140 Forestry Quarterly. 



measures 22 feet in diameter at the butt; it is approximately 200 

 feet high and has a bark of an average thickness of 9 inches. A 

 trail, which is tramped entirely by interested sightseers, leads to 

 it from the county road. 



The redwood does not grow very fast, and a few stump 

 analyses showed that a tree 5 feet in diameter was about from 

 600 to 700 years old, while a tree 8^ feet in diameter showed the 

 age of 900 years. 



The redwood reproduces itself by seeds and sprouts, and the 

 latter are of most importance on the cut over lands. Frequently as 

 many as 20 sprouts may be seen coming forth from the neck of 

 the roots, and occasionally a few sprouts come out from the top 

 or the sides of the stump itself. It is claimed by lumbermen, 

 that the material in the second growth redwood is of inferior 

 quality, and will only make second grade of lumber. 



The stumpage price of redwood has gone up greatly in late 

 years, and is still increasing at the same rate. The present price 

 varies usually between $2.25 to $3.25 per M feet board measure; 

 but most of the land is already in the hands of large lumber con- 

 cerns, and is never known to be for sale. 



The logging of the redwood differs somewhat from the log- 

 ging of other species on account of the large sizes that have to be 

 handled. It seems an immense task to undertake to cut down 

 trees of such enormous diameters ; but the fallers seem to go at 

 their giants with the same ease as the choppers do with their 16 

 inch trees in the East. The fallers work two and two together, 

 and have nothing else to do but fall the trees properly. This re- 

 quires some skill in these dense forests, where a tree lodged may 

 mean days of extra labor. The fallers stand on a horizontal 

 platform when felling a tree, which is made of two drivers and 

 two boards for each man. The undercut is often made with ax 

 and saw, which is easier than cutting alone. It is made in one 

 of two ways, either by cutting off part of the first log to the saw- 

 kerf, or by cutting off a slant on the stump. 



To be sure that a tree is going to fall in a certain direction a 

 gunstick is used. This stick is about 12 feet long, and is usually 

 made of four pieces of wood, which are jointed together so as to 

 form a parallelogram, when opened, the opposite corners will be 

 on a line perpendicular to the undercut. 



It takes from 2 to 2,\ hours to fall a tree 6 feet in diameter, 



