646 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Mr. T. W. Hine, of the Holmes Eureka Lumber Com- the demand is ever more insistent that the product of 

 l)any, has a unique record wliich shows the log scale the whirring saws be increased. A vast area of cut- 

 for a tree which they cut some years ago on Happy over land in all stages of growth, or lack of growth, 



Camp flat near Eureka. 

 This tree was about fifteen 

 feet in diameter, very tall, 

 jierfectlfy sound and the 

 coni)leted log scale was 

 118,000 board feet. Mr. 

 Hine recalls another tree on 

 this flat which was 22 feet 

 in diameter at the stump 

 and says that the first four 

 logs were so heavy that 

 they were split in quarters, 

 each quarter making a car 

 load. Another tree in the 

 vicinity yielded 252 feet in 

 length of logs before get- 

 ting into the crown wliere 

 it was too knotty to make 

 good lumber. Mr. Hine 

 says that the Hammond 

 Lumber Company cut a 

 tree some years ago which 

 scaled much more than his 

 big one mentioned above. 

 He is under the impression 

 that the scale was about 

 160,000 board feet but the 

 figures are not available. 

 A section of the 22 foot 

 tree was sent to the Chica- 

 go World's Fair where it 

 created a great sensation. 

 If any of my readers have 



.\ CIRCLE OF REDWOOD SPROUTS ON EAGLE NEST FLAT, 

 RLSSIAN RIVER, 45 YEARS OLD. THE CIRCLE ABOUT THE 

 OLD STUMP CONTAINS EIGHT FINE TREE.S. 



Stretches to the south and 

 along the coast. Fully a 

 third of the original forest 

 area has been combed with 

 ax and saw and as one 

 travels through these cut- 

 over areas he is struck by 

 the fact that with the in- 

 troduction of high speed 

 machinery and modern 

 inethods of lUilization, it is 

 becoming increasingly diffi- 

 cult if not impossible for 

 nature, unaided, to reforest 

 them with an adequate 

 stand of second growth. 



About seventy billion 

 board feet of virgin red- 

 wood on some nine hun- 

 dred thousand acres still 

 remain to be cut and con- 

 servative estimates lead us 

 to believe that this will last 

 about seventy-five years. 

 And I think I can hear you 

 ask: "After that, what?" 

 "Are we to look forward to 

 seeing vast stretdhes of des- 

 olate, fire-swept, unproduc- 

 tive cut-over lands and a 

 dead lumber industry in the 

 land of the giants?" "Will 

 fertile farm and grazing 



difficulty in visualizing the size of these logs and trees lands be developed where once the redwoods towered 

 1 suggest that they lay ofT a 22 foot distance across or will these lands always produce under wise manage- 

 the front of an ordinary cottage and compare the height ment the timber crop for which they are now so justly 

 with some tall city building with which they are fa- famous?" A good many serious minded and far seeing 

 miliar. Then if they doubt the evidence of their senses men both in and out of the lumber business have been 

 I must ask them to remember that we are talking about asking those questions for several years ; the Forestry 

 Sequoia, the King of trees. IDivision of the University of California has been work- 

 Logging in the redwood region did not long remain '"S on the problem and a majority of the redwood ope- 



in the primitive condition mentioned above. Bull teams 

 gave way by gradual stages to the Dolbeer donkey 

 engine and the narrow gauge railroad, while band saw- 

 mills of large cai)acity replaced the small circular out- 



rating companies have joined forces and retained no 

 less an authority on forest management and economics 

 than Major D. T. Mason of Portland, Oregon, to 

 draw up tentative plans for the future management of 



fits. More and more people attracted by the size and "^^-^^ '^"^s- "^^^ problem is a lar^e one and acquires 

 accessibility of the timber filed on the land so that the l^^*^^^"^} interest and significance because the land is all 

 entire acreage soon passed from the public domain to 

 private ownership. With the increasing demand for 

 lumber the companies have enlarged the scope of .their 

 operations and have installed the most up-to-date log- 

 ging, transportation and mill machinery, while the zone 

 of operations has moved north from San Francisco bay 

 until it now centers in Mendocino and Humboldt coun- 



in private ownership, which means that aside from the 

 rather remote possibility of extensive acquirement of cut- 

 over lands by the state, measures to insure the perpetu- 

 ation of the industry must be worked out by the ope- 

 rating companies. One of these bas already adoi>ted 

 the principle of permanent timber production on its 

 lands and if the others do likewise, as at present ap- 



pears probable, the redwood reHon will in a short time 

 ta-s. The annua! output of the region is now about six present to the world the largest demonstration of forest 

 hundred nnlhon board feet and with widening markets management by private individuals. 



