NOBLE FIR
(Abies Nobilis)
This tree’s name is justified by its appearance when growing at its best in the forests of the northwest Pacific coast. It is tall, shapely, and imposing. It often exceeds a height of 250 feet, and a trunk diameter of six feet. It is sometimes eight feet in diameter. No tree is more shapely and symmetrical. When grown in dense stands the first limb may be 150 feet from the ground, and from that point to the base there is little taper. It over-reaches so many of its forest companions that it is sometimes designated locally as bigtree; but it is believed that lumber is never so spoken of, and that the name applies to the standing tree only. The Indians of the region where it grows call it tuck-tuck, but information as to the meaning of these words is not at hand. In northern California, and probably still farther north, this species is often called red fir, feather-cone red fir, or bracted red fir. The color of the heartwood and the appearance of the cone, doubtless are responsible for these names. There is a tendency in the fir-growing regions of the West to call all firs either white or red, depending upon the color of the heartwood. There are ten or more species of fir west of the Rocky Mountains, and to the layman they all look much alike, but to botanists they are interesting objects of study.
The range of noble fir covers parts of three states, but the whole of no one. Its northern limit is in Washington, its southern in northern California, and it follows the mountains across western Oregon. It often forms extensive forests on the Cascade mountains of Washington. It is most abundant at elevations of from 2,500 to 5,000 feet in southwestern Washington and northwestern Oregon. On the eastern and northern slopes of those mountains it is of smaller size and is less abundant. Like several other of the extraordinarily large western trees, it keeps pretty close to the warm, moist coast of the Pacific.
The shining, blue-green color of the leaves is a conspicuous characteristic of noble fir as it appears in the forest. They vary in length from an inch to an inch and a half. They usually curl, twist, and turn their points upward and backward, away from the end of the branch which bears them. The cones, following the fashion of firs, stand upright on the twigs, and are conspicuous objects. They are four or five inches in length, which is rather large for firs, but not the largest. The seeds are half an inch long, and are winged. They are well provided with the means of flight, but many of them never have an opportunity to test their wings, for the dextrous Douglas squirrel cuts the cones from the highest trees, and when they fall to the ground he pulls them apart with his feet and teeth, and the seeds pay him for his pains. If cones ripen on the trees and the released seeds sail away, there are birds of various feather waiting to receive them. Consequently, the noble fir plants comparatively few seeds. Their ratio of fertility is low at best, but that is partly compensated for by the large numbers produced.
Thick stands of noble fir are not common. It generally is found, a few trees here and there, mixed with other species. Sawmills find it unprofitable to keep the lumber separate from other kinds. It does not pay to do so for two reasons. Extra labor is required to handle it in that way, and there is a prejudice against fir lumber. It does not appeal to buyers. For that reason some operators have called this timber Oregon larch, and have sent it to market under that name. That is a trick of the trade which has been put into practice many times and with many woods. The purpose in the instance of noble fir was to pass it for the larch which grows in the northern Rocky Mountain region. The two woods are so different that no person acquainted with one would mistake it for the other. A recent government report of woods used for manufacturing purposes in Washington does not list a foot of noble fir. The inference is that it must be going to factories under some other name, for it is incredible that this wood should be put to no use at all in the region of its best development.
Noble fir is of slow growth, and the large trunks are very old, the oldest not less than 800 years. The summerwood forms a narrow, dark band in the annual ring. Medullary rays are numerous, but very thin and inconspicuous. The wood possesses little figure. It weighs twenty-eight pounds per cubic foot, which is four pounds less than the average Douglas fir. It is very low in fuel value, as softwoods usually are which have little resin. It is very weak, and it bends easily. It is soft, easily worked, and polishes well. This is one of its most valuable qualities. It is deficient in a number of properties which are desirable in wood, but partly makes up for them in its ability to take a smooth finish. It is pale brown, streaked with red, the sapwood darker. In that particular it is unusual, for most softwoods have sap lighter in color than the heart.
It has been already pointed out that difficulty is met when an attempt is made to list the uses of noble fir, because it loses its name before it leaves the sawmill yard and takes the name of some other wood, and those who put it to use often do so without knowing what the wood really is. It is known that some of it is manufactured into house siding. It works nicely and looks well, but since it is liable to quick decay it must be kept well painted when it is exposed to weather. It serves as interior finish, and this seems to be one of its best uses. It is so employed for steamboats and for houses, and many shipments of it have been made to boat builders on the Atlantic coast. It is used for shipping boxes, and its light color fits it for that purpose, as the wood shows painting and stenciling to good advantage.
