GRAND FIR
(Abies Grandis)
In California, Oregon, and Idaho this tree is called white fir, but it has several other names, silver fir and yellow fir in Montana and Idaho. In California some know it as Oregon fir, western white fir, and great California fir. Grand fir is more a botanist’s than a lumberman’s name.
The range extends from British Columbia to Mendocino county, California, and to the western slopes of the continental divide in Montana. The coastal growth lies in a comparatively narrow strip. In the mountains an altitude of 7,000 feet is sometimes reached, the soil and moisture requirements, however, being the same. The largest trees are found in bottom lands near the coast where trunks 300 feet tall and six feet in diameter are found, but the average is much less. In mountain regions at considerable altitudes a height of 100 feet and a diameter of two or three is an average size. The leaves are about an inch and a half in length, occasionally two and a half. They are arranged in rows along the sides of the long, flexible branches. Cones are from two to four inches long, and bear winged seeds three-eighths of an inch long, the wings being half an inch or more in length. The bark of old trunks may be two inches thick, but generally is thinner. It is unfortunate that the wood of the large western firs lacks so many qualities which make it valuable. It is generally inferior to the woods of Douglas fir, western hemlock, Sitka spruce and the western cedars, sugar pine, and western yellow pine. The wood of grand fir is light, soft, weak, brittle, and not durable in contact with the soil. Its light color and the abundance of clear material in the giant trunks are redeeming features. These ought to open the way for much use in the future. It cannot find place in heavy construction, because it is not strong enough. That shuts it from one important place for which it is otherwise fitted. Box makers find it suitable, as all fir woods are, and large demand should come from that quarter. Trunks that will cut from 15,000 to 20,000 feet of lumber that is practically clear, and of good color, and light in weight, are bound to have value for boxes and slack cooperage. Trees grow with fair rapidity. Annual rings are usually broad, and the bands of summerwood are wide and distinct. This guarantees a certain figure in lumber sawed tangentially, but it is not a figure to compare in beauty with some of the hardwoods, or even with Douglas fir, or the southern yellow pines. It ought to be a first class material for certain kinds of woodenware, particularly for tubs, pails, and small stave vessels, and as far as it has been used in that way it has been satisfactory. It cannot be recommended for outside house finish, such as weather-boarding, cornice, and porch work, because of its susceptibility to decay; but it meets requirements for plain interior finish, and tests have shown it to be good material for cores or backing over which to glue veneers of hardwood.
While the eastern states have not yet wakened up to the fact that this tree is of value in ornamental planting, its decorative qualities in open stands have been recognized for some time in eastern Europe, where trees of considerable size, promising to attain almost primeval proportions, are already flourishing.
Red Fir (Abies magnifica) is the largest fir in America. At its best it attains a height of 250 feet and a diameter of ten, but that size is rare. It has several names, magnificent fir, which is a translation of its botanical name; redbark fir, California red fir, and golden fir. The reference to red which occurs in its several names, is descriptive of its heartwood. Its range lies on the Cascade mountains of southern Oregon, and along the entire length of the western slope of the Sierra Nevadas in California. It is common in southern Oregon and sometimes forms nearly pure forests at elevations of 5,000 or 7,000 feet. It is plentiful in the Sierra Nevada ranges at altitudes of from 6,000 to 9,000 feet. In southern California it ascends 10,000 feet. On old trees the limbs, regularly whorled in collars of five, are usually pendulous or down-growing and are regularly and precisely subdivided into branches and twigs, the short, stiff blue-green leaves, which persist for ten years, closely covering the upper side of the latter. Its cones are the largest of the firs, are dark purple in color and grow erect on the branches.
The cones are six or eight inches long, and three or four in diameter. They present a fine appearance as they stand erect on the branches. The seeds are large, but their strong wings are able to carry them away from the immediate presence of the parent tree. The wings are extremely beautiful, and flash light with the colors of the rainbow. Old trees are protected by hard, dark-colored bark five or six inches thick. A forest fire may pass through a stand of old firs without burning through the bark, but young trees are not so protected, and are liable to be killed.
A study of the wood of the red fir reveals rather more favorable qualities than the other firs afford. Sap and heartwood are more easily distinguished than in the other species, the sapwood being much lighter in color than the reddish heart. Contrary to the general rule among the firs, this wood possesses considerable durability, especially when used for purposes which bring it in contact with the soil. It is, however, light, soft and weak, but has a close, fine grain and compact structure. Seasoning defects, such as checking and warping, are liable to occur unless properly guarded against. It weighs 29.30 pounds per cubic foot, or nearly three pounds less than Douglas fir. It is used for rough lumber, packing boxes, bridge floors, interior house finish, and fuel.
