REDWOOD LUMBERING. 15 



Many will argue and justly, too that it would be bet- 

 ter for the country that a demand which causes such a draft 

 upon its lumber resources should, by some manner of means, 

 be restricted, and that if high rates of freight will prevent the 

 rapid denudation of our forests, they had better be maintained 

 by the railroad corporations. Others can argue, however, 

 that owners of timber lands can assist in reproduction by a 

 slight effort in the way of timber culture, and thereby extend 

 the supply to an indefinite period. It would be difficult to 

 select any species of forest timber, of which lumber is manu- 

 factured, that is given to reproduction so generously as the 

 redwood. This fact is very seriously impressed upon the set- 

 tler who endeavors to found a farm where this timber has 

 been " worked " for logs. From the roots of the stumps of 

 chopped trees a perfect mass of young timber sprouts the 

 second season afterwards. To create a second growth, there- 

 fore, all that is necessary is to thin out the new growth suf- 

 ficiently, and prevent fire from injuring it. Evidence that 

 new forests will rapidly take the place of the old may be 

 seen in any portion of the redwood belt where fires have been 

 kept in subjection. We have often thought that should the 

 Government offer as great inducements in the reproduction 

 of redwoods as it is doing to encourage timber culture in 

 parts where it is unnatural for forests to thrive, that the red- 

 woods would never become exterminated, as has so frequently 

 been predicted. One must confess, however, that the matter 

 of cultivating this tree with a view to growing timber like 

 anything of its present size, would require a people possess- 

 ing a higher regard for generations a hundred or more years 



