CONCLUSIONS. 23 



to depart from the custom of abandoning the tanbark oak log as use- 

 less does not meet with favor. Moreover, their milling machinery 

 is not well adapted to sawing oak logs, and, for satisfactory work, 

 the installation of special plants would be necessary. 



Country wagon makers in the Coast Range constantly use tanbark 

 oak for repair work and believe it superior to all other wood for felloes. 



The wood, unlike some others, such as the eastern chestnut, has no 

 value whatever as a tanning agent. 



CONCLUSIONS. 



(1) The bark of tanbark oak is one of the most valuable tanning 

 agents known for the production of heavy leather. Bark from the 

 interior ridges and southern districts is prized more than bark from 

 the deep redwood belt or from northern districts, because it averages 

 higher in tannin. 



(2) The Pacific coast tanbark-oak belt contains enough standing 

 tanbark at the present time to supply the needs of California tanneries 

 at their present rate of consumption for 47 years. 



(3) There should be more systematic methods in peeling and a 

 greater proportion of the bark above the clear trunk should be taken. 

 Bark from one-half to one-fourth inch thick ^should be saved when- 

 ever possible. Chipped bark should be sacked before bunching the 

 coil bark. Trees with bound bark should be temporarily passed, 

 and not mutilated or sacrificed. Tops should be burned in the win- 

 ter following cutting to prevent the destruction of young growth and 

 of passed trees by wild forest fires. 



(4) Tanbark oak is surpassed in reproductive powers by no 

 other forest trees in western America, except the redwood, and it 

 stands very close to that species. A crop of sprouts will normally 

 arise from the base of every peeled stump. In order to favor this 

 crop, peelers should ring the trunk at base and not break the coil 

 down below the surface of the ground. These sprouts will give rise 

 to " second-growth" poles which are commercailly profitable to peel 

 within 25 or 35 years. 



(5) Standing trees after being peeled may live on indefinitely, but 

 they never produce a second bark which has any commercial value. 



(6) The wood is, for the most part, allowed to rot on the ground. 

 Prompt care would tend to obviate its greatest weakness, checking 

 in seasoning, and it can certainly be applied to some of the uses for 

 which oak wood is prized, and a stupendous annual waste thereby be 

 eliminated. 



(7) Forest fires are a source of great annual loss, and. cooperative 

 measures should be taken by the State of California, the coast counties, 

 the redwood companies, the tanbark companies, and cattle-range 

 owners to reduce the danger from fire. A conservative treatment 

 of the redwoods to obtain a continuous crop will be of like advantage 

 to the tanbark oak mixed with it. 



