WESTERN RED CEDAR [Illustration: WESTERN RED CEDAR] WESTERN RED CEDAR (_Thuja Plicata_) In the eastern markets the lumber from this tree is usually called western cedar without further description, but that name does not always sufficiently identify it. There are other western cedars, notably incense and yellow; but they have not generally appeared in eastern markets. Western red cedar is the name given it when the purpose is to separate it from other western cedars. It is the only red cedar in the far West, except the scarce junipers which are totally unknown as its competitors in lumber centers. Gigantic cedar is a name which takes size into account. It is the largest of American cedars. Trunks fifteen feet in diameter and 200 feet high are sometimes seen, but the usual size is 100 high, from two to four in diameter. Canoe cedar is a name bestowed upon this western tree for the same reason that canoe wood is one of the yellow poplar’s names in the East. It is one of the best woods for dugout canoes. Botanists have called the tree giant arborvitæ, but the name never got beyond books. When the people of Washington and Oregon speak of cedar without a qualifying term, they mean this species. It is widely known as shingle wood or shingle cedar, because more shingles are made of it than of all other kinds of timber in the United States combined. The western red cedar’s range covers 300,000 square miles, not counting regions of small or scattered growth. For a timber tree, that range is large, but not nearly as large as some others. It exceeds one-hundred fold the commercial range of redwood, and probably a thousand fold that of Port Orford cedar, but its range is not one-third that of the eastern red cedar, though in total quantity of available lumber it surpasses the eastern tree a hundred fold. Its range begins in Alaska on the north, and follows the coast to northern California, and extends eastward into Idaho. The best development occurs in the regions of warm, moist Pacific winds, but not in the immediate fog belts. The largest quantity of this wood, and probably the largest trees also, are in Washington. Abundant rainfall is essential to western red cedar’s development. It would be difficult to approximate the amount of the remaining stand. This cedar does not form pure forests, and estimates of so many feet per acre or square mile cannot be based on fairly exact information as may be done with redwood, and some of the southern pines. Though the drain upon the cedar forests is heavy, it is generally believed there is enough of this species to meet demands for a long period of years.