Shasta Red Fir (Abies magnifica shastensis) is pronounced by George B. Sudworth to be only a form of red fir (Abies magnifica) and not a separate species. The principal difference is in the cones. The Shasta form was discovered on the mountain of that name in northern California in 1890 by Professor J. G. Lemmon. It was supposed to be confined to that locality, but was subsequently found on the Cascade mountains in Oregon, and also at several points in northern California. It was later found in the Sierras five hundred miles south of Mount Shasta.
Lovely Fir (Abies amabilis) is known by a number of names, red fir, silver fir, red silver fir, lovely red fir, amabilis fir, and larch. The last name is applied to this tree by lumbermen who have discovered that fir lumber sells better if it is given some other name. The range of this species extends from British Columbia southward in the Cascade mountains through Washington to Oregon. It is the common fir of the Olympic mountains and there reaches its best development, sometimes a height of 250 feet and a diameter of five or six; but the average, even in the best part of its range, is much under that size, while in the northern country, and high on mountains, it is a commonplace tree, averaging less than 100 feet high, and scarcely eighteen inches in diameter. When this fir stands in open ground, the whole trunk is covered with limbs from base to top; but in dense stands, the limbs drop off, and a clean trunk results.
Some of the largest trees rise with scarcely a limb 150 feet, and above that is the small crown. The bark of young trees is covered with blisters filled with resin. The bark is thin and smooth until the tree is a century or more old, after which it becomes rougher, and near the base may be two and a half inches thick. It is of very slow growth, and a century hardly produces a trunk of small sawlog size. The leaves are dark green above, and whitish below. They are much crowded on the twigs, those on the underside rising with a twist at the base, and standing nearly erect. They are longer than those on the twig’s upper side. The purple cones are conspicuous objects on the tree, are from three and a half to six inches long, and bear abundance of seeds which are well dispersed by wind. However, the reproduction of this tree is not plentiful. The species holds its own, and not much more. When artificial reforestation takes place in this country, if that time ever comes, lovely fir will receive scant consideration, because of its discouragingly slow growth. It ranks with lodgepole pine in that respect. Nature can afford to wait two hundred years for a forest to mature, but men will not plant and protect when the prospect of returns is so remote. The wood is light, weak, moderately stiff and hard. The heartwood is pale brown, the sap nearly white. The summerwood appears in thin but well-marked bands in the annual rings, and the medullary rays are large enough to show slightly in quarter-sawed lumber. Growing as it does, interspersed with really valuable woods, the lovely fir is not highly thought of from a commercial standpoint. However, it is exploited in conjunction with the other species and turned into lumber and general structural material. A considerable quantity finds a market as interior finish and other millwork. It has many of the properties which fit it for the manufacture of packing boxes, particularly those intended for dried fruit and light merchandise. It bears considerable resemblance to spruce. The utilization of this and similar species of western fir for pulp has been suggested, but little has been done. It has been planted ornamentally in parts of Europe, but there is no comparison between the decorative appearance of this fir and its associated species, the others which are in cultivation being much superior. Removal from the old habitat militates greatly against its natural beauty and reduces it to the level of the ordinary.
Alpine Fir (Abies lasiocarpa) is so called because it thrives on high mountains and in the far North. It grows in southern Alaska, up to latitude 60°, and southward to Oregon and Colorado. Its other names are balsam, white balsam, Oregon balsam, mountain balsam, white fir, pumpkin tree, down-cone, and downy-cone subalpine fir. It grows from sea level in Alaska up to 7,000 feet or more in the South. It is not abundant, and not very well known. However, its slender, spirelike top distinguishes it from all associates and it may be recognized at long distances by that characteristic. It endures cold at 40 degrees below zero, and summer climate at 90 degrees. Trees are usually small, and the trunks are covered with limbs to the ground. On high mountains the lower limbs often lie flat on the ground, and the twigs sometimes take root. Under very favorable circumstances this fir may reach a height of 160 feet and a diameter of four, but the usual size is less than half of it, even when conditions are fair, while on bleak mountains mature trees may be only three or four feet high, with most of the limbs prostrate. The sprawling form of growth makes the tree peculiarly liable to be killed by fire. The bark is thin, smooth, and flinty; and in color it is ashy gray or chalky white. Leaves are one and a half inches or less long; the purple cones from two to four inches. Trees bear cones at about twelve years of age. The seeds are equipped with violet or purplish wings, and they fly far enough to find the best available places to plant themselves. The wood is narrow-ringed, light, soft, and in color from pale straw to light yellowish-brown. It is fairly straight grained, and splits and works easily; but trunks are very knotty. Its best service in the past has consisted in supplying fuel to mining camps and mountain stock ranges.
Grand fir branch
