STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 241 



Charles A. Curtis , Assessor Ninth Township. 



Assessor's Office of the Ninth Township, "* 

 Murphy's, August 30, 1865. J 

 I. N. HoAG, Esq., 



Secretary State Board of Agriculture : 



Dear Sir : — Please find my statistical report inclosed. I will remark 

 that the Ninth Township of Calaveras Count}^ is located in the north- 

 east corner of the count}^, and is about thirty-five miles long by twelve 

 miles wide. The principal business carried on is mining. The chief 

 products are hay, fruit, and vegetables. The principal towns are: Mur- 

 phy's, with a population of about eight hundred, and Vallecito, with 

 about four hundred inhabitants. The general character of the country 

 is mountainous, with a large amount of fine timber land. The famous 

 Big Tree Grove is likewise situated in the northeast end of the township, 

 at an elevation of two thousand five hundred feet above the level of the 

 sea, and distant from Murphy's fourteen miles, over one of the finest 

 roads in California.* 



Eespectfully submitted, 



CHAKLES A. CURTIS, 



Assessor Ninth Township. 



PLACER COUNTY. 

 W. Van Vactor County Assessor. 



Assessor's Office, District No. 3, | 



Iowa Hill, September 13th, 1865. j 

 1. N. Hoag, Esq., 



Secretary State Board of Agriculture : 



Sir : — As a descriptive report of my district, I would submit the fol- 

 lowing brief statement: 



* In tlie proceedings of the California Academy of Natural Sciences of July third, eighteen 

 hundred and sixty-five, I find the following scientific measurement of these famous " Big Trees," 

 which cannot fail to be of interest in all parts of the world j and I give it an insertion here as an 

 appropriate place. — [Hoag, Secretary. 



" Dr. C. T. Jackson read the following paper relative to the 



" BIG TREES OP CALAVERAS COUNTY : 



'" 3feasKrement of the hcvjld and circumference of twenty-five of the 'Bit/ Trees' (sequoia 

 gigantea) in Cnhtceras Cminty, hy Dr. Charles T. Jackson, and Mr. Joseph B. Header, August 

 second and third, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, 



"Instruments made use of: 



"I. Sir H. Douglass' Reflecting Semicircle (Gary): 



"2. A Reflecting Level, made by J. H. Temple, of Boston ; 



"3. A common Measuring Tape. 



" The horizontal point Was fixed upon each tree, and the angle measured by the reflecting 

 semicircle, and protracted by it. 



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