650 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



for field planting. A majority of these were found 

 with a pronounced swelling below the ground level 

 from which projected ten to fifteen fully developed 

 buds capable of growing immediately into sprouts 

 should anything happen to the leader. It is thus 

 demonstrated that sprouting capacity is inherent even 

 in seedlings less than two years old, to be drawn on 

 immeditaely in case of emergency. Because of this 

 trait a light surface fire in a young plantation would 

 probably not result in total loss as with most species. 

 Also because of this it may be possible to severely 

 prune transplants which have become too large for 

 convenient handling in the field. Both of these points 

 will be of considerable importance in future forestry 

 work in the redwood region. 



It is quite simple under greenhouse conditions to re- 

 produce redwood by means of cuttings from the tops 

 of branches or large sprouts. Such cuttings four to 

 eight inches long if made in the fall and placed in 



REDWOOD PLANTATION 



Age 30 Years 



Chico Forestry Station, Butte County, California. 

 Spacing 16x16 feet 170 trees per acre. 

 Area .223 acres 86% survival. 

 Average D. B. H. 15.3 inches. 

 Average height 68 feet. 

 Maximum D. B. H. 28.9 inches. 

 Maximum Height 98 feet. 

 Basal area per acre 219 cubic feet. 

 Cubic ft. vol. per acre 5270 cubic feet equals 175.6 



cubic feet per acre per year. 

 Board ft. vol. per acre 31,400 equals 1046 board feet 



per acre per year. 



coarse bench sand will show about 25% survival in 

 seven months. Most of these survivors show a heavy 

 callous at the lower end of the cutting, with roots two 

 to six inches in length, and well developed buds or new 

 green growth. It is not knovra as yet whether this 

 cIpss of stock can be grown cheaply enough in quantity 

 to compete with seedlings or, what is more problematical 

 if they will develop into well formed and rapid grow- 

 ing trees. Another characteristic of these remarkable 

 trees which may prove to be of great im:portance was 

 discovered last December by C. O. GeAardy, U. C, '21. 

 In digging up a number of suckers for experimental 

 planting he found it not uncommon for some of these 

 to show well developed fibrous roots of their own. In 

 many cases, especially where they arise from a long 

 surface root, these "suckers" can be detached with the 

 new roots intact, furnishing what I have playfully called 

 "automatic planting stock." A number of these are 

 being tested out this year by the Union Lumber Com- 

 pany on several different planting sites. Tests with a 

 small number of these at Berkeley show 25 to 30% 

 alive and making some new growth after six months 

 in the ground. 



Of all these possibilities for use in reforestation work 

 probably only one or two will prove feasible after ex- 



tensive trial. The number of promising leads seems to 

 give promise that one or more will be developed on a 

 large scale to supply the demand for planting stock that 

 will be very pronounced, according to my way of 

 thinking, within a few years. 



Only a limited nuniiber of redwoods have been plant- 

 ed in the past and most of these have been single speci- 

 mens or groups on lawns or in parks. It does not seem 

 reasonable to suppose that the growth of seedlings 

 when once established will be materially different from 

 that of a fully stocked stand of sprouts on a similar 

 site. The two examples which are given seem to bear 

 out this statement and they are about the only groups 

 of redwoods, the history of which is known, that are 

 old enough to be of interest. 



This plantation is located in the north Sacramento 

 valley where hot dry summers and absence of fogs 

 make the climate very different from that found in 

 the redwood belt. It is therefore significant of the wide 

 range of climatic conditions under which these trees 

 will thrive and grow rapidly in volume. It should 

 be noted that the soil was a moderately fertile gravelly 

 loam, with good sub irrigation all the year from Big 

 Chico Creek which flows past the plantation about 50 

 yards distant. All calculations in the above were made 

 exactly the same as in the Big River plot. 



There are three small groups of redwoods on the 

 University campus at Berkeley which were raised from 

 seed collected near Willits in 1904 and planted in 1906. 

 Two of the groups are on good bottom land soil, the 

 other on observatory knoll where the soil is shallow 

 and stony. The difference in site has more than been 

 made up in irrigation which the trees on the knoll re- 

 ceived more frequently than the others. There are in 

 all 44 trees which averaged at 15 years from date of 

 planting 10.7 inches D. B. H. and 37 feet high. No 

 calculations of volume per acre would be- significant 

 but it will be noted from the following comparison of 

 annual growth that these trees have been doing rea- 

 sonably well. 



Mean annual growth 



Planting experiments in the Berkeley hills, which 

 have been carried on for several years, show about 

 50% survival for seedling stock and 75-80% for trans- 

 plant stock under conditions including heavy adobe 

 soil with a dense grass cover which could be considered 

 as typical of only the most unfavorable planting sites 

 within the redwood belt. From the examples quoted it 

 seems reasonable to conclude that growing and planting 

 redwood should be at least as cheap and successful as 

 it has been with any other important coniferous tree. 



Having demonstrated the feasibility of raising and 

 planting redwood someone will be sure to ask, "But 

 why all this talk about planting? With the number of 



