12 MISCELLANEOUS CIRCULAR, 82, U. S. DEPT. OE AGRICULTURE 



traits. So it is always the loclgepole stand. In Wyoming these 

 stands are expansive and monotonously uniform — usually crowded. 

 From these habits of the type come the form and habits of the 

 tree, slender — rarely over 18 inches in diameter, " breast high," as 

 measured by the forester — comparatively tall — often 90 feet to the 

 tip — and always straight, with a short, light crown. If this tree 

 were to be renamed to-day on the basis of use it would undoubtedly 

 be known as the " crosstie pine," for its trim form makes it ideal 

 for the hewing of railroad ties, as does also its uniform, crowded 

 habit of growth. 



The lodgepole pine belongs, botanically, to the hard-pine group. 

 It has two short light-green needles in a bundle and small, "lop- 

 sided," very hard cones. The tenacity with which these cones cling 

 to dead twigs in large numbers makes the tree very easy to identify. 



Stands of the spruce-fir type, the most numerous and widely dis- 

 tributed of the subordinate types, contain trees of many ages and 



Fig. 8. — The 1924 tie drive in the Du Noir hoom, Washakie National Forest 



sizes and a considerable amount of underbrush. The appearance 

 of such stands is equally characteristic but very different from that 

 of the clean-boiled, even-aged lodgepole stands below them. 



In sharp contrast to the lodgepole-pine type, the characteristics 

 of the Engelmann spruce type are those of the individual imparted 

 to the type. For this tree grows as an individual, permitting many 

 other species to grow with it and under its shelter. Its tolerance 

 of competition from outsiders results in great variety in the stand, 

 usually to the complete sacrifice of the order and neatness that 

 characterize stands of lodgepole pine. Alpine fir is a common satel- 

 lite, incapable of reaching either the size or the age attained by 

 Engelmann spruce. 



Both Engelmann spruce and alpine fir may easily be distinguished 

 from the multineedled pines of the State by their short, single 

 needles. The sharp-pointed, stiff, four-sided needles of the Engel- 

 mann spruce, however, are very different from the blunt, pliable, 



