American Forest Trees Part 11

The wood is reputed to be among the most durable in this country when exposed to soil and weather. Some of it deserves that reputation, but other does not. Well-authenticated cases are cited where cypress has remained sound many years--in some instance a hundred or more--when subjected to alternate dampness and dryness. Such conditions afford severe tests. In other cases cypress has been known to decay as quickly as pine.

Historical cases from the old world are sometimes cited to show the wonderful lasting properties of cypress. Doors and statues, exposed more or less to weather, are said to have stood many centuries. The evidence has little value as far as this wood is concerned. In the first place, the long records claimed are subjects for suspicion; and in the second place, it was not the American cypress that was used--and probably no cypress--but the cedar of Lebanon.

Sound cypress logs have been dug from deep excavations near New Orleans, and geologists believe they had lain there 30,000 years. That would be a telling testament to endurance were it not that any other wood completely out of reach of air would last as long.

The estimated stand of cypress in the South is about 20,000,000,000 feet. The annual cut, including s.h.i.+ngles, exceeds 1,000,000,000 feet.

New growth is not coming on. The traveler through the South occasionally sees a small clump of little cypresses, but such are few and far between. It was formerly quite generally believed that cypress in deep swamps, where old and venerable stands are found, was not reproducing, and that no little trees were to be seen. It was argued from this, that some climatic or geographic change had taken place, and that the present stand of cypress would be the last of its race. More careful investigation, however, has shown that the former belief was erroneous.

Seedling cypresses are found occasionally in the deepest swamps.

Probably cypress which has not been disturbed by man is reproducing as well now as at any time in the past. The tree lives three or four centuries, and if it leaves one seedling to take its place it has done its part toward perpetuating the species. Fire, the mortal enemy of forests, seldom hurts cypress, because the undergrowth is not dry enough to burn.

The uses of cypress are so nearly universal that a list is impossible.

In Illinois alone it is reported for seventy-eight different purposes.

There is not a state, and scarcely a large wood-using factory, east of the Rocky Mountains which does not demand more or less cypress.

The tree is graceful when young, but ragged and uncouth when old. Though a needleleaf tree, it yearly sheds its foliage and most of its twigs.

The fruit is a cone about one inch in diameter; and the seed is equipped with a wing one-fourth inch long and one-eighth inch wide.

When cypress stands in soft ground which most of the time is under water, the roots send up peculiar growths known as knees. They rise from a few inches to several feet above the surface of the mud, and extend above the water at ordinary stages. They are sharp cones, generally hollow. It is believed their function is to furnish air to the tree's roots, and also to afford anchorage to the roots in the soft mud. When the water is drained away, the knees die.

Cypress is widely planted as an ornament, and a dozen or more varieties have been developed in cultivation.

POND CYPRESS (_Taxodium imbricarium_) so closely resembles bald cypress with which it is a.s.sociated that the two were once supposed to be the same. Pond cypress averages smaller and its range is more circ.u.mscribed. The name pond cypress, by which it is popularly known in Georgia, indicates the localities where it is oftenest found. It is the prevailing cypress in the Okefenoke swamp in southeastern Georgia. The general aspect of the foliage and fruit is the same as of bald cypress. No detailed examination of the wood seems to have been made, but in general appearance it is like the other cypress.

It is said that little of it ever gets to sawmills because it grows in situations where logging is inconvenient.

MONTEREY CYPRESS (_Cupressus macrocarpa_). This tree has only one name and that is due to its place of growth on the sh.o.r.es of Monterey bay, California. Its range is more restricted than that of any other American softwood. It does not much exceed 150 acres, though the trees are scattered in a narrow strip for two miles along the coast. They approach so close the breakers that spray flies over them in time of storm. Trees exposed to the sweep of the wind are gnarled and of fantastic shapes. Their crowns are broad and flat like an umbrella, but ragged and unsymmetrical in outline. That form offers least resistance to wind, and most surface to the sun. The trees take the best possible advantage of their opportunities. Tall crowns would be carried away by wind; and the flat tops, with a ma.s.s of green foliage, catch all the sunlight possible. They need it, for they grow in fog, and suns.h.i.+ne is scarce. Sheltered trees develop pyramidal tops. It is widely planted in this and other countries, and when conditions are favorable, it is graceful and symmetrical.

The largest trees are from sixty to seventy feet tall, others are five or six in diameter; but the tallest trees and the largest trunks seldom go together. The cones are an inch or more in length, and each contains about 100 seeds. The leaves fall the third and fourth years. Wood is heavy, hard, strong, and durable, but is too scarce to be of value as lumber, even if the trunks were suitable for sawlogs. The Monterey cypress is of peculiar interest to botanists and also to physical geographers. The few trees on the sh.o.r.e of Monterey bay appear to be the last remnant of a species which was once more extensive. The ocean is eating away the coast at that point. Fragments of hills, cut sheer down from top to the breakers beneath, are plainly the last remnants of ranges which once extended westward, but have been washed away by the encroaching waves. No one knows how much of the former coast has been destroyed.

