776 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Yellow Pine and Fir Reproduction 



THE struggle BETWEEN THE FOREST AND THE CHAPARRAL AT THE FOOT OF MOUNT SHASTA. FIRE IS THE ALLY 

 OF THE CHAPARRAL. WITHOUT IT THE PINES. FIR AND CEDAR WOULD WIN BACK THE LOST GROUND. THIS 

 VIEW .\NTD MANY LIKE IT CAN BE SEEN FROM THE TR.'MN JUST NORTH OF SISSON ON THE SHASTA ROUTE OF 

 THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC 



Yosemite. By either route the tran- 

 sition from the chaparral and foot hills 

 to the vSierra Forests of Douglas fir, 

 cedar and pine will be seen. In the foot 

 hills the live oaks and digger pine will 

 be the prominent features of the land- 

 scape and an open non-commercial 

 forest carpeted with low growing chapar- 

 ral species will be traversed. The digger 

 pine is the most ghostly of all pines, 

 its grayish green and scanty foliage 

 bringing into prominent relief the trunk 

 and limbs of skeleton shape and aspect, 

 with the peculiar U-shaped forks. 

 Studded among the oaks of the foot 

 hills, with the chaparral as a back 

 ground, is the red barked manzanite 

 lending a touch of color, by which a 

 forest condition of unusual artistic 

 charm is created. As the higher slopes 

 are reached, but where the arid con- 

 ditions of the valley are still felt, 

 yellow pine and fir will begin to appear 

 in the sheltered moist ravines and on 



north slopes. Finally the true forests 

 of the intermediate slopes of the Sierras 

 will be found under a variety of 

 groupings and mixtures dependent on 

 local conditions of soil, moisture and 

 exposure. 



The Sierra commercial forests are 

 not seen at their best on any of the 

 usual scenic routes. The sugar and 

 yellow pines, fir, cedar and spruce, 

 which contribute to the importance of 

 California as a lumber producing State, 

 have been largely cut out near the 

 railroads and are not up to standard 

 where the travel booklets tell one to go. 

 To see these forests one must go into 

 the lumber camps off the established 

 routes of travel, although glimpses may 

 be had from the highways and byways 

 over which the hurried visitor travels. 

 The Lake Tahoe country, for example, 

 gives some idea of what these forests 

 were before fire and commercial neces- 

 sity took their toll. On the slope 



