1879. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



153 



depth of one or two lines, and in the case of red 

 beech or alder, for instance, the walnut appear- 

 ance is most perfect. 



Timber Planting in Canada. — "We in the 

 States often think that we shall have to look to 

 Canada when our own supplies of timber are 

 i,'^one, but it would appear by the following from 

 the Canadian Farmer'' s Advocate that they fear 

 getting behind us : 



" What are our Canadian railway companies 

 doing in the way of planting? Tlie T'nited 

 States railways are enhancing the value of their 

 propertj' by planting along the lines. The B. 

 «& N. Railway in Nebraska has 186 acres planted 

 — 460,000 trees, and other railways in like propor- 

 tion. This is done in the "West not only as a 

 means of inducing emigration by demonstrating 

 the feasibility of timber-growing in a few years, 

 but also as a protection from drifting snows 

 along their tracks. On railway timber planting 

 the Nebraska Farmer savs : 



' One of the great mistakes, as heretofore 

 stated by us, is with the planting for wind- 

 breaks. The trees are usually planted in 

 straight lines, often only a single row, seldom 

 more than two or three, and almost always too 

 near the track. The trees should be planted at 

 such a distance that the drift, in lodging to lee- 

 ward, will fall short of the track. They should 

 also be planted rather open than close, and be 

 of sufhcient breadth that the drifts may lodge 

 within them, or partially so. In fact, the 

 breadth of the planting should correspond to the 

 average depth of the snow-fall and the nature of 

 the drifts to be contended against. Of course in 

 certain localities nothing less than a forest would 

 suffice, yet these are only isolated instances, as 

 where tracks have to be walled in to prevent 

 snowslides. It is to be hoped that a new impe- 

 tus will be given to tree-planting for protection 

 this and succeeding summers, especially by rail- 

 way companies.' " 



Natural History and Science. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



A FEW MAGNIFICENT SINGLE TREES OF 

 CALIFORNIA. 



BY CHARLES H. SHINN, OF NILES, CAL. 



The feeling which moves us when we gaze 

 upon a single tree which nature has planted and 

 trained wholly without human interference, is 

 akin to that lofty admiration which mountain 

 heights, ocean depths, and the ceaseless stars 

 produce. Simply as a monument of many years 

 growth, and as in itself imposing, such a tree is 

 memorable. The few distinguished trees of every 

 species, are, however usually found in pictur- 

 esque and rarely beautiful places, when the sur- 

 roundings harmonize completely, where sha- 

 dows lie, and ferns gather underneath; where 

 clouds drift overhead, and winds pass with their 

 breath of healing from far off crags •, where other 

 trees of royal line are themselves pages to the 

 one unapproachable and majestic tree. 



It has been my fortunate lot during wild ram- 

 bles and long journeys in both the Coast Range 

 and the Sierras, to find a few trees which 

 seemed to me worthy of record. These measure- 

 ments made often with a knotted handkerchief 

 cannot be vouched for as mathematically exact 

 to the fragment of an inch, but I have conscien- 

 tiously endeavored to make them as accurate as 

 possible under the circumstances. 



In the mountainous portion of San Luis, 

 Obispo County, and nearly at the head of a nar- 

 row little valley used as a stock range, and sel- 

 dom or never visited except by vaqueros and 

 sheep-herders, there stands a single White Oak 

 tree, the tallest and most symmetrical I have 

 ever seen. The first glimpse is obtained when 

 coming around a spur of limestone rock, some 

 two miles south, and fi'om that time on it be- 

 comes each moment more conspicuous, rising 

 above sycamores, cedar, lesser oaks, and trees 

 of every description. At this distance the trunk 

 is hardly seen, but the magnificent crown rises 

 in a spire, compact and perfect, some three 



