8 



and enterprise, in a few years, be retained within our own borders, 

 and here expended in the establishing of new industries pertaining 

 to the very material, the manufacture of which in other portions of 

 the Union employs large communities, to whose support we are 

 now contributing. 



As in Germany to anticipate a future need our own Sequoia sem- 

 pervirens or Redwood tree is extensively cultivated, so here by the 

 cultivation of the Australian Eucalypti we can in a few years supply 

 a positive want, and reap tlie advantages above indicated. 



Since the reading of the above paper I have had many questions 

 asked me by persons not present at the meeting of the Academy, 

 and as an answer to said inquiries and to various propositions I 

 have added the following : 



Some objection has been made to the Acacias and Eucalypts by 

 persons who have planted them for shade or ornamental purposes 

 in the neighborhood of San Francisco, for the reason as alleged that 

 they do not withstand the winds. So far as the observations of 

 myself and others who have investigated the matter extend, it is 

 really surpiising that so few. are prostrated. The fault is not with 

 the trees but the purchaser ; as trees of from four to six feet in 

 height are sold at a low price, they are bought by parties who 

 require only a few, in preference to smaller trees, as they make a 

 greater immediate show. As most of the growth of the trees as 

 usually purchased, after having attained a height of six inches, has 

 been made in the pot or box in which they are sold by the dealers, 

 it will readily be perceived that the tap-root which in a natural state 

 descends, is diverted from a perpendicular into a rotary direction, 

 analogous to a spiral spring, and is also crossed and recrossed on 

 itself — with the liability as it increases in size to strangle the tree 

 by one portion of this root making a short-turn or twist upon 

 another part of the same, or by being wound about and restricted by 

 the lateral roots. It is therefore apparent that the better policy 

 would be, even where only a few trees are wanted, (and this remark 

 applies with equal pertinence to all trees) that other things being 

 equal, such as comely shape and healthy condition, the younger 

 and smaller trees are really cheaper at the same price than the 

 larger, and can generally be obtained for much less. For forest 

 culture the smaller trees are indispensable to success. 



