22 REDWOOD LUMBERING. 



"cruised" by the agents of eastern timber speculators during 

 the past two years, only to find all the accessible locations for 

 lumbering possessed by Californians. And these possessions 

 are distributed largely among the laboring classes, the aver- 

 age to each holder ranging from eighty to three hundred and 

 twenty acres. To consolidate these comparatively small 

 holdings, therefore, is a matter that timber investors of the 

 East, as well as of California, find it difficult to accomplish. 

 Under these circumstances, many agents, reporting the facts, 

 are withdrawn ; while the principals express their dissatisfac- 

 tion at finding the real value of redwood timber lands is not 

 entirely unappreciated by the average Californian. That a 

 consolidation of ownerships in redwood timber lands will 

 become a necessity in many localities, there is no doubt ; at 

 least, to such an extent as to warrant the lumber manufactur- 

 er in his outlay of capital through the erection of expensive 

 mills, the building of substantial logging railways, and the 

 furnishing of other costly equipments requisite fora complete 

 manufacturing outfit. The cry of monopoly, so far as the 

 ownership of a respectable sized timber tract is concerned, is 

 ridiculous. It may be popular and proper to excoriate monop- 

 olies in general, either for political effector from communistic 

 motives ; but it will not force the lumber manufacturer to 

 expend from one hundred to five hundred thousand dollars 

 in erecting mills, etc., upon a circnmscribed area of timber 

 land. For the present generation there is apparently no 

 necessity for the consolidation of timber holdings more than 

 those already in that condition. To demonstrate this, it is 

 only necessary to call attention to the fact that the number of 



