104 PACIFIC STATES FLOUAL CO.VGHESS. 



natural waters adjacent to its most extensive plains and its richest 

 mining districts. The dominant species here are the yellow, black, and 

 sugar pines, two firs, the cedar, the Douglas spruce in the northern 

 part, and the giant Sequoia in the southern. In its upper zones are 

 the tamarack, or lodge-pole pine, the foxtail and the mountain white 

 pines, and occasionally the hemlock. These forests are measurably 

 heavy, and of incomparable beauty in their open, park-like character. 

 All the species named are noble in their proportions, but here the great 

 sugar pines are at their best, and here is the Sequoia gigantea. the 

 species that exceeds all other forest trees in size, in an appearance of 

 antiquity, and in individuality a species curiously occupying, also, 

 in all that important belt opposite the San Joaquin Valley, a vital 

 position in its relation to the water supply, for it grows along the 

 smaller streams in the belt where the forest floor is most needed. 



If you wish to preserve your San Joaquin rivers in their best 

 condition, condemn and buy back every grove of Sequoia that has 

 passed from government possession. The relation of this great timber 

 belt to the economy of the future California is such that one would 

 say its preservation from destruction was of the first importance. Tim- 

 ber should only be cut when it will not injure this forest, in its orig- 

 inal capacity, as a nourisher of the rivers; still there are few portions 

 where removal of the ripe timber en bloc could not be safely accom- 

 plished by skilled foresters. Several species of this belt are rich in 

 resinous secretions, notably tamarack pine, and should yield, under 

 proper management, an abundance of naval stores, establishing thereby 

 a new industry in this state. 



The third subdivision, from the standpoint of forest economy, is 

 that of southern California, including all the mountains surrounding 

 the orange district northward from the San Jacinto, or perhaps the 

 Cuyamaca Mountains. It is the opinion of experts from the Bureau 

 of Forestry that no timber should be cut for lumber purposes from any 

 of these southern California mountains. The timber covering is every- 

 where all too sparing, the annual rainfall light, and the highly- 

 cultivated fruit districts exacting in the use of water for irrigation. 

 Great care should be exercised- to prevent sheep pasturage and the 

 spread of fires in the long, dry summers. It is but another illustra- 

 tion of the disastrous effects of the lack of true forest administration 

 of the government land in this district and of private land adjoining, 

 to say that during the past season sheep pasturage was permitted over 

 large tracts, the most wasteful lumbering was carried on in the San 

 Bernardino mountain canyons, and one of the very severest of forest 

 fires swept over portions of the Sierra Madre. AU this happened in 

 face of the fact that the people of southern California have more public 



