DOUGLAS FIR." 



Pseudotsuga taxifolia (Lam.) Britton. 

 A STUDY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN AND PACIFIC COAST FORMS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



No other important commercial tree in America is so widely dis- 

 tributed as Douglas fir, and it is safe to say that none Avhich has 

 been introduced into Europe has attracted so much attention among 

 foresters there. The immense size which it attains in portions of its 

 range, its high commercial value, rapid growth, and, above all, the 

 ease with which it lends itself to silvicultural management and to 

 forest planting in many kinds of situations, all combine to place it 

 among the most useful of the world's forest trees. Great inroads 

 have been made on the existing stands of Douglas fir, but under the 

 conservative policy now^ being applied on the National Forests there 

 is little danger that the tree will ever cease to be an important part of 

 the forests within its range. 



The exploitation of Douglas fir is enormous. The census of the 

 lumber cut in the United States during 1907 shows that it was second 

 only to the eastern '' yellow pine " — a commercial name which includes 

 at least five distinct species. In the western United States the cut 

 of Douglas fir — 1,748,872,000 board feet — was more than three times 

 as great as that of its closest competitor, western yellow pine. Nearly 

 95 per cent of this was cut in Washington and Oregon, where Doug- 

 las fir comprised 82 and 84 per cent, respectively, of all the lumber 

 cut in those States. In California Douglas fir was outclassed only 

 by redwood and western yellow pine. Throughout tlie Rocky Moun- 

 tains the Douglas fir cut was exceeded by that of western yellow pine ; 

 in Wyoming, Arizona, and New Mexico it held second place, and in 



<^Tlie Forest Service is indebted to Mr. John D. Crozier, forester of tlie 

 Durris estate, Drumoak, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, for permission to include in 

 this circular the illustrations on pages 8 and 10, the originals of which appeared 

 in his article on " Douglas Fir as a Commercial Timber Tree," in Transactions 

 of the Ro5\al Scottish Arboricultural Society, vol. 21, pt. 1, January, 1908. 



[Cir. 150] 



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