Thoughts on Forestry in California. 175 



the white pine and the larch would unfit them for this climate ; also, the tend- 

 ency to rvin their roots near the surface of the ground would be to their 

 disadvantage. For desert planting trees must be used that can be grown 

 cheaply from seeds, so as to come within the means of the new settlers. 

 This would seem to be a necessity. I would place Eucalyptics globulus at the 

 front, as I have seen it growing in what would seem almost impossible places. 

 It would make fuel cheaper than any other tree that could be grown on like 

 lands. The common locust, Robinia pseudacacia, I have seen growing well 

 in Western Kansas and Nebraska, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and 

 at several places in this state, in every case making a good growth without 

 irrigation, and in all these cases I have failed to find traces of the borer, so 

 fatal to this tree in the eastern states. Would space admit, I might name 

 other trees I would deem as promising well. These two, however, will 

 furnish fuel and durable posts for the new settler, are grown very cheaply 

 from seeds, and transplant well. 



For general forest planting there are two valuable trees that stand out 

 in bold relief. In their case there can be no mistake, for nature has suc- 

 ceeded in growing them almost everywhere between the eastern base of the 

 Rocky mountains and the Pacific coast, and man has used them more gen- 

 erally than any other trees over the whole western half of the continent — 

 Pinus punderosa and Pseudotsuga Douglasii, or Douglas spruce. The former, 

 Pinus ponderosa, ranges all through the mountains from British Columbia 

 down into Mexico, through Arizona and New Mexico to Western Texas, 

 growing on dry mountain-sides through Colorado and Montana. It forms 

 over 90 per cent, of all the timber in the Black hills of Dakota, reaches further 

 out on the plains than any other tree in Colorado, and is the only western 

 coast tree that runs east into Nebraska. Sargent says : " Next to the Douglas 

 spruce, it is the most generally distributed and valuable tree of the Pacific 

 forests." The Douglas spruce ranges through British Columbia, Oregon, 

 Washington Territory, all through the Sierra Nevada, the San Bernardino 

 mountains, Arizona, New Mexico, and on high dry rklges in Colorado, through 

 the Uintah and Wasatch mountains, and in Wyoming and Montana. Sar- 

 gent says : " It is calted yellow or red fir by lumbermen ; is more generally 

 distributed and said to be the most valuable timber tree on the Pacific coast." 

 This tree grows on high dry ridges in Colorado, Arizona and Montana, which 

 proves it to be, Yike ponderosa, a suitable tree for planting on dry lands. Like 

 P. ponderosa^ it is a rapid grower, and reaches to the largest size. These two 

 trees furnish nearly all the merchantable lumber, except redwood, from the 

 coast to the eastern base of the Rocky mountains. 



The Sequoia sempervirens, redwood, is a valuable tree, but only adapted 

 to certain localities. It has a very circumscribed range, only reaching from 

 about the northern line of the state to the southern boundary of Monterey 

 county, and in a narrow belt along the coast. Experiments may prove that 

 this valuable tree will succeed far from its present locality. I noticed a fine 

 specimen on Dr. Cares' grounds in Pasadena, eight years planted, and over 



