The lodgepole pine has been called a fire tree, and the name is not inappropriate. It profits by severe burning, as some other trees of the United States do, such as paper birch and bird cherry. The sealed cones are opened by fire, which softens the resin, and the seeds are liberated after the fire has passed, and wing their flight wherever the wind carries them. The passing fire may be severe enough to kill the parent tree without destroying or bringing down the cones. The seeds soon fall on the bared mineral soil, where they germinate by thousands. More than one hundred thousand small seedling trees may occupy a single acre. Most of them are ultimately crowded to death, but a thick stand results. Most lodgepole pine forests occupy old burns. The tree is one of the slowest of growers. It never reaches large size--possibly three feet is the limit. It is very tall and slender. A hundred years will scarcely produce a sawlog of the smallest size. The range of this tree covers a million square miles from Alaska to New Mexico, and to the Pacific coast. Its characters vary in different parts of its range. A scrub form was once thought to be a different species, and was called shore pine. The wood is of about the same weight as eastern white pine. It is light in color, rather weak, and brittle, annual rings very narrow, summerwood small in amount, resin passages few and small; medullary rays numerous, broad, and prominent. The wood is characterized by numerous small knots. It is not durable in contact with the ground, but it readily receives preservative treatment. In height it ranges from fifty to one hundred feet. The government’s estimate of the stand of lodgepole pine in the United States in 1909 placed it at 90,000,000,000 feet. That makes it seventh in quantity among the timber trees of this country, those above it being Douglas fir, the southern yellow pines (considered as one), western yellow pine, redwood, western hemlock, and the red cedar of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Lodgepole pine has been long and widely used as a ranch timber in the Far West, serving for poles and rails in fences, for sheds, barns, corrals, pens, and small bridges. Where it could be had at all, it was generally plentiful. Stock ranges high among the mountains frequently depend almost solely upon lodgepole pine for necessary timber. Mine operators find it a valuable resource. As props it is cheap, substantial, and convenient in many parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Montana. A large proportion of this timber which is cut for mining purposes has been standing dead from fire injury many years, and is thoroughly seasoned and very light. It is in excellent condition for receiving preservative treatment.