38 WITH THE FLOWERS AND TREES 



mens growing on his ranch, began to advise their 

 extensive cultivation as an addition to the State's 

 resources. Since then they have been planted so 

 extensively in Central and Southern California, in 

 valley and on mountain side, by irrigation ditches 

 and on stretches of desert aridity, that the whole 

 face of the landscape in many sections has been 

 changed. Set as windbreaks, the eucalypts have 

 made many a shifty plain agriculturally possible 

 that was worthless before; and as a fuel producer 

 in a region of scant forest and no coal, they have 

 been a gift as of the very gods. The lusty young 

 trees are ready for the ax at five or six years old 

 and the shorn stumps quickly send up vigorous 

 shoots eager for a fresh whirl at life. These are 

 thinned out and in another half dozen years, three 

 or four will be ripe for cutting again. The green 

 leaves and branches are filled with an inflammable 

 oil, and one of the sights for tenderfeet, is the feed- 

 ing of stoves and furnaces with such fresh trim- 

 mings. All the species of eucalyptus are hardwood 

 trees, and while the hardness is of various degrees 

 in the different species, all are in the same general 

 class as hickory, walnut, oak and even mahogany, 

 and the uses of the wood are accordingly manifold. 

 Eucalyptus blossoms are among the most curious 

 of flowers. Different species bloom at different 



