MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



11 



NATURE PROTECTS 



THE REDWOOD TREE 



"How did it happen that any of the big trees 

 of California escaped the axe of the lumber* 

 man?" is a question frequently asked by those 

 who are not familiar with the topography of 

 California. The question answers itself when 

 one has made a trip to the giant forest in the 

 Sierras. 



Nature seems to have protected many of 

 these trees from slaughter by providing a home 

 for them in a mountain fortress. The big trees 

 were discovered by the lumbermen when the 

 land on which they grew could be had for a 

 song under the homestead act or the timber 

 and stone act. but the problem of transport- 

 ing the timber to the mill involved so great an 

 expenditure that the lumber companies hesi- 

 tated to tackle the job. Some of the more 

 audacious acquired ownership of those tracts 

 nearest the market and expended large sums 

 of money in the construction of flumes. Ft 

 has been a paying investment. The Hume- 

 Bennett Lumber Company, a Michigan cor- 

 poration, purchased a tract containing 800.000,- 

 000 feet ...t~ standing timber, about 300.000,000 

 feet of which is big trees. To float this tim- 

 ber to the mill a flume more than fifty miles 

 long was constructed. But even this company 

 did not have the hardihood to make the ex- 

 penditure that would be necessary to cut and 

 market the timber on the crest of the moun- 

 tain range. 



Before the glacial period the sequoia flour- 

 ished in the temperate zones of Europe. Asia 

 and America. The geologists say that when 

 the ice receded just two species, the big tree 

 and redwood, survived. Both grew in Califor- 

 nia, the redwood in a narrow strip of the 

 coast ranges and the big tree in small groves 

 along the west slope of the Sierra Nevada 

 mountains. 



There are but ten main groups of big trees. 

 They are among the scarcest of known tree 

 species and have the extreme scientific value 

 of being the best living representatives of a 

 former geologic age. The big tree has come 

 down to us through the vicissitudes of many 

 centuries solely because of its superb qualifi- 

 cations ,say> T. W. Brahany in the Milwaukee 

 cations, says T. \Y. Brahany in the Milwaukee 

 almost non-combustible. The oldest specimens 

 felled are still sound at the heart, and fungus 

 is an enemy unknown to it. 



Yet with all these means of maintenance the 

 big trees have not increased their range since 

 the glacial period. They have only just man- 

 aged to hold their own on the little strip of 

 country where the climate is locally favorable. 

 John Muir. the celebrated geologist, says he 

 never saw a big tree that had died a natural 

 death. Barring accidents, he says, they seem 

 to be immortal, being exempt from all the dis- 

 eases that afflict and kill other trees. Unless 

 destroyed by man they live on indefinitely un- 

 til burned, smashed by lightning or cast down 

 by storms or by the giving away of the ground 

 on which they stand. 



The largest belt of big trees is in the Sierras 

 in Tulare county, some forty miles northwest 

 of Visalia. These trees are scattered over the 

 slopes and on the valleys, but are larger in 

 the depressions where the soil is more moist. 

 The trees are not collected together in groves, 

 but are scattered through the forests and as- 

 sociated with sugar pine, fir and other species 

 usually occurring at this altitude. They are 

 most abundant at from 6,000 to 7,000 feet ele- 

 vation abveo sea level. 



In 1885 some enterprising men in California 

 hit upon a scheme whereby lumbering opera- 

 tions in the high Sierras could be conducted 

 profitably. They organized a profit-sharing 

 society known as the Kaweah colony. It had 

 the germ of the socialistic spirit, for each 

 member contributed his pro rata of money or 

 labor to the cause. A co-operative store was 

 organized, a co-operative mill established. 



Hillside and Irrigation Ditch in perfect condition, undisturbed by fire. In absence of trees 

 the brush does much to hold the soil and rain water Courtesy Forestry & Irrigation. 



farm lands were apportioned and work was 

 begun on the construction of a road to the 

 mountain battlements where were growing the 

 grand old trees that have stood since the days 

 of Christ. 



