FORESTRY AMONG THE GIANTS 



649 



BIG RIVER 



REDWOOD 



SAMPLE PLOT 



Area, i acre. Age 48 years. Mendocino Co. Calif. 



Measured June, 1921 

 Site Quality I. river flat with deep alluvial soil. 



Total 



263 



137.416 



Basal area outside bark at d. b. h. 515 square feet. 

 Basal area inside bark at d. b. h. 400 square feet. 

 Total height of average tree, 125 feet. 

 Average height of dominant trees, total, 140 feet. 

 Cubic feet of wood inside bark using form factor 0.44 22,000. 

 Mean annual growth for 48 years, 460 cu. ft. or 2,660 board ft. 



The following trees recorded but not included in calculations 

 Five older redwoods _____ 40" 52" d. b. h. 

 Ten red alders ______ 10" 18" d. b. h. 



most of the more recent tests on seed from younger 

 trees have given reasonably good results. Viable seed 

 is produced by very young trees tests last year on seed 

 from sprouts 7 and 10 years old, germinated 2% and 

 16% respectively and present indications are that the 

 best seed comes from trees between the ages of 30 

 and 100 years. 



Redwood cones seem to be produced in great profu- 

 sion by trees of all ages. They are small (usually less 

 than y^" iong) bright green in color and require but 

 one season to mature. They should be collected when 

 they are just about to open to expel the tiny red-brown 

 seeds, the time varying with locahty and climatic con- 

 ditions from late August to early December. When 

 collected it takes four hundred to eight hundred cones 

 to weigh a pound; about 15% of this weight being seed. 

 Each cone may contain a hundred or more seeds which 

 are surrounded by tiny glistening specks of dark red 

 resin which, with other chaflf, sometimes makes up over 

 25% of the weight of the material extracted from the 

 cones. The seeds are very small, the number per 

 pound varying with different samples from less than 100,- 

 000 to more than 300,000 and it is very hard for one 

 to realize that such mighty forest trees are able to 

 develop from the atom of life contained in one of the 

 tiny packages. 

 A good aver- 

 age pound of 

 redwood seed 

 if carefully 

 ex t r ac t e d 

 should con- 

 tain not over 

 5% chaff or 

 resin and 

 about 125,600 

 to 150,060 

 clean seeds 

 with a germi- 

 native capacity 

 of 15 to 30% 

 as indicated by 

 cutting or ov- 

 en tests. This 



means that- in AN experimental plantation on the site of an old logging camp, a number of 

 , . ^'111 native and introduced species are being tried out by the union lumber 



this pound company. 



there are from 18,750 to 45,000 seed capable of germi- 

 nating, and it might appear that we could expect to get 

 this number of trees from planting it in the nursery. 

 In actual practice, however, there is a very large loss 

 after germination, of trees which are too weak to be- 

 come established and those which die during the first 

 few months from a variety of causes. In order to 

 arrive at the probable number surviving at the end of 

 the season from this pound we must divide the above 

 figures by from 3 to 5 depending on the germination 

 percent, which will leave from 4,000 to 15,000 seedlings. 



Seed can be sown in out of door seedbeds at Berkeley 

 any time from November to April. There are, however, 

 decided advantages in fall or winter over spring sowing 

 as seedlings from the foi^mer develop rapidly and, 

 with average weather conditions, most of them should 

 be large enough for field planting when one year 

 old. Seed sown in the late spring produces trees 

 which are mostly less than three inches high the next 

 rainy season. About 10% can be used in field planting 

 but the rest must be set out in transplant rows for an- 

 other season. After this many of them will be 12" 

 or over in height and therefore more expensive to 

 handle in field planting. Stock from April sowo seed 



is so small at 

 the time of 

 t r a n splanting 

 that it is nec- 

 essary to fig- 

 ure on a 15 

 to 20% loss 

 during this 

 operation. 



An interest- 

 ing and very 

 s i g n i fie ant 

 c har acter istic 

 of young red- 

 wood trees 

 was discovered 

 last December 

 when a lot of 

 two year old 

 t r a n s p 1 ants 

 were taken up 



