UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
BULLETIN No. 604 
Contribution from the Forest Service 
HENRY S. GRAVES, Forester 
^J^^yJ-U 
Washington, D. C. 
PROFESSIONAL PAPER 
March 16, 1918 
INCENSE CEDAR. 
By J. Alfked Mitchell, Forest Examiner, 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Commercial importance 1 
The wood 10 
The tree 12 
Forest types and associated species. 27 
Stand 28 
Enemies 29 
Management 31 
Artificial forestation 35 
Appendix 37 
COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE. 1 
Incense cedar {Liboceclrus decurrens Torrey) is comparatively 
little known on the general market. Only the better grades of lumber 
are shipped, and not much of this material is produced, owing to 
the prevalence of " peckiness " or " dry-rot," and to the scattered 
occurrence of the tree. Frequently it is mixed with other species, 
there being too small a quantity of it produced in most operations 
to be handled separately. The local market for it is extensive, 
however, and it is cut by practically every operator in the mountains 
of California and southern Oregon, along with the more valuable 
timber trees with which it grows. 
An inquiry among the operators and dealers throughout California 
in 1912 showed that the total cut for that year, including local con- 
sumption, was, in round numbers, 32,810,000 board feet. Table 1 
gives the cut in California from 1899 to 1916, exclusive of local 
consumption, and the value of the cut at prevailing wholesale prices 
where available. 
1 Acknowledgment is made of the valuable assistance rendered in the gathering of data 
for this publication by various Forest officers of Districts 5 and 6, whose hearty coopera- 
tion has made its preparation possible, and of the assistance of Dr. E. P. Meinecke and 
Messrs. T. D. Woodbury, C. A. Kupfer, Ralph Hopping, and L. T. Larsen in the compila- 
tion of the data and the revision of the manuscript. 
11919°— 18— Bull. 604 — — 1 1 
