ROCKY MOUNTAIN EVERGKEENS. 83 



near the ditch, I found the roots of these same trees had gone 

 <lown to drink, like a herd of cattle, and there they were pump- 

 ing moisture Into those fresh looking trees 200 feet away. 



Owing to the rapid growth the grain Is very coarse, so that 

 It makes fine finishing luraTser. Many good houses In Colorado 

 are finished with this Pine and when nicely dressed with hard 

 ■oil it is one of the most attractive woods we have. It has a. 

 tendency to warp and twist If left to Itself. So It Is necessary 

 to have it snugly piled. Immense forests of It have been cyt 

 away in the West and in the Black Hills, but they are In haste 

 to restore the waste and almost invariably when the old trees 

 tire cut new ones spring up to take their places. 



The Pinon Pines. There seem to be two kinds of PInus 

 Pinon, pronounced Pinyon or Nut Pine, one growing on the east- 

 ern slope in Colorado and another in Arizona and New Mexico. 

 They are remarkable from the fact that they seem able to bear 

 •almost any amount of drouth and heat. You find them grow- 

 ing well down on the foothills with the Brown Cedar. They are 

 propagated by a remarkable provision of nature. Birds have 

 much to do in the distribution of trees. . In the winter large 

 flocks of Cedar pigeons will swoop down on a Platte Cedar and 

 clean it out, and scatter the seeds all over the country. In the 

 mountains there is a species of bird called the Pinon blue jay, 

 whose special business seems to be to take oare of the seeds. 

 Now, these Pines do not seed every year, and the seeds are 

 large, and the squirrels and birds love them', and yet this blue 

 Jay seems to think he is the warden, and as soon as they 

 are ripe he digs holes in the ground and deposits themr for 

 his own use. In the meantime he may be shot or his memory 

 will be poor, so he cannot remember all his hiding places, and 

 so some are overlooked. They are planted rather deep. That 

 is all right, for it is a dry country, and if too near the surface 

 they could not germinate. 



Now, the rule is the larger the seeds the deeper you plant 

 them. You can plant a Black Walnut from four to six inches 

 deep and it will be all right. If you should plant Black Hills 

 Spruce as deep you would never hear from it. The seed of the 

 Pinon is about as large as honey locust seed. It is sturdy 

 and vigorous and will hold its vitality a long time. If It is too 

 dry to come up one spring it can wait for another and when 

 the ground does get a soaking it springs up a. strong plant and 

 forthwith throws down a long tap root to reach any moisture 

 that may be stored, and thus it hangs on and lives and grows 

 under most adverse conditions. The wood of this tree is very 

 heavy and full of, resin, making excellent firewood. 



It not only grows low down on the foot hills, but also up 

 near timber line. Years ago. In attempting to climb Pike's 

 Peak, I was seized with the rheumatism up in those high alti- 

 tudes so I could go no further. Off in the distance, I saw a 



