580 THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



its equally sudden disappearance, and the torrent will suddenly diminish to a slender brook or entirely disappear. 

 Irrigation, without which agriculture in a large part of the Pacific region is impossible, is dependent upon the 

 constant and steady flow of streams formed by melting snow, and as the forests which cover the mountain sides 

 are essential to prevent the sudden melting of snow, their preservation is necessary for successful irrigation on any 

 large or comprehensive scale. 



The forests of California suffer from wasteful methods of cutting. Only the best and most accessible young 

 trees are cut; often a noble pine capable of producing 25,000 or 30,000 feet of lumber is felled, a few split shingles 

 made from the butt-cut, and the rest of the tree left to rot upon the ground. The preference of the railroad 

 companies of the state for split rather than sawed redwood ties causes an immense and needless waste of this 

 valuable timber. A great amount of material under the most favorable conditions is wasted in splitting out the 

 ties, and when trees after being cut are found to split badly from any defect in the grain they are abandoned and 

 left to waste. 



The forests of California, unlike those of the Atlantic states, contain no great store of hard woods. The oaks 

 of the Pacific forests, of little value for general mechanical purposes, are unfit for cooperage stock. No hickory, 

 gum, elm, or ash of large size is found in these forests. California produces no tree from which a good wine cask 

 or wagon wheel can be made. The cooperage business of the state, rapidly increasing with the development of grape 

 culture, is entirely dependent upon the forests of the Atlantic region for its supply of oak. V.'oodenwaie and 

 small cooperage stock are manufactured in large quantities, however, from cottouwood, spruce, alder, and red and 

 white fir. Wine-butts and water-tanks are universally made from redwood, which is probably unsurpassed for such 

 purposes. 



The large tanning industry of the state consumes, in preference to all other material, large quantities of the 

 bark of the chestnut oak (Quercus densiflora), once a common tree in the forests of tile northern Coast ranges, but 

 now* becoming scarce and in danger of speedy extermination. 



The principal centers of lumber manufacture outside of the redwood belt are situated along the line of the 

 Central Pacific railroad, upon both flanks of the Sierra Nevada mountains, in Butte, Tehama, and Mono counties, 

 and in the San Bernardino mountains. Lumber manufactured upon the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevadas is 

 largely shipped eastward by rail to supply Nevada and Utah. The product of the mills situated west of the 

 mountains is largely sent to San Francisco for distribution, or direct by rail to the mining centers of southern 

 Arizona and New Mexico. 



ALASKA. 



Little is known to me of the present condition or productive capacity of the forests of Alaska. Their distribution, 

 as shown on the forest map of North America, is based upon notes made by Mr. Ivan Petroff, a special agent of the 

 Census Office, who has traced the timber limits of the territory, aided by Mr. C. W. Nelson, of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, by whom the northern limits of the spruce forest ate laid down. 



The forests of the territory of any commercial value are confined to the islands and Coast ranges east and 

 south of Prince William sound. The most valuable tree of this region is the Sitka cedar (Chamcecyparis Nutkaensis). 

 The hemlock, the tide-land spruce, and the red cedar ( Thuya gigantea) attain here also a considerable size. The 

 importance, however, of these forests, both in extent and in the value of the timber they contain, has generally been 

 greatly exaggerated. The Coast Forest north of the fiftieth degree of latitude rapidly diminishes in density and 

 quality, and there is nothing in the climate or soil of Alaska to produce a forest growth more valuable than that 

 covering the Coast ranges of British Columbia. 



A few saw-mills of small capacity are located at different points in southeastern Alaska to supply the local 

 demand for coarse lumber. Alaska is, however, largely supplied with lumber from Puget sound. The treeless 

 Shumagin and Aleutian islands and the southern settlements of the peninsula are supplied with fire- wood brought 

 from other portions of the territory. 