Apparently the former range of the cypress was princ.i.p.ally on land now swallowed up by the encroaching ocean. A mere fringe of the trees--a belt about 200 yards wide along the beach--remains, and the sea is undermining them one by one and carrying them down. So rapidly is the undermining process going on that many large roots of some of the trees are exposed to view.

ARIZONA CYPRESS (_Cupressus arizonica_), as its name implies, is an Arizona tree. It forms considerable forests in the eastern, central, and southern parts of the state, and is found also in Mexico. It grows at elevations up to 6,000 feet. Because of the small population in the region where this cypress grows, it has never been much used, but the size of the trees and the character of the wood fit it for many purposes. Its growth is often quite rapid, and the timber is soft, light, and with well-defined summerwood. Its usual color is gray, but occasionally faint streaks of yellow appear. The leaves fall during the fourth and fifth years; cones are small and flat; and the small seeds are winged. It is believed by persons familiar with Arizona cypress that it will attain considerable importance when the building of railroads and the settlement of the country make the forests accessible. The wood is durable in contact with the soil.

SMOOTH CYPRESS (_Cupressus glabra_) ranges in Arizona and is not believed to have or to promise much importance as a source of lumber supply. Its name was given on account of the smoothness of the bark.

It is one of the latest species to be given a place among the cypresses, and was described and named by George B. Sudworth of the United States Forest Service.

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BALSAM FIR

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BALSAM FIR

(_Abies Balsamea_)

Balsam fir is the usual name applied to this tree in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Ontario. The shorter name balsam suffices in some parts of that region, and particularly in New York, New Hamps.h.i.+re, and Vermont. Because it is common north of the international boundary, the name Canada balsam has been given it in some regions. In Delaware it is known as balm of Gilead, but that name belongs to a tree of the cottonwood group, (_Populus balsamifera_) which is a broadleaf species. In New York and Pennsylvania a word of distinction is added, and it is called balm of Gilead fir. Toward the southern limit of its range it is spoken of as fir pine and blister pine. New York Indians knew the tree as blisters.

They referred to the pockets under the bark of young trees and near the tops of mature trunks, in which resin collected. The name balsam refers to that characteristic also, as does the word balm. In some parts of Canada the tree is known as silver pine, and as silver spruce. The secretion of resin in bark blisters is a characteristic of several firs.

The list of names and the locality of their use indicate fairly well the geographical range of balsam fir. Its northern limit forms a line across eastern Canada from Labrador to Hudson bay. From Hudson bay its northern boundary trends northwestward and reaches the vicinity of Great Bear lake. In the United States it grows westward to Minnesota and southward to Pennsylvania. It is cut for lumber in eleven states.

In a range so large and including situations so various, it is natural that the tree should vary greatly in size. In the Lake States the common height is fifty or sixty feet, and the diameter is twelve or fifteen inches. Young balsam firs grow vigorously when the ground is suitable and their tops receive sufficient light. In lumbered regions in the Lake States, this fir gets a foothold in the shade of a dense growth of paper birch and other quickly-growing species; and in a few years the pointed, intensely green spires of the balsams may be seen piercing the canopy of other young tree tops, and shooting above into the light. This is accomplished after a struggle of some years in the shade; but the firs ultimately win their way upward, and in a few years they shade to death most of their broadleaf a.s.sociates. If they are in compet.i.tion with northern white cedar or tamarack, they are not always successful in winning first place.

The leaves of balsam fir are from one-half to one and one-fourth inches long. They are green and l.u.s.trous above and silver white below, the whiteness due to stomata on their undersides. On young twigs the leaves bristle out on all sides and are very numerous and crowded together, but on older branches the leaves are more scattered, due to the dropping of some of them. It is their habit to adhere to the stems about eight years.

The leaves of balsam fir possess a pleasing and characteristic odor which is turned to account in a practical way. The small needles are stripped from the branches in large quant.i.ties, cleaned, dried, and are used for stuffing sofa pillows, cus.h.i.+ons, and other kinds of upholstery.

The odor persists a long time. Much of the collecting of the needles is done in summer as a pastime by summer campers in the northern woods. The needles are sufficiently tough to stand much wear in pillows, and they are still odorous when long use has ground them to powder.

The cones of balsam fir follow the fas.h.i.+on of all species of fir, and stand erect on the branches. Seeds are one-fourth inch in length and are winged. The wood is of approximately the same weight as white pine, but it falls considerably below white pine in strength and stiffness. It is of moderately rapid growth when conditions are favorable, and the annual ring has a fair proportion of summerwood. The yearly rings are quite distinct. The medullary rays are numerous, and for a softwood they are prominent. When a log is quarter-sawed, and the surfaces of the boards are planed, the wood presents a silvery appearance, but it is too monotonous to be very attractive. The heartwood is pale brown, streaked with yellow, the thick sapwood much lighter in color. It is perishable in contact with the soil.

