Timber Interests of the Pacific Coast. 67 



duces itself from the stump and the root that produced a tree a foot in di- 

 ameter in ten years, will produce two of equnl size in the next ten years. 

 The second crop will thus be double in value to the first, and as the root 

 lives, there seems to be no limit to the life and continued reproduction. 



When the trees have grown to be large enough to be cut for fuel, the owner 

 will commence by cutting ofT one-eighth or tenth of his grove, and on each 

 succeeding year the same quantity, until he has gone entirely over the 

 ground, when the part where he first commenced will be ready for him to 

 commence again, and so on indefinitely at an increasing ratio; the larger 

 and stronger the roots become, the more timber they will produce, and all 

 the care and attention that the forest will require will be to confine the 

 number of sprouts on the stumps of the previous year's clearing to two, the 

 expense of which will be small. M. Nadeau is now cutting his five year old 

 blue gums, which yield twenty-five cords of good hard wood per acre, worth 

 $10 per cord on the ground, or $250 per acre. This is $50 per year for the 

 land. In the next five years the stumps from these trees will produce trees 

 that will yield at least fifty per cent, more wood, or thirty-seven and one-half 

 cords, worth $375 per acre; or if permitted to grow for ten years, $750, and 

 no care or expense to the owner, except thinning out the suckers the year 

 after cutting. The total cost of the.land, planting and cultivating need not 

 be over $100 per acre, and after the trees are large enough to cut, the har- 

 vest is annual and the income perpetual. 



FORESTS AXD LT'MBER OF WASHlMiTOX TERRITORY. 



The most important portion of territory I visited was that of Washington, 

 contained in the area north of the Columbia river and bounded on the east 

 by the Cascade range of mountains, on the north by British Columbia and 

 the Straits of Fuca,and on the west by the Pacific ocean, containing in round 

 numbers about 30,000 square miles. The principal portion of this region is 

 covered with a dense growth of timber trees, of which the most abundant 

 and most important being used almost exclusively in the manufacture of 

 lumber, are : 



The firs {Abies Dougkisisi and Abies gmndis). The other kinds of conifene 

 found at the mills are the cedar {Thuya gig anJtea), the sprur-e {Ahi>:-i menzinsii), 

 and hemlock {Ahie>f mertencicuia). A species of white pine {Pinm alba) is oc- 

 casionally found. The pine {Pinus pomhwsa), which grows to majestic pro- 

 portions in Eastern Washington, is not found on Puget's Sound. The other 

 cone-bearing trees are the arbor vitte {Thaya pilitmi), which grows along the 

 borders of the Straits of Fuca. Full 90 per cent, of all the lumber, timber 

 and spars produced on Puget's Sound is fir, and is so known and das.^i'd by all 

 lumber dealers and mill men. 



Of the deciduous trees, the most common is the white maple {Anr nlha), n 

 beautiful wood, capable of a high polish : the alder (Alims Omi<m>i). the worxl 

 being white and soft, is good for carving and for furniture and tin- bark furn- 

 ishes a red dye, used by the Indians for coloring. The white a.sh {Fmxinm 



