The Practical Lumberman Classic Reprint

Excerpt from The Practical Lumberman Douglas Fir, widely known as Oregon Pine, reaches its best development for commercial purposes on the Pacific Coast, from the head of the Skeena River, in British Columbia, and southward through the States of Washington and Oregon to Central California. The wood is comparatively light but very strong; it is the strongest wood in the world for its weight that is obtainable in commercial sizes and quantities. With the exception of Spruce, Douglas Fir is in greater demand for Airplane construction than any other wood, and material of excellent quality for this purpose can be found in unlimited amounts. The Correct Name Douglas Fir is named after David Douglas, botanist, who explored British Columbia (then called New Caledonia) in 1825-30. It is the most important timber tree on the North American Continent, and is known by a great variety of names, such as Oregon Pine, Oregon Fir, Washington Fir, Yellow Fir, Red Fir, Douglas Spruce, Red Spruce, Puget Sound Pine, and British Columbia Pine. The employment of so large a number of names for one class of tree is very confusing, detrimental and often misleading, and for these reasons the United States Forest Service some years ago took a lumber census which resulted in their adopting the name Douglas Fir, as it was used more than all others combined. Merits And Uses The stand of timber in Oregon and Washington alone, it is estimated, comprises 25% of the remaining stand of timber in the United States, and in British Columbia is estimated to comprise one-third of the total timber supply of Canada. It is considered the strongest softwood in the world. (See United States Forest Service Bulletin No. 108). Douglas Fir is moderately hard but easy to work, straight grained, resilient, tough and durable. Combining these qualities of great strength, light weight, ease of working and handling, Douglas Fir more than any other commercial timber, is the ideal wood for practically all building and structual purposes. Owing to the great size of the trees, Douglas Fir timber can be furnished in the largest dimensions required in modern heavy construction. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.