Pulp manufacturers are the largest users of balsam fir. About three per cent of all the pulpwood cut in the United States in 1910 was from this species. Its use is on the increase, or appears to be; but recent statistics relating to this wood cannot be safely compared with returns for former years, because the custom of mixing fir with spruce and other pulpwoods formerly prevailed in New England, and it was then not possible to determine exactly how much fir reached the market. At the present time fir goes under its own name, and the output exceeds 132,000 cords, which is equivalent to 105,000,000 feet, board measure, yearly.

Eleven states contribute to the balsam fir lumber cut, but most is supplied by Maine, Minnesota, Vermont, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The total for 1910 was 74,580,000 feet. Much of it is employed in rough form for fences and buildings, while other is further manufactured by planing mills and factories. Car builders employ it in several ways. It serves as doors, siding, lining, and roofing for freight cars. It is not a durable wood when exposed to weather. The largest reported use of the wood in New England is by box makers. Ma.s.sachusetts alone works nearly 15,000,000 feet a year into crates and s.h.i.+pping boxes. Its uses in the Lake States are more varied. The makers of berry, fruit, and vegetable baskets draw supplies from the wood. Some of the product is of thin split slats, and other of veneer or sawed material.

The light weight and white color of balsam fir make it acceptable to the manufacturers of excelsior. The product is employed in packing merchandise for s.h.i.+pment, and to a small extent in upholstery. The wood fills a rather important place in the woodenware industry, where its white color and light weight const.i.tute its most important recommendations. It is sawed into staves for pails and tubs.

Though balsam fir has little figure and its appearance is rather common, it finds its way to planing mills and woodworking shops where it is made into ceiling, newel posts, molding, railing, spindles, chair-boards, and other interior finish.

The most widely known commercial product manufactured from this tree is Canada balsam. Strictly speaking, it is not a manufactured article except what is done in nature's laboratory, and the product is the resin stored under bark blisters. The resin is transparent, and is employed by microscopists in mounting objects for examination. Little machinery or apparatus is used in removing the viscid fluid from the pockets in the bark. With a knife the thin, soft blister is slit and the resin is sc.r.a.ped out. All kinds of claims of medicinal virtue are made for balsam resin in the region where the tree grows; but the treatment in most cases effects cures--if any cures are really effected--by appeals to faith and the imagination.

Balsam fir owes a large part of its importance to its abundance. It is not exactly a swamp tree, but it does best in damp situations where the ground is moist and cool in summer. Only in periods of protracted drought does the ground litter become sufficiently dry to burn fiercely, and to that fact is due much of the promise of future supply of balsam fir. That which grows on the dry uplands may fall prey to forest fires, but that in the damp flats, a.s.sociated with northern white cedar and tamarack, will hold its ground and continue to supply demand.

Balsam fir has an importance which can not be wholly measured in feet, pounds, cords, or dollars. Many of the choicest Christmas trees which in December go by tens of thousands to the cities, are of this tree. Its form is almost perfect, being conical, broad near the bottom, and running to a sharp apex. The deep green of the needles, which retain their color from two weeks to a month after the trunk is severed, gives balsam Christmas trees much of their popularity. The trees are cut from Maine to Michigan, and many are s.h.i.+pped across the international boundary from Canada. The custom of cutting Christmas trees is often condemned as a waste of resources. It has been argued that the destruction in one month of 1,000,000 young trees is equivalent to the destruction of 500,000,000 feet of lumber, because, if allowed to reach maturity, they would yield that much lumber. That argument does not take into consideration the fact that not one of the young trees in ten would reach maturity if left to the course of nature.

When Gifford Pinchot was United States forester, a protest against the cutting of Christmas trees was formally laid before him. It was generally believed that he would declare that the waste ought to be stopped and would set his disapproval on the practice; but he did nothing of the sort. He declared that the forests are for the use of the people and that they can serve in no better way than by supplying every child in the land with a Christmas tree once a year.

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FRASER FIR

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FRASER FIR

(_Abies Fraseri_)

The people who are acquainted with this interesting and somewhat rare tree have seen to it that it does not want for names. Some of these names are both definitive and descriptive, while others are neither.

Tennessee, North Carolina, and West Virginia furnish the names. Within the tree's range in Tennessee and North Carolina it is often known as balsam without any qualifying word, and that is quite sufficient, for no other fir or balsam grows within its range. In the same region it is called balsam fir. That is the common name of its northern relative, but there is little likelihood of confusing the two species, for their ranges do not overlap much, if they touch at all, which they probably do not. In Tennessee the name is reversed and instead of balsam fir it is fir balsam. It is likewise known as double fir balsam, but why "double"