328 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Redwood lumber is clear red-brown in color. It is 

 light in weight and varies in grain from fine to coarse. 

 It has a high value commercially because of its ex- 

 ceptional durability, its resistance to fire, the ease with 

 which it is worked and the large size of clear lumber 

 which it furnishes. It is also highly prized in the tropics 

 because it is one of the few woods which white ants do 

 not attack. The wood of the Higtree is of less weight and 

 strength than that of the redwood, but so closely re- 

 sembles the latter that it is 

 sold under that name. The 

 lumber is bright rose-red 

 when first cut, but in time 

 becomes a dark reddish- 

 brown. It contains much 

 tannin and resists decay to 

 a remarkable degree. 



The redwood tree has no 

 enemies except forest fires. 

 It is very long-lived, but 

 the Higtree attains a 

 greater age. A redwood 

 20 feet in diameter, 350 

 feet high, was found to be 

 1,000 years of age, another 

 tree 21 feet in diameter was 

 1,373 years old. The red- 

 wood has been planted as 

 an ornamental tree in Eu- 

 rope, but in the United 

 States it has so far been 

 little used. It is a very 

 beautiful tree, surpassing 

 the Higtree in gracefulness 

 of form and in the attrac- 

 tiveness of its foliage. Al- 

 though it is very exacting 

 in regard to conditions of 

 soil and climate, it thrives 

 near Charleston, South 

 Carolina, and it is probable 

 that it can be grown in 

 many other places, but the 

 chances for its successful 

 growth are much less than 

 the Higtree. 



Xew Yorkers and visi- 

 tors to that city may gain 

 an idea of the size of the 

 Bigtrees by examining in 

 the American Museum of 

 Natural History a circular 

 slice cut straight across the 

 grain of a Sequoia Gigan- 

 tca, whose trunk was 16 

 feet in diameter or 50 

 feet in circumference. 

 Placed in a horizontal po- 

 sition, says Garrett P. 



THE GRIZZLY GIANT COMI'AKKI) WITH A CHURCH 



This tree, the famous Grizzly Giant in Mariposa Grove, Yosemite 

 National Park, is 204 feet high; !>3 feet in circumference and 29 

 feet in diameter at the base; 64 feet in circumference and 20 feet 

 in diameter at a point 10 feet above the ground. 



Serviss in his description of it, this huge section would 

 form a round table at which 20 or 25 persons could 

 comfortably sit. Its area is 200 square feet. It would 

 cover a large room. A similar section of the biggest 

 oak or elm or pine or sycamore or tulip tree that grows 

 in the Eastern states, placed beside it, would resemble 

 an old-fashioned 3-cent silver piece beside a trade 

 dollar. 



"Yet this imposing specimen of the 'big tree' is 



really undersized. The av- 

 erage diameter of a fully 

 developed Sequoia is 25 

 feet, and a section from a 

 tree like that would be 

 nearly 80 feet, instead of 

 50, in circumference. At 

 least one sequoia has been 

 cut down whose diameter 

 was almost 31 feet and cir- 

 cumference 00. That tree 

 was 302 feet in height. 

 The average height is 275 

 feet, but a few attain 350 

 to 400 feet. Still, the Se- 

 quoia is not the tallest tree 

 in the world, though it is 

 by far the largest or most 

 massive. The eucalyptus 

 trees of Australia exceed 

 it in height, but are more 

 slender. 



"There is a feature of 

 the exhibit in the museum 

 that adds greatly to its ef- 

 fect. Beginning at the 

 center or heart of the tree, 

 a series of figures con- 

 tinued outward to the 

 bark indicates the lapse of 

 the successive centuries 

 during which the giant was 

 growing. Every year a 

 'ring of growth' was 

 formed, and a hundred of 

 these rings, of course, fill 

 the space of a century on 

 the section. The rings are 

 plainly seen, but so crowd- 

 ed that the eye could not 

 count them but for the aid 

 afforded by the grouping 

 into century periods. 



"From this it appears that 

 the tree began growing in 

 the year 550 of the Chris- 

 tian era at the time when 

 Justinian was emperor 

 and continued until it was 

 cut down in 1891." 