The Kaweah colony had a membership of 

 .'!52. nearly every state in the union being rep- 

 resented. Several members of the colony 

 worked on the road and fully two-thirds of a 

 splendid wagon way up the steep slopes had 

 been completed, when, without warning. Con- 

 gress exploded a bombshell that scattered the 

 industrious Kaweahans to the four corners of 

 the United States. Only a few hours before 

 Congress adjourned in March. 1891, the presi- 

 dent signed a bill containing not more than a 

 dozen lines creating the Giant Forest National 

 Park. 



Members of the colony had neglected to file 

 on the land on which the big trees stood. The 

 creation of a national park meant the with- 

 drawal of the land from entry. All the road 

 building had been in vain, for not one of the 

 sequoias in this forest of the world's most 

 magnificent trees could be cut. Almost $63,000 

 was expended in road construction by the col- 

 ony. The colony disbanded when the park was 

 created and no claim ever has been made 

 against the government for the money spent 

 in road building. The joad to the interior of 

 the forest was completed by the government, 

 and now it is a public highwa3'. About 1.500 

 acres of the forest is in private ownership, but 

 the trees have not been cut. They could not 

 be hauled to the valley, as heavy teaming on 

 the government road is prohibited. 



It is estimated there are 60.000 sequoias in 

 the forest, the big trees running about twenty 

 to the acre. While nurseries have been estab- 

 lished, no marked success in the growing of 

 these trees has attended the efforts of the gov- 

 ernment. The parable of the acorn and the 

 oak is familiar to those who have been admon- 

 ished that great achievements come from small 

 beginnings. A more striking eaxmple is the 

 big tree and its seed. A single cone contains 

 from 200 to 300 seeds, which are about one- 

 fourth of an inch long by three-sixteenths 

 wide. The seed of this giant of the forest is 

 strikingly like the seed of the parsnip. 



Mr. Muir says that no other sierra conifer 

 produces nearly so many seeds. Millions are 

 ripened annually by a single tree. "In a fruit- 

 ful year." says Mr. Muir. ''the product of one 

 of the northewi groves would be enough to 



plant all the mountain ranges of the world. 

 But few of the millions of seed which fall to 

 the ground germinate, and of those that do 

 perhaps not one in 10,000 is suffered to live 

 through the many vicissitudes of storm, drouth, 

 tire and snow crushing that beset their youth." 



All the sequoias in the giant forest are mon- 

 . ster trees, but the greatest of them all is a 

 tree known as the Gen. Sherman. It is 280 

 feet high and 12 feet above the ground has a 

 circumference of 823/10 feet. Its circumfer- 

 ence at the ground is 103 feet. It is estimated 

 this tree contains 300.000 feet of merchantable 

 lumber. A timber cruiser who examined this 

 tree as a curiosity said there was enough tim- 

 ber in it to fence and cross-fence 160 acres of 

 land, build a seven-room house, barn and out- 

 buildings, and leave enough refuse to supply 

 firewood for a year. From this tree alone, he 

 said, there could be constructed fifteen frame 

 houses, each two stories high. 



The second largest tree is called the Abe 

 Lincoln. This tree has a diameter of 32 feet 

 at its base. At the south edge of the giant for- 

 est, near Moro rock, is a tree known as the 

 Theodore Roosevelt. This tree is not as large 

 as the other two. but is more symmetrical. 



FORESTRY NOTES. 



Gen. C. C. Andrews, forestry commissioner. 

 | has returned to Minneapolis, Minn., from a 

 I visit to the forest between Vermillion and 

 j Rainy lakes. He says: ''Four years ago I 

 j visited that part of the pine forest in the Ash 

 j lake country, about 12 miles east of that lake. 

 In this is some of the best white pine remain- 

 ing in Minnesota. That part of the forest 

 which surrounds Ash lake, and which is about 

 60 miles north of Virginia, contains 5,000,000.- 

 000 feet of pine standing, which will be cut in 

 the next 10 years." 



In continuance of its plans to provide for 

 some of its future requirements in timber and 

 crossties .the Pennsylvania Railroad forestry 

 department has completed its planting for this 

 year. A total of 625,000 trees were planted. 

 These make, up to the present time. 2.425,000 

 trees planted by the department. 



A. W. Decker & Company have assumed con- 

 trol of the saw mill of Archie McKay at West 

 Branch, and will continue the manufacture of the 

 stock of logs on hand into lumber. Mr. Decker 

 has been engaged in the handling of forest prod- 

 ucts for many years. 



