HARDWOOD RECORD 



21 



properties which belong to mature or carefully-selected timber? 



Evidently not. The wood of young trees, especially the blue gum, 

 shrinks and warps so excessively that it cannot be regarded as lum- 

 ber in any true sense. Wood of good quality as lumber does not 

 appear to form under thirty years of age, and only in trees over 

 two feet in diameter. The older and larger the tree the better is 

 the quality of the wood. 



The great value of the young blue gum trees for fuel, wind- 

 breaks, soil protection and drainage, medicinal purposes, oils, etc., 

 and of some species for posts, ties, and piles, has been well estab- 

 lished on facts, and in many cases fully justifies the planting of this 

 tree. The wood, moreover, has been utilized in small sizes, such as 

 insulator pins, tool handles, and to some extent as vehicle stock. 

 Profits should be figured upon this basis and not upon fictitious 

 values for lumber by ascribing the properties of large Australian 

 timber to this young growth. 



The first recorded planting of eucalyptus in California is that ac- 

 credited to Mr. Walker of San Francisco, who is said to have planted 

 fourteen species in 18.56. It is doubtful if any of these trees are now 

 standing. In 1860 the importation of seed was started by nursery- 

 men. Steven Nolan of Oakland has been given credit for the first 

 actual distribution of trees throughout the state, though it is doubt- 

 ful if any of his trees were established in plantations of commercial 

 importance. By 1870 eucalyptus, mostly blue gum, was becoming 

 well known throughout the state. The California Board of Forestry 

 distributed many trees to planters in 1SS6, 1887, and 1888. In 1877, 



or shortly after, the Southern Pacific procured many seedling from 

 nurseries in Oakland and planted them along rights of way in Ala- 

 meda county, in aU 44,000 trees, mostly blue gum. They grew well, 

 reaching a height of from twenty-four to twenty-six feet, and 

 diameters of from eight to ten inches, in four years, but were then 

 used for engine fuel. The first extensive plantations in southern 

 California were made by Elhvood Cooper in 1872 and 1873 near 

 Santa Barbara. 



At San Jose there are many trees growing along the road sides 

 said to have been planted by Bishop Taylor of the Methodist church 

 from seeds which he brought from Australia about 1869. These are 

 the trees used by T. J. Gillespie* for his lumber, and designated by 

 him as "8an Jose gum." 



The oldest trees in California cannot, therefore, be more than fifty- 

 six years old, and it is doubtful if any now standing are over fifty- 

 tflo, and none in groves are over forty years. The grove at the 

 dry kiln at Berkeley was about thirty-three years old, and the trees 

 growing about Piedmont are probably from thirty to thirty-six. It 

 was not until 1904 that eucalyptus was planted on a commercial scale 

 for timber. 



Blue gum is probably the fastest growing tree known. Under 



favorable conditions it attains a height of 150 feet and a diameter 



of from three to five feet in thirty years. Yields of seventy-five 



cords per acre every seven or eight years are not uncommon. This 



•Mr. Gillespie has been a eucalyptus lumber manufacturer at San Jose 

 for many years and claims that he has found in these trees a distinct va- 

 riety of blue gum of greatly superior quality. 



GROVE OF E. CORYKOCALYX PLANTED DECEMBER 11, 1902. GROVE OF E. RESIXIFERA PLANTED MARCH 1, 1903. 



These two groves are adjacent to one another in the same relative pos Itions as shown on this page. Both groves are ten years old. In each 

 view all of the trees visible are of the respective species designated. 



