TURNING A DESERT INTO FERTILE SOIL 



551 



small, since two men could easily plant 3,000 trees a 

 day. 



']"he rapidity with which the sand drifted in many 

 places is well illustrated by some of the accompanying 

 photographs which show the original fence posts, set 

 before the tree planting began, almost entirely covered. 



Mr. Abbott has allowed one blow hole to remain 

 implanted, merely for the purpose of showing other 

 farmers what can be accomplished in the way of re- 

 claiming sandy tracts of land. This blow hole also 

 shows in a mannfr most unmistakable how the trees 



serve to lower the temperature. (Jn the day these 

 ])hotographs were taken, in mid July, a test of the 

 temperature in the blow hole indicated 115 degrees 

 Fahrenheit (it has been known to go as high as 150 

 degrees) while over among the trees it was only 95 

 degrees. This difference was due, of course, to the 

 fact trees drink in and transpire an enormous quantity 

 ot water, and this giving-off tempers the dryness of 

 tlie nearby atmosphere. It is also a known fact that 

 moisture-bearing currents of air are caught by toresi 

 areas as they are not by the heated plams. 



THE LE CONTE OAKS 



CI 1 E noble old liveoaks which flourish on the cam- 

 pus at Berkeley are one of the chief prides of the 

 University of California. Wishing to pay tribute 

 of love and honor to Joseph and John LeConte 

 distinguished as scientists and beloved as teachers, a 

 class dedicated to their memory one of the finest of the 

 old oaks on the campus. These two brothers were born 

 in Georgia, of old Huguenot stock, were professors in 

 South Carolina College, and at the close of the Civil 

 War went to California, where John LeConte became 

 Professor of Physics, and later President of the Univer- 

 sity, while Joseph LeConte became Professor of Geology 

 and Natural ITistory. Although in the forties a pupil of 

 Louis Agassiz at Harvard, Joseph LeConte v;as one of the 

 first scientific men in America to maintain the truth of 

 evolution. He served as President of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the .A.dvancen:ent of Science and as Presideni 

 of the Geological Society of .\merica and when he died, in 

 1901, he left behind him ni,-iny volumes of writings on 

 geolog)', evolution, and many scientific papers. 



Recently the University of California has had all the 

 oak trees on its campus thoroughly cared tor by the 

 methods of modern tree-surgery, under the du-ection of 

 J. W. Gregg, Professor of Landscape Gardening and 

 Floriculture in the University. 



The 520-acre campus of the University of California 

 possesses a wealth of native California trees, shrubs and 

 flowers. During the past five years the hill lands of the 

 University, including the watershed of Strawberry 

 canon, have been planted by the University with approx- 

 imately a himdred thousand trees of many hundreds of 

 species, the work being done with careful consideration 

 of the purposes of the landscape gardener, the botanist 

 and the student of Dendrology and Sylviculture. The 

 University of California within the last three years has 

 developed a notable Forestry School, headed l:)y Walter 

 Mulford, formerly Professor of Forestry at Cornell, the 

 department including also David T. Mason, Professor 

 of Forestry, and Woodbridge Metcalf, Merritt B. Pratt 

 and Donald Bruce, Assistant Professors of Forestry. 



THE LE CONTE OAKS, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 



