Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 59.djvu/134

124 Although a large number of species make up the forests of the reservations, they are for the most part composed of pines and other conifers, with the yellow pine and red fir a long way in the lead in commercial importance. The former of these two species is found in every one of the thirty-nine reservations, with the exception of the Apognak Reservation, in Alaska, and in many of them forms the major part of the forest, while the latter has nearly as wide a distribution.

In the Washington reservation pure stands of red fir may be classed among the finest forests in the world. Not infrequently single trees reach a height of from 250 to 300 feet, and contain 25,000 feet (B.M.) of merchantable lumber. The trees stand close together, their long, straight boles shooting upward like so many shafts from the dimly lighted bed of moss and ferns forming the floor of the forest. This

same tree, of a more stunted and shorter growth, forms a considerable part of the forests of the more southern reservations, even growing in the forests of Arizona. Here, however, the forest is open and the drooping limbs cover the boles nearly to the ground, rendering them of little value for commercial purposes, but of vast importance in shading the ground and thus aiding in the conservation of moisture.

No greater mistake can be made than to consider the timber supply of the reservations as confined to the mature trees that we find growing there at the present time. We should look into the future and ask what are these 46,800,000 acres of reserved lands capable of producing as an annual increment when properly protected and managed. What kind of forests are they capable of producing in the future, long after the trees now living shall have been harvested or have gone to decay?