Oe BULLETIN 426, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
feet, about equally divided between private and Government owner- 
ship. No reliable figures are available for Lower California, but the 
amount there is known to be small. Within California the best 
available estimates indicate a stand of 39 billion feet, board measure, 
about 24 billion on private lands and the remainder in Government 
ownership within the National Forests. Of the three most valuable 
widely distributed conifers within the State of California—redwood, 
yellow pine, and sugar pine—though the sugar pine ranks third in 
volume of stand, it is undoubtedly first in value of product. 
GEOGRAPHICAL AND COMMERCIAL RANGE. 
The geographical range of sugar pine extends from the valley of the 
Santiam River, in the Cascade Range, in Marion County, Oreg., 
through the Sierra and Coast Ranges of California to Mount San 
Pedro, in the peninsula of Lower California (PI. D. Commercially, 
however, the species is of importance only from Douglas County, 
Oreg., to Kern County in the California Sierras, and Glenn County 
in the California Coast Range. The largest trees and heaviest stands 
within this area are found from Tulare to Eldorado Counties, Cal., 
along the west slope of the Sierras. Nearly. three-fourths of the 
total stand is found in the Sierra Nevadas of California and the bulk 
of the remainder within that portion of the Coast Range which lies 
north of San Francisco. Over one-half of the total is distributed 
throughout the central Sierra region. It is seldom found in commer- 
cial stands on the east side of this range south of Plumas County. 
ALTITUDE AND CLIMATE. 
The altitudinal range of merchantable stands of sugar pine extends 
from 3,000 to 6,000 feet in the northern Sierras and from 5,000 to 
9,000 in the southern Sierras, the southern coast range, and the 
Sierra Madres. A few trees have been reported in the redwoods near 
Cazadero, Sonoma County, Cal., at an elevation as low as 600 feet. 
The extreme upper limit of the botanical range occurs on Mount San 
Pedro, in Lower California, where the species has been reported at 
(11,000 feet. All gradations between these altitudes occur as the 
latitude changes. 
In the sugar-pine belt the summers are hot and dry and the winters 
moderately cold. Most of the stands are found between the annual 
isotherms 44° and 60° F. Sugar pine occurs, however, in northern 
California, where the mean annual temperature is as low as 40°, and 
in the southern part of the State, where it is as high as 70° F. It 
endures average minimum monthly temperatures of 20° and average 
maximum monthly temperatures of 97° F. 
Sugar pine is quite dependent upon atmospheric moisture. This 
- characteristic probably accounts, in large measure, for its limited 
