ARBORICULTURE 



35 



have been retained. The holes dug to 

 receive the roots were seven feet diameter; 

 main feeding roots, of course, were sacri- 

 ficed, the remaining stumps of large roots 

 hewn off three feet from the tree. 



All the skill which money could command 

 has been exerted in trying to preserve these 

 trees. Several which died the first year 

 have been removed, some are now dead, 

 while not one has a healthy appearance, and 

 will succumb within a brief period. 



It is not safe to remove any tree exceed- 



ing six inches diameter. A small tree, two 

 inches caliper, with good roots, will thrive and 

 return a good shade for the care bestowed 

 upon it, long before a very large tree can 

 recover from the loss of its root system. 



It is better to take a moderate tree and 

 bestow upon it an extraordinary care and 

 attention, being patient for results, than to 

 try to accomplish an impossibility. All of 

 us have not the bank account of Mr. 

 Carnegie. Let us be content to follow 

 nature. 



California's Wonderful Trees. 



THE exceptional range of climate ex- 

 isting in California, enables that 

 state to produce the most wonder- 

 ful trees in existence. It is not necessary 

 to seek the giant sequoias of the higher 

 Sierras, nor yet their cousins, the redwood 

 of the coast regions, to find wondrous speci- 

 mens of tree growth, for they are every- 

 where present. 



The enormous eucalyptus trees from 

 Australia, of which 150 varieties are being 

 cultivated in California, and the graceful 

 pepper tree are principally used for shade. 

 Yet all the palms, the citrus, and other 

 tropical trees are growing alongside those 

 from cold and temperate regions. Wher- 

 ever water may be obtained for irrigation, 

 almost every variety of tree may be pro- 

 duced. 



The phenomenal success of the experi- 

 ments at Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, 

 shows what may be accomplished under 

 great difficulties. Quarter of a century ago 

 this was a barren waste of sand, shifting 

 with each ocean breeze. From the bay to 

 seal rocks there was not a tree, scarcely a 

 shrub, soil there was none, simply oceans of 

 sand. 



John McLaren has made upon this foun- 

 dation one of the finest parks in America. 

 A magnificent water system, with an abun- 

 dant supply, has been created, and trees are 

 now growing brought from every continent 

 of the globe, every isle of the sea, tropic, 

 semi-tropic and temperate regions, furnish- 

 ing specimens which are luxuriating on this 

 once forbidding situation. 



Michigan City, Indiana ; Provincetown, 

 Massachusetts ; the coast regions of Florida, 



in fact thousands of locations in the Ignited 

 States which have similar tracts of shifting 

 sands, may learn from this successful experi- 

 ment how to improve their own waste 

 places. 



San Francisco had only one thing in her 

 favor, the climate. Other places have many 

 favorable conditions, among which abundant 

 rainfall is not the least. 



Catalpa speciosa is perfectly at home in 

 California, making a fine shade tree and will 

 prove of great value as an economic tree to 

 replace the magnificent forests which are 

 being so rapidly depleted by selfish money 

 grasping concerns in the Golden State. 



TREE 154 FEET IN CIRCUMFERENCE. 



"What is undoubtedly the largest known 

 tree in the world has been discovered two 

 and a half miles from the Sanger Lumber 

 Company's mill at Converse Basin, far up in 

 the Sierras, in California. The discovery was 

 made by a party of hunters. But little 

 credence was given to the report, as every 

 one thought the description of this colossus 

 of the forest was exaggerated. But it has 

 since been visited by persons who have 

 verified the finders' statement. The tree 

 was measured six feet from the ground, 

 and it took a line 154 feet and eight inches 

 long to encircle it, making it about fifty-one 

 feet in diameter. This tree is a few rods 

 from the company's boundary line and is on 

 the government reserve, hence will stand to 

 interest sightseers." — Exchange. 



Arboriculture has investigated this 

 matter. The tree exists, but is 100 feet 

 girth instead of 154, a fairly good sapling 

 of eighty centuries' growth. 



