inches, and the thickness of the bark, which under such conditions is comparatively smooth and greyish in colour, is about ½ inch. The timber of such trees would be known as red fir. When the tree, however, becomes crowded by its neighbours, and its girth increment is much slower, all the energy of the tree being devoted to upward growth, the rings become much closer, and trees of fifty to sixty years of age may be only 1 foot in diameter. The bark in such cases is much thinner, and the quality of the timber from the point at which the slower growth began much better, so that it would be classed as yellow fir when sawn up. Prof. Sheldon gives figures showing sections of such trees, his Plate 6 showing the influence of light, room, and nourishment on the growing tree. The tree from which this section was made was 143 years old with a diameter of only 16½ inches. For 116 years it had stood in a crowded forest with large trees 4 and 5 feet in diameter all round it. Twenty-seven years ago the large trees were felled, and the growth immediately became much more rapid. The sap-wood in this case is 3½ to 4 inches and the bark 1½ inch thick. He says, “The result of this study is to conclude that the rapid growth of Oregon fir in the open produces red fir, and the subsequent growth when the trees begin to crowd each other produces yellow fir. Trees grown in dense clumps crowded all their life produce solid yellow fir. The growth of the upper portion of the tree may show larger annual growths in the centre than are found near the butt of the same tree. This is of interest in accounting for the immense height of the Oregon fir in many places, as trees 300 to 350 feet high are found in the forests of Oregon and Washington.”
I asked experienced loggers whether they could distinguish red from yellow fir as they grew, and my impression was that they could not, though they said a very few blows of the axe would soon show the difference in the hardness of the wood. With the object of finding out the age at which the tree comes to maturity, I measured the rings of several trees recently felled at the logging camps which I visited. I am much indebted to the managers of these mills, for the facilities which they gave me to see the whole operations of a modern west coast lumberman. Among them Mr. Bradley of the Bridal Veil Company, Oregon; Mr. Browne, president of the St. Paul and Tacoma Sawmills, Tacoma, Washington, and his logging contractor, Mr. M'Dougall ; Mr. Palmer of the Chemainus Mills, Vancouver Island; and Mr. Kenneth Ross, manager of the Big Blackfoot Lumber Company, Montana, were all most obliging and hospitable.
I found that the average age of mature trees 4 to 6 feet in diameter on the stump is 300 to 500 years. At an age of from 400 to 500 years, and possibly much sooner in some cases, the trees begin to decline in health, and some of those felled are more or less hollow. In all cases the annual rings for the first fifty to seventy years are very much thicker than for the next 300 years, the best trees having from four to five rings to the inch at first, and afterwards as many as fifteen to twenty. The better class trees are clear of branches up to about 120 to 150 feet, and in such cases produce wood free from knots, or “clear lumber” as it is called in the trade. Such clear lumber, however, even when a large number of trees are rejected by the fellers, does not exceed 15 to 30 per cent of the total
