(goc6g (Wloun^mn T}7onberCanl> 



Year after year the cones, with their fertile 

 seeds safely enclosed, are borne and cling to 

 the tree. Some of these cones remain unopened 

 from three to nine years. A small percentage 

 of them do not open and distribute their seeds 

 until they have been on the tree from twelve 

 to twenty years, and many of the cones cling 

 to the tree through life. 



Under favorable conditions the lodge-pole 

 is a rapidly growing conifer. In a forty-five-year 

 growth near my home, the varied light and 

 soil conditions were so spotted that in a small 

 area marked differences in growth were shown. 

 A few clusters were vigorous, and the trees 

 showed an average diameter of six inches and 

 a height of thirty-four feet. From this the 

 size dropped, and in one group the individ- 

 uals were less than one inch in diameter and 

 scarcely tall enough to be used as a cane ; yet all 

 were forty-five years old. 



The lodge-pole is not long-lived. The oldest 

 one I ever measured grew upon the slope of 

 Long's Peak. It was three hundred and forty- 

 six years of age, measured twenty-nine inches 



220 



