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” is added to the name is not clear. Similar mystery attaches to the name “single spruce,” which is applied to the balsam fir in the interior of British America. The southern Appalachian tree is called she balsam and she balsam fir. These names have no scientific basis, and they appear to have originated in a desire to distinguish this tree from the red spruce with which it is associated. The spruce is called “he balsam.” Artificial names like these are not necessary to distinguish red spruce from Fraser fir, as very slight acquaintance should enable anybody to tell one from the other at sight, and to see clearly that they are not of the same species. Mountain balsam, a North Carolina name for this fir, is well taken, for it is distinctly a mountain species. The name healing balsam is given in acknowledgment of the supposed medicinal properties of the resin which collects in blisters or pockets under the bark of young trees and near the tops of old. In West Virginia, where this tree reaches the northern limits of its habitat, it is called blister pine, on account of the resin pockets. In the same region it is called stackpole pine, because farmers who mow mountain meadows use straight, very light poles cut from this fir round which to build haystacks.

This tree is decidedly an inhabitant of the high, exposed localities, being found entirely in the upper elevations of the southern Appalachian mountains, either forming extensive pure stands or growing in the company of red spruce (Picea rubens), with a scattering of various stunted hardwoods, as birch, mountain ash, cherry and usually with an undergrowth of rhododendron.

Fraser fir’s range extends from the high mountains of North Carolina, where it grows 6,000 feet above sea level, northward into West Virginia, within a few miles of the Maryland line, at an altitude of 3,300 feet. The tree is not found in all regions between its northern and southern limits. Its best development is in the southern part of its range.

On the upper limits of its habitat the tree presents a decidedly picturesque appearance, being gnarled and twisted and plainly showing the results of its long struggle for life and development. It is always noticeable that on the exposed side the limbs are so short as to be almost missing and on the opposite side they grow out straight and long, appearing to fly before the wind. These limbs are sometimes of as great a girth for five or six feet of their length as any part of the main stem, and have a singular look, seeming to be all out of proportion to the rest of the tree. The older trees are vested in a smooth, yellowish-gray, mossy bark, which is quite different from that of the balsam fir. The bark is thin, about one-fourth of an inch on young trunks, and half an inch near the ground on old ones. The leaves are usually half an inch long, sometimes one inch, and their lower sides are whitish, which tint is due to abundant white stomata. In that respect they resemble leaves of balsam fir and hemlock.

The cones, like those of other species of fir, stand erect on the branches, and average about two and a half inches in length. They are smoother than the cones of most pines. They mature in September. The winged seeds average one-eighth inch in length, and are fairly abundant. The Fraser fir grows as tall as balsam fir, from forty to sixty feet, and the trunk diameter is greater, being sometimes thirty inches, though half of that is nearer an average. When of pole size, that is, from five to eight inches in diameter, Fraser fir is often tall, straight and shapely. Its form, however, depends upon the situation in which it grows. If in the open, it develops a relatively short trunk and a broad, pyramidal crown. This fir differs from balsam fir in its choice of situation. The latter, though not exactly a swamp tree, prefers damp ground, while Fraser fir flourishes on slopes and mountain tops.

On the mountains of western North Carolina fir grows in mixture with red spruce. Sometimes the fir is fifty per cent of the stand, but usually it is less, and frequently not more than fifteen per cent. Few fir trees in that locality are two feet in diameter. They grow with fair rapidity in their early years, but decline in rate as age comes on. It may be observed in traveling through the stands of mixed spruce and fir among the high ranges of the southern Appalachian mountains that the proportion of spruce is much higher in old stands than in young. That is due to the greater age to which spruce lives. Trees of that species continue to stand after the firs have died of old age. On the other hand, fir outnumbers spruce in many young stands. That is because fir reproduces better than spruce, and grows with more vigor at first. In stands of second growth the fir often predominates. It depends to some extent upon the conditions under which the second growth has its start. Fir does not germinate well if the ground has been bared by fire and the humus burned. Consequently, old burns do not readily grow up in fir. The best stands occur where the natural conditions have not been much disturbed further than by removing the growth. Fortunately conditions on the summit and elevated slopes of the southern Appalachians do not favor destructive forest fires. Rain is frequent and abundant, and the shade cast by evergreen trees keeps the humus too moist for fire. To this condition is due the comparative immunity from fire of the high mountain forests of fir and spruce. Sometimes, however, fires sweep through fine stands with disastrous results. The destruction is more serious because no second forest of evergreens is likely on tracts which have been severely burned.

A report by the State Geological Survey on forest conditions in western North Carolina, issued in 1911, predicted that spruce and fir forests aggregating from 100,000 to 150,000 acres among the high mountain ranges, will become barren tracts, because of the destructive effect of fires stripping the ground of humus.

The cutters of pulpwood in the southern Appalachian mountains take Fraser fir wherever they find it, mix it with spruce, and the two woods go to market as one. Statistics show the annual cut of both, but do not give them separately. The output of spruce, including fir, south of Pennsylvania, in 1910 was 115,993 cords, equivalent to about 80,000,000 feet, board measure. Most of it was red spruce, but some was fir, and in North Carolina probably twenty-five per cent was of that species. The total pulpwood cut in that state was 14,509 cords of the two woods combined, and probably 3,800 cords were Fraser fir.

The wood of Fraser fir is very light. An air dry sample from Roan mountain, N. C., weighed 22.22 pounds per cubic foot. That is lighter than balsam fir, which is classed among the very light woods. It is stronger than balsam fir by twenty-five per cent. The wood is soft, compact and the bands of summerwood in the annual rings are rather broad and light colored and are not conspicuous. The medullary rays are thin but numerous. The color is light brown, the sapwood mostly white.

This wood is not of much commercial value except for pulp. It is not abundant, and it is not suited to many purposes. It is suitable for boxes, being light in weight and moderately strong; but other woods which grow in the same region are as good in all respects and are more abundant, and will be used in preference to fir for that purpose. The decrease in area on account of fires, and in quantity because of pulpwood operations, indicates that forest grown Fraser fir has seen its best days. On the other hand, the United States Forest Service has acquired tracts of land on the summits of the mountains where this species has its natural home, and the growth will be protected from fires and from destructive cutting, and there is no danger that the species will be exterminated.

It is an interesting tree. It contributes to the pleasure of tourists and campers among the southern mountains. The fragrance of its leaves and young branches add a zest to the summer camp. The traveler who is overtaken in the woods by the coming of night, prepares his bed of the boughs of this tree and of red spruce and sleeps soundly beneath an evergreen canopy. Pillows and cushions stuffed with fir needles carry memories of the mountains to distant cities.

In one respect this tree of the high mountains is like the untamed Indians who once roamed in that region: it refuses to be civilized. The tree has been planted in parks in this country and in Europe, but it does not prosper. Its form loses something of the grace and symmetry which it exhibits in its mountain home, and its life is short. Those who wish to see Fraser fir at its best must see it where nature planted it high on the southern mountains.