mills, for the facilities which they gave me to 

 see the whole operations of a modern west coast lumberman. Among them Mr. 

 Bradley of the Bridal Veil Company, Oregon ; Mr. Browne, president of the St. Paul 

 and Tacoma Sawmills, Tacoma, Washington, and his logging contractor, Mr. 

 M'Dougall ; Mr. Palmer of the Chemainus Mills, Vancouver Island ; and Mr. Kenneth 

 Ross, manager of the Big Blackfoot Lumber Company, Montana, were all most 

 obliging and hospitable. 



I found that the average age of mature trees 4 to 6 feet in diameter on the stump 

 is 300 to 500 years. At an age of from 400 to 500 years, and possibly much 

 sooner in some cases, the trees begin to decline in health, and some of those 

 felled are more or less hollow. In all cases the annual rings for the first fifty to 

 seventy years are very much thicker than for the next 300 years, the best trees 

 having from four to five rings to the inch at first, and afterwards as many as 

 fifteen to twenty. The better class trees are clear of branches up to about 120 

 to 1 50 feet, and in such cases produce wood free from knots, or " clear lumber " as it 

 is called in the trade. Such clear lumber, however, even when a large number of 

 trees are rejected by the fellers, does not exceed 15 to 30 per cent of the total 



