PARASITIC PLANT INJURIES.[46]
The most common of the higher parasitic plants damaging timber trees are mistletoes. Many species of deciduous trees are attacked by the common mistletoe (Phoradendron flavescens). It is very prevalent in the South and Southwest and when present in sufficient quantity does considerable damage. There is also a considerable number of smaller mistletoes belonging to the genus Razoumofskya (Arceuthobium) which are widely distributed throughout the country, and several of them are common on coniferous trees in the Rocky Mountains and along the Pacific coast.
One effect of the common mistletoe is the formation of large swellings or tumors. Often the entire tree may become stunted or distorted. The western mistletoe is most common on the branches, where it produces "witches' broom." It frequently attacks the trunk as well, and boards cut from such trees are filled with long, radial holes which seriously damage or destroy the value of the timber affected.
v
LOCALITY OF GROWTH
The data available regarding the effect of the locality of growth upon the properties of wood are not sufficient to warrant definite conclusions. The subject has, however, been kept in mind in many of the U.S. Forest Service timber tests and the following quotations are assembled from various reports:
"In both the Cuban and longleaf pine the locality where grown appears to have but little influence on weight or strength, and there is no reason to believe that the longleaf pine from one State is better than that from any other, since such variations as are claimed can be found on any 40-acre lot of timber in any State. But with loblolly and still more with shortleaf this seems not to be the case. Being widely distributed over many localities different in soil and climate, the growth of the shortleaf pine seems materially influenced by location. The wood from the southern coast and gulf region and even Arkansas is generally heavier than the wood from localities farther north. Very light and fine-grained wood is seldom met near the southern limit of the range, while it is almost the rule in Missouri, where forms resembling the Norway pine are by no means rare. The loblolly, occupying both wet and dry soils, varies accordingly." Cir. No. 12, p. 6.
" ... It is clear that as all localities have their heavy and their light timber, so they all share in strong and weak, hard and soft material, and the difference in quality of material is evidently far more a matter of individual variation than of soil or climate." Ibid., p.22