OUR FOREST RESERVATIONS. 



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utterly inadequate this comparatively large area is to provide those 

 States with their present wood requirements, more particularly 

 timber of desirable dimensions for first-class lumber. 



As one would naturally expect from the great variations in climate 

 and topography, there are marked differences in the reservations in the 

 quality and quantity of timber per acre. Indeed, such reservations as 

 the San Jacinto and San Gabriel in Southern California, reserved pri- 

 marily for the protection which they afford the adjacent cultivated 

 lands, bear merchantable timber, but on a small percentage of their 

 total area. 



The large part of the vegetation is brush or chaparral, either mixed 



The Hemit Resekvoir, San Jacinto Eeseevation, Califoenia. 



with a scattered stand of single trees or wholly composed of shrubby 

 plants. It should hardly be dignified by the term forest. 



From these Southwestern reservations of the arid and semi-arid 

 regions, with little timber of commercial importance, to the rich 

 stands of splendid timber, covering large areas of the Washington 

 and Mount Eanier reservations in the State of Washington, our 

 thirty-nine reservations show all variations in the density of their 

 forests. On the whole, however, but few of them have a large per- 

 centage of their total area covered with first-class commercial trees. 

 In some instances the altitude is too great for the growth of desirable 

 timber, while in others the lack of moisture will not permit its growth 

 at low elevations. It is in the intermediate zones that tree growth is 

 at its best. 



