USES OF COMMERCIAL WOODS. 53 



its l)est (levelopiiieiit in the southwestern part of that State. Otlier 

 names for it are AA'hite maple and bigleaf maple. Its leaves are some- 

 times a foot wide, thoui^h usually not that large. Its range extends 

 from latitude 55^ on the coast of Alaska south to San Diego County, 

 Cal., a distance of nearl}^ 2,000 miles, but east and west it occupies a 

 comparatively narrow strip. In the north it seldom extends more 

 than 2.000 feet above sea level, but in southern California it is found 

 at an altitude of 6,000 feet. In many parts of its range the tree is 

 not of size and shape fit for lumber, but in Oregon a considerable 

 quantity is cut and 2,500,000 feet are manufactured annually into fin- 

 ished products. The shape of the tree is not ideal from the lumber- 

 man's viewpoint, the trunk being short. It does not often grow in 

 pure stands, but the trees are dispersed along the banks of streams and 

 on fertile bottom lands. No estimate of the total stand of the species 

 can be made from available data. In 1909 onh^ 12 sawmills in Oregon 

 and 9 in Washington reported this wood in their output, though 

 doubtless many others produced small quantities of the lumber, but 

 did not consider it necessary to include it in their reports. It is not 

 mentioned in statistics of California sawmill output, though it grows 

 in both the Sierra Nevada and Coast Range Mountains over a dis- 

 tance of 600 or more miles. 



EARLY USES. 



It has been claimed that the broadleaf maple is the most valuable 

 hardwood of the Pacific coast. Some even give it qualities equal to 

 sugar maple of the East. This is claiming more than is shown by a 

 comparison of its physical properties with those of the eastern species, 

 to which it is inferior. 



The broadleaf maple was made into gunstocks more than 60 years 

 ago by settlers in what is now Oregon. It produces curly and bird's- 

 eye wood, as do the eastern maples, and that led to a number of uses, 

 though for a long time the total demand was small. The Indians 

 were making bowls of it when the white emigrants reached the north- 

 western coast. Sugar was made from the sap and supplied the set- 

 tlers in the new country at a time when other sugar was hard to get. 

 Some of this maple was cut for fuel, but it is rather low grade and 

 so much inferior to some of the oaks associated with it that wood- 

 cutters usually passed it by. It served for fences when farms were 

 cleared, but it was no better than several other species which were 

 more plentiful, and, of course, was not hauled far. In a few instances 

 the pioneer water mills in Oregon made broad planks of it, and the 

 settlers floored their houses with maple. Some of the finest stands of 

 broadleaf mapll were sacrified when the pioneers cleared their farms, 

 for it grew on the best bottom lands. A ver}^ small quantity was made 

 into farm implements, each farmer usualh^ cutting to meet his own 

 needs and working up the wood in his spare hours. 