European nurseries have propagated noble fir with success, but it does not do so well in the eastern part of the United States, though it lives through winters as far north as Massachusetts. It is not known to have been planted for other than ornamental purposes. Unless it would grow much faster in plantations than in its wild state, it will be too long in maturing to make it attractive to the timber planter.
White Fir (Abies concolor). The whiteness of the wood and the silver color of the young branches give this species its name, but it is not the sole possessor of that name, but shares it with three other firs. In California, Idaho, and Utah it is called balsam fir. The branches and upper parts of the trunk where the bark is thin, are covered with blisters which contain white resin. In Utah it is known as white balsam, as silver fir in some parts of California, and as black gum in Utah. The reason for that name is not apparent, unless it refers to the black bark on old trees. It has several other names which are combinations of white and silver with some other term. Its range is mostly in the Sierras and in the Rocky Mountain ranges, extending from southern Colorado to the mountains of California, north through Oregon, and south through New Mexico and Arizona. The immense proportions are reached only in the Sierra growth, those trees in the Rockies being hardly above ordinary size. In its free growth the tree is reputed to be the only one of its genus found in the arid regions of the Great Basin, and similar localities in Arizona and New Mexico. It is not distinguished by all botanists from the similar species, Abies grandis.
White fir attains a height of 250 feet and a diameter of six in some instances, but the average size of mature trees among the Sierra Nevadas is 150 feet tall and three or four in diameter. In the Rocky Mountain region the tree is smaller. It grows from 3,000 to 9,000 feet above sea level. The leaves are long for the fir genus, and vary from two to three inches. The tree’s bark is black near the base of large trunks but of less somber color near the top. Near the base of large trees the bark is sometimes six inches thick. The wood of this species is light and soft. Carpenters consider it coarse grained, by which they mean that it does not polish nicely. It is brittle and weak. The rings of annual growth are generally broad, with the bands of darker colored summerwood prominent. In lumber sawed tangentially, rings produces distinct figure, but it is not generally regarded as pleasing. The medullary rays are prominent for a softwood, but quarter-sawing does not add much to the wood’s appearance. It decays quickly in alternate wet and dry situations. Trees are apt to be affected with wind shake, and the wood’s disposition to splinter in course of manufacture has prejudiced many users against it. However, it has some good qualities. The wood is free from objectionable odor, and this qualifies it as box material. Fruit shippers can use it without fear of contaminating their wares. It is light in color, and stenciling looks well on it. Its weight is likewise in its favor.
Trees of this species seldom occur in pure stands of large extent, but are scattered among forests of other kinds. Sawmills cut the fir as they come to it, but seldom go much out of their way to get it. The United States census for 1910 showed that 132,327,000 feet of white fir lumber were cut in the whole country, but as several species pass by that name it is not possible to determine how much belonged to the one under discussion, but probably about half, as that much was credited to California where this tree is at its best. The fir does not suffer in comparison with trees associated with it. Its trunk does not average quite as large as the pines, yet larger than most of the cedars; but in height it equals the best of its associates, and in symmetrical form, and beauty of color of foliage, it must be acknowledged superior. The dark intensity of its green crown when thrown against the blue summer skies of the Sierras forms a picture which probably no tree in the world can surpass and few can equal. Its cones suffer from the depredations of the ever-hungry Douglas squirrel which is too impatient to wait for nature’s slow process to ripen and scatter the seeds; but he climbs the trunks which stand as straight as plummet lines two hundred feet or more, and clinging to the topmost swaying branches, clips the cone stems with his teeth, and the cone goes to the ground like a shot. A person who will stand still in a Sierra forest in late summer, where firs abound, will presently hear the cones thumping the ground on all sides of him. If his eyes are good, and he looks carefully, he may see the squirrels, silhouetted against the sky on far-away tree tops, seeming so small in the distance that they look the size of mice; yet the Douglas squirrel is about the size of the eastern red squirrel. He does not always let the cones fall when he cuts their stems, but sometimes carries them down the long trunk to the ground, then goes back for another. The squirrel hoards the cones for winter, but does not neglect to fully satisfy his appetite while about the work. A single hoard—carefully covered with pine needles as a roof against winter snow—may contain five or ten bushels of cones, which are not all fir cones, but these predominate in most hoards.
Noble fir branch
