The seasoning of western larch has given lumbermen much trouble. It checks badly and splinters rise from the surface of boards. It is generally admitted that this is the most serious obstacle in the way of securing wide utilization for the wood. The structure of the annual ring is reason for believing that there is slight adhesion between the springwood and that of the late season. Checks are very numerous parallel with the growth rings, and splinters part from the board along the same lines. Standing timber is frequently windshaken, and the cracks follow the rings.
All of this is presumptive evidence that the principle defect of larch is a lack of adhesion between the early and the late wood. If that is correct, it is a fundamental defect in the growing tree, and is inherent in the wood. No artificial treatment can wholly remove it. It should not be considered impossible, however, to devise methods of seasoning which would not accentuate the weaknesses natural to the wood.
The form of the larch’s trunk is perfect, from the lumberman’s viewpoint, and its size is all that could be desired. It is amply able to perpetuate its species, though it consumes a great deal of time in the process. Abundant crops of seeds are borne, but only once in several years. It rarely bears seeds as early as its twenty-fifth year, and generally not until it passes forty; but its fruitful period is long, extending over several centuries. The seeds retain their vitality moderately well, which is an important consideration in view of the tree’s habit of opening and closing its cones alternately as the weather happens to be damp or dry. The dispersion of seeds extends over a considerable part of the season, and the changing winds scatter them in all directions. Many seeds fall on the snow in winter to be let down on the damp ground ready to germinate during the early spring. The best germination occurs on mineral soil, and this is often found in areas recently bared by fire. Lodgepole pine contends also for this ground; but the race between the two species is not swift after the process of scattering seeds has been completed; for both are of growth so exceedingly slow that a hundred years will scarcely tell which is gaining. In the long run, however, the larch outstrips the pine and becomes a larger tree. If both start at the same time, and there is not room for both, the pine will kill the larch by shading it. The latter’s thin foliage renders it incapable of casting a shadow dense enough to hurt the pine. The best areas for larch are those so thoroughly burned as to preclude the immediate heavy reproduction of lodgepole pine.