28 



Whenever possible the trees should be cut with a saw. If 

 they are cut with an ax, the choppers should be cautioned against 

 leaving ragged stumps unable to shed water. To prevent still 

 further the collection of moisture, the stumps should be cut 

 slantwise, sloping away from the center like the roof of a house. 

 Low stumps are preferable to high ones, first because more wood 

 is utilized, and second because it gives the young sprouts a 

 chance to establish independent root systems of their own in 

 case the old stump should rot away. 



GROWTH AND YIELD OF EUCALYPTUS. 



Most of the eucalypts are rapid-growing trees, and of these 

 the blue gum (E. globulus) is the most rapid. A distinction 

 must here be made between a rapid-growing tree and a persist- 

 ently-growing tree. Many eucalypts make very fast growth in 

 the first few years of their life, but slacken the rate of growth 

 in about eight or ten years. Such trees make an excellent show- 

 ing in a young plantation, but are often a disappointment later 

 on. Blue gum is both fast growing and fairly persistent. The 

 following table, prepared from notes taken in various parts of 

 Hawaii, shows in a general way the size of blue gum trees at 

 different ages and grown under different conditions. Particular 

 attention is called to the trees fourteen years of age growing at 

 Umikoa, on the Island of Hawaii. The growth made by this 

 small clump of trees compares favorably with trees grown under 

 the best conditions in California: 



