BULLETIN 418, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Western yellow pine is a large, well-formed timber tree. 1 In old 
trees the bole is usually straight and full-formed. It is well cleared 
of dead branches, but usually clothed with live branches for from 
one-half to two-thirds its height. The maximum diameter is 8 feet 
and the maximum height 220 feet. 2 The largest tree measured in 
the course of a volume study of over 2,500 felled trees in various 
parts of Oregon was a little over 6 feet in diameter at breastheight 
and the tallest was 177 feet high. The usual size at maturity is about 
3 \ feet in diameter and 110 feet in height. Table 2 gives the prevailing 
height of yellow-pine trees of various diameters in two regions of the 
State, one near Looking-glass Creek, Union County, growing excep- 
tionally tall, fine timber, and the other near the edge of the desert at 
Bend, Crook County, where the timber is short. Most of the yellow- 
pine timber of the State would fall between these two extremes. 
Table 2. — Average total height of several hundred trees of various diameters on two sites, 
one exceptionally good for tree growth and the other poor. 1 
Diameter at 
breastheight. 
Total height. 
Diameter at 
breastheight. 
Total height. 
Diameter at 
breastheight. 
Total height. 
Look- 
ing- 
glass 
Creek. 
Union 
County. 
Near 
Bend, 
Crook 
County. 
Look- 
ing- 
glass 
Creek, 
Union 
County. 
Near 
Bend, 
Crook 
County. 
Look- 
ing- 
glass 
Creek, 
Union 
Count} 7 . 
Near 
Bend. 
Crook 
County. 
Inches. 
12 
11 
16 
18 
20 
Feet. 
71 
82 
91 
100 
108 
Feet. 
""48" 
57 
65 
72 
Inches. 
22 
24 
26 
28 
30 
Feet. 
115 
121 
127 
131 
135 
Feet. 
78 
84 
88 
92 
96 
Inches. 
32 
34 
36 
38 
40 
Feet. 
138 
142 
146 
149 
152 
Feet. 
98 
101 
102 
103 
104 
1 In the Appendix are two volume tables which show the average contents in board feet of trees of various 
diameters and heights for two regions in Oregon. The average tree over 16 inches in diameter in the virgin 
stand contains about 1,000 board feet, and the average log about 250 feet. Trees with a volume of over 
5,000 feet are very rare. 
The bark of the trunk in young trees is dark gray-brown, roughly 
furrowed, and from 1 to 3 inches thick; in old trees it is tan colored 
(or "yellow"), is broken with rather large, irregular plates, and is 
commonly about 1 inch in thickness, and on very old trees even 
thinner. The crown is at first bluntly conical, but, as the tree 
matures, it becomes more and more roundheaded and bushy; on 
old trees it is quite flat-topped, and the upper branches are heavy and 
gnarled. The root system of mature trees consists of extensive, deep 
branching laterals which give the tree firm support. The foliage is 
not extremely heavy, so that the shade cast by yellow pines is not 
i The forest characteristics of this tree vary. decidedly in different parts of its wide range. The yellow- 
pinestands of the Black Hills are quite unlike those of the mesas of the Southwest, which are in turn unlike 
those of the eastern Oregon plateau or of the Sierra Mountains of California. 
- Measured by John Muir in the Sierra Mountains of California. 
