size of these big redwoods is that of a chopper who selected a tree and 

 began work on one side of it. After he had been cutting for a week, he 

 chanced to stroll around to the other side and there found a man who had 

 been cutting for eight days on the same tree. 



The real "big trees" of California are the Sequoia Gigantea, but 

 they do not furnish the true redwood lumber. The gigantea wood is brittle 

 and is not near so suitable for lumber as the Sequoia Sempervirens, from 

 which the redwood lumber is cut. But the sempervirens is no infant in size, 

 as some there are fully fifty feet in circumference, with tops towering 300 

 feet above the ground. When it is remembered that the bark on a good 

 sized redwood is twelve inches thick, some idea can be had as to the 

 dimensions of the tree proper. 



These redwoods grow from Santa Cruz on the south to the Oregon 

 line on the north, and as a rule are scattered in forests or groves, dotting 

 the hills and mountain slopes with patches of vivid green against the 

 prevailing brown. The greatest quantity is to be found in the northern 

 counties of Sonoma, Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte, and it is here 

 that the vast lumbering interests of the State lie, so far as the redwood 

 is concerned. 



Redwood, being a new lumber, has not yet won its way among 

 builders of other States and other lands, but it is fast being recognized 

 as one of the most stable of all timbers. Where it comes in contact with 

 the ground, or with the weather there is no other lumber that can equal 

 it for lasting quality. It may be said that the red cedar and the cypress 

 are almost as good. Redwood, is practically indestructible in the ground, 

 or exposed to the air. In the forest of Northern California lies to-day a 

 huge redwood trunk which some ancient tornado sent crashing to the 

 ground. On the fallen trunk is growing a spruce tree, thirty inches in 

 diameter, and fully one hundred years old. This tree has grown on top of 

 the fallen trunk, its roots dividing and extending down on each side of the 

 prostrate giant, holding it in a living embrace. This fallen redwood tree is 

 six feet in diameter, and notwithstanding the fact that it has lain for 

 more than a century its wood is as sound as any of the recently felled 

 trees. 



This fact is sufficient evidence of the lasting quality. But there are 

 other qualities which make this lumber as especially suitable for building 

 purpose, not alone in California, but in all parts of the world and especi- 

 ally in the tropics, where the depredations of certain insects make house 

 building something to be dreaded. The white ant, that terror of the tropi- 

 cal countries, and especially of the Philippine Islands, does not touch the 

 redwood, and this fact has brought about quite a trade between California 

 and the insular provinces for the purpose of making cabinets and boxes 

 for the keeping of records. 



What makes redwood especially suitable for building purposes, and 

 for shingles is the fact that it is practically incombustible. To those who 

 have used redv/ood for kindling this may sound as drawing the long bow, 

 but as there is no pitch in redwood, it will not carry fire when there is the 

 slightest moisture in it. For casing work for doors, for windows, and 

 for all places where unchangeableness is a necessity redwood is the best 

 of all lumber. When it is once seasoned it neither shrinks nor swells. 

 It can be wet for weeks without the calipers showing the slightest change 

 in dimension. This feature makes it especially adaptable for pattern work, 

 as it neither warps nor shrinks and the iron moulder will always find his 

 casting exactly of the proper size. 



Its resistance to weather and the action of the elements makes it es- 

 pecially suitable for railroad ties, and thousands of acres of the timber are 

 being cut for this purpose. 



The bulk of the lumber cut is distributed on the Pacific Coast, but 

 other countries are beginning to understand the value of the material, and 

 already Germany and England are sending in large orders for it. Australia. 

 the Sandwich Islands, and other parts of Europe are calling for it, and as 

 it comes into general use it will vie with all other lumber in the market. 

 So far the price has kept low, the average for this valuable product of 

 California being $22 a thousand. 



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