REDWOOD LUMBFRING. 13 



not resist decay to the extent that a majority of our people 

 have been led to believe. It is not safe to depend upon any- 

 thing above the second cut from the butt log, where it is re- 

 quired of the wood to withstand rot. In fact, to be safe, butt 

 logs alone should be used when the lumber comes in contact 

 with the ground. As posts, split pickets, shakes, and shingle 

 bolts are invariably cut from the butt end of the tree, because 

 of the greater ease in splitting them, no mistake can easily 

 be made in selecting them, though it is believed that even 

 the butts of trees grown on very high land will decompose 

 when in the ground. 



After cutting off fifty feet of an ordinary redwood, one 

 say, that 1 20 feet will go into logs, the timber becomes softer, 

 and in most cases will decay nearly as quick as common pine. 

 The regular action of the atmosphere, with its winds and 

 rains, has no bad effect upon the top wood, other than the 

 natural wear which is common to all classes of pine or cedar. 



One of the great advantages of the lumberman, or post, 

 shingle, and tie-makers following his or their vocation in 

 Humboldt or Northern Mendocino, is the great quantity of 

 clear stuff which is procured from the forests in those locali- 

 ties. John Vance, one of the oldest lumbermen of Humboldt, 

 estimates that his lumber will run 70 per cent, clear. The 

 average of the country, we think, will not run as high as Mr. 

 Vance's estimate, but will not be less than 60 per cent, clear. 

 It is this large percentage of clear in the redwoods of Hum- 

 boldt and northern Mendocino that will, in the future, add 

 more to the manufacturer's profits in this locality than in any 

 other lumbering district of the Pacific coast. Now that there 



