Although it
might be possible to graft the best varieties on young seedling stocks,
in all the hundreds of grafts I have made on pine, I have been
successful only once. I doubt that such a thing would ever be practical
from a commercial standpoint unless some new method were discovered by
which a larger percentage of successful grafts could be realized.
I cultivated the Douglas fir, white, Norway, and Colorado blue varieties
of spruce. Besides these, I planted balsam fir, red cedar, _Juniperus
Virginiana_, and white cedar, _Arborvitae_. Practically all of these
trees are still growing and many of them bear seed.
I wish to describe the limber pine, _Pinus flexilis_, for it is not only
a good grower and quite hardy but it is also a very ornamental nut pine
which grows to be a broad, stout-trunked tree 40 to 75 feet high. The
young bark is pale grey or silver; the old bark is very dark, in square
plates. The wood itself is light, soft and close-grained, having a color
that varies from yellow to red. The needles, which are found in clusters
of five, are slender, 1-1/2 to 3 inches long, and are dark green. They
are shed during the fifth or sixth year. The buds of the tree are found
bunched at the branch tips and are scaly and pointed.
Pages:
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30