14: MISC. PUBLICATION 1(3 2, U.S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



supply of finishing woods, the red gum has risen from a position of 

 comparative obscurity to a rank of seventh among all lumber-pro- 

 ducing trees (1929). As a veneer wood, red gum leads all other 

 woods in the country and ranks second as a slack-cooperage wood. 

 It also goes into many other products. 



Both southern cypress and red gum are inhabitants of the alluvial 

 bottoms and swamps. Also growing in bottom-land portions of the 

 southern forest region are tupelo and black gums ; water, laurel, live, 

 overcup, Texas red, and swamp white oaks ; yellow poplar, hickories 

 (including pecan); beech; ashes; red and silver maples; cotton- 

 wood and willows; elms; sj^camore; hackberry; honey locust; bays; 

 magnolias; spruce pine; and southern white cedar. 



ROCKY MOUNTAIN FOREST REGION 



The forests of the Rock}^ Mountain region occupy the high eleva- 

 tions of the various ranges of the Rocky Mountain system between 

 the Great Plains and the Sierra Nevada, from Mexico to Canada. 

 They are broken by many treeless valleys or plateaus. Because of 

 rough topography and inaccessibility to transportation routes, it is 

 likely that parts of this region, together with the less accessible of 

 the mountain forests near the Pacific coast, will be the last to be cut 

 in this country. Many forests in the Rocky Mountain region, how- 

 ever, by protecting the sources of water utilized for irrigation, for 

 city water supplies, and for other purposes, are performing a func- 

 tion of even higher value to the Nation than the production of wood 

 (fig. 9). 



The species most utilized are the valuable western white pine of 

 the northern Rockies and the ponderosa pine which is scattered 

 throughout the whole Rocky Mountain region. 



Rocky Mountain forests are made up mostly of coniferous species. 

 Among these, in addition to the two mentioned above, are Douglas 

 fir; western larch; western red cedar; western and mountain hem- 

 lock; lodgepole, limber, white-bark, and bristlecone pines; Al- 

 pine, white, and lowland white firs; Engelmann, blue, and white 

 spruces; pinons; junipers; cedars; and cypresses. Aspens and cot- 

 tonwoods; oaks; walnut; sycamore; alder; and boxelder are some of 

 of the few hardwoods of this region. 



PACIFIC COAST FOREST REGION 



The Pacific coast forest region extends from the Canadian border 

 through the western half of Washington and Oregon and into Cali- 

 fornia. In the southern portion of California the timbered lauds 

 are surrounded by narrow margins of low broadleaf tree forest or 

 chaparral. 



What are perhaps the heaviest stands of timber in the world are to 

 be found in the Pacific Coast States. They contain the last great 

 commercial bodies of softwood timber remaining in the United 

 States, the greatest bodies of virgin forest yet uncut. Each year 

 sees more western lumber on eastern markets. The figures for 1929 

 show that the three Pacific Coast States, together with Nevada, pro- 

 duced 38 percent of the lumber cut in this country, as against 42 

 percent for the southern pine region. In the last few years the 

 southern pineries have been declining, while the Pacific coast has 

 been gaining in lumber production. 



