336 Trees of Southern California. [ ZOE 
We have then in these mountains a great Yellow Pine helt of 
mixed coniferous trees;* at its upper edge a belt of Pinus contorta 
is indicated, capped by a well-defined belt of Pinus albicau/is; on 
the seaward side it is based on a zone of Pseudotsuga, and on 
the desert side by a belt of Juniper superimposed on one of 
Pifion. The smaller forests to the west and south, so far as 
known, include only the spruce and yellow pine belts. 
ECONOMIC ASPECTS. 
In the San Jacinto cottonwoods a small mill was for a time 
employed in turning out material for orange boxes, but with 
this exception the trees of the lower altitudes have been utilized 
only as a source of fuel supply, and a most important one for a 
region so distant from good coal measures. 
e San Bernardino forest was at once drawn upon for lum- 
ber by the first American settlers in the subjacent valleys, and 
has been continuously worked up tothe present day. Opera- 
tions have been confined to the watershed of the Mojave, the 
only part of the forest sufficiently accessible to be worked with 
profit under present market conditions. Of the original forest 
of this watershed less than one-third now remains. In it are 
now located eight steam saw mills, capable of a total output of 
ten million feet B. M. in a summer run of six months. From 
various causes, dullness of business, exhaustion of the timber 
supply, and the competition of northern lumber, only two or 
three of these mills have been operated during the last two 
product is drawn by horse teams to San Bernardino, where it 
has sold within late years at from twenty to sixteen dollars per 
thousand B. M., nine to seven dollars of the price being charge- 
able to freight. Most of the lumber is, of course, yellow pine. 
Mill men claim that of this there are two kinds; one, recognized : 
by the broad plates of the bark, has a thin sap-wood, and the 
wood is soft, straight-grained and durable, and yields a ches 
* As already stated, — species c composing this belt are n 
segregated in separate zo closer observation will probably show soak 
Pinus Jeffreyi and Lier ain have an upper limit somewhere 
between 7000 and 8090 fee 
a i aia eel 
