240 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA 



latter it will last a dozen years, and if well selected, much longer. It is also 

 extensively used by shipbuilders, for mainstem, sternpost, innerpost, dead wood, 

 floor timbers, futtocks, transoms, knightheads, hawsepieces, cant, stern, quarter 

 and fashion timber, bottom planks, breasthooks "and riders, windlass, bowrails, 

 etc. It should be steamed before it is worked for planking. Next to the 

 Jarrah from W. Australia," this is the best wood for resisting the attacks of 

 seaworms and white ants. This species reaches a hundred feet in height, which 

 is also the height of the next and last of the Eucalypti referred to herein, viz : 

 E. siDEROXYLON, Cwin., which produces a wood of great strength and hard- 

 ness, and desirable for carpenters, shipbuilders and wagonmakers, being suitable 

 for wheels, treenails, belaying pins, and is considered the strongest wood in the 

 colony ; also valuable for railway sleepers, underground work in mines, etc. 



The wood of the Gums is " so soft at first as to render the felling, splitting, 

 and sawing up of the tree, when green, a very easy process, but when thoroughly 

 dry becoming as hard as oak." * 



When we consider the fact of the great number of farms in California that 

 are nearly or wholly destitute of wood, and the great and continuous expense 

 entailed by our system of fencing, the importance to the farmer of dedicating 

 a portion of his land to the cultivation of forest trees, from which he can 

 obtain fuel and fencing materials, is too palpable to admit of debate. The 

 comparatively small expense and labor with which the cultivation of a few 

 acres for the purposes I have named is attended, its absolute feasibility and 

 practicability, with the beneficial results that would flow therefrom, should 

 commend itself at once to every farmer, as a few acres of timber laud for 

 economic purposes would add much more than the cost to the cash value of a 

 farm. The boundaries of a farm should be marked by a row or rows of trees, 

 thus defining its limits by living monuments, and greatly adding to its beauty ; 

 from these rows, as the trees advance in growth and age, some wood could be 

 cut, and where the farm is of considerable size, enough in the way of trim- 

 mings or prunings to supply the fuel of the house. In the treeless areas of the 

 southern part of the State, the varieties of Acacia above named would prove 

 an important aid in assisting by their protection the planting of other species 

 of timber ; as they are easily taken care of and will stand excessive drouth. 

 They would also be useful as is our Monterey Cypress, {Cupi-essus macrocarpa) 

 for belts to break the force of the winds in exposed places, and it is to be 

 hoped that before many years, timber belts for this purpose will be common 

 wherever the coast winds prevail, as a protection to orchards and vineyards. 



We have many native trees well adapted for timber or wind-breaks, and 

 while calling the attention of land owners and others to the exotic forma 

 above mentioned and their special qualities as enumerated in Dr. Mueller's 

 excellent paper, I do not wish to be understood as making an unfavorable com- 

 parison as against indigenous species, as for some of the purposes mentioned 

 they will answer equally well. 



It must be remembered, however, that our forests are unfortunately deficient 



* BaircVe Diet. Nat. Hist., p. 235. 



