desirable in Christmas trees. Some lodgepole pine 
trees have been shipped, but only on a trial basis. 
Lincoln and Flathead Counties in the northwest 
corner of the State furnish about three-fourths of 
the trees shipped each year. About 70 percent of 
the trees come from private properties but in 
recent years cutting has been increasing on State 
and Federal lands. This industry, which employs 
about 2,500 workers for 2 months before Christmas 
and brings about | million dollars into the State, 
is a desirable one. Cutting of Christmas trees, like 
any cutting when properly done, adds to the pro- 
ductivity of the forest. It also provides employment 
during a slack period. 
In 1948, Montana Christmas trees were shipped 
to 33 States, and a few carloads were exported to 
foreign countries. Five States, Hlinois, Iowa, Mis- 
souri, Texas, and Kansas, received slightly more 
than half of the 1948 shipment. 
In the midwestern market area where most of 
the Montana trees are sold, freight from most com- 
peting areas is less than from Montana. For ex- 
ample, from New Hampshire to Chicago the rate 
per hundredweight in 1949 was $1.29; from New 
Brunswick, $1.64; from western Montana, $2.22. 
These rate differences emphasize how necessary it is 
for the Montana industry to establish a reputation 
for high-quality trees and to keep prices at a reason- 
able level. 
In recent years there has been some evidence 
that the quality of trees shipped from this State 
is declining. It is therefore clear that more effort 
must be made to grow better trees and to grade 
tree shipments. Growing better trees and more 
of them involves cultural practices such as thinning 
of thickets, leaving stumps with live branches to 
produce more trees, pruning of lower branches from 
thin-topped or badly formed trees, and in some 
cases planting to maintain full stocking. ‘Vhe adop- 
tion of Christmas tree grading rules is recom- 
mended to provide a basis for quality measure- 
ments. 
Pulpwood, Fuel Wood, and Fence Posts 
Montana does not have a pulp mill but it does 
produce pulpwood for export. For many years 
pulp logs have been shipped westward. During 
World War II the shipments reached a high of 
15,000 cords, and in the 10 years from 1940 to 
Forest Resources of Montana 
1949 averaged 8,400 cords a year. In 1945 wood- 
procurement problems caused several Wisconsin 
mills to look to Montana for pulpwood. Six-hun- 
dred-and-forty cords were shipped eastward that 
year. Despite the long haul of more than 1,000 
miles, shipments to the Wisconsin plants climbed 
steadily to 50,000 cords in 1949. Figure 28 shows 
the trend of pulpwood production from 1940 
through 1949. 
Even in 1949 pulpwood constituted less than 
5 percent of the timber-products output for the 
State. Since it takes approximately 130,000 cords of 
wood a year to keep a 200-ton sulfate pulp mill run- 
ning, the construction of even one or two mills 
would make a major change in the character of 
the industrial drain upon the forest. 
Montana produces 187,000 cords of fuel wood 
and 4,900,000 fence posts annually. All but a 
small part of the fuel wood and fence posts is 
consumed within the State, mostly near the 
locality in which they are cut. 
Commodity Drain on Montana’s Forest 
Approximately eight-tenths of the timber re- 
moved from the commercial forest of western Mon- 
tana is for lumber. In contrast, lumber use 
represents only one-tenth of the production east 
of the Continental Divide. In that part of the State 
501 PRODUCTION OF PULPWOOD 
IN MONTANA 
1940--1949 
G 
Q 
y 
Q 
Q 
Q 
3 
Y 
k 
Ficure 28. 
33 
