1900. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



Si 



a single one, therefore, contains from two 

 to three hundred seeds, which are about a 

 fourth of an inch long by three sixteenths 

 wide, including. a thin, flat margin that 

 makes them go glancing and wavering in 

 their fall like a boy's kite. The fruitful- 

 ness of Sequoia may be illustrated by two 

 specimen branches, one and a half and two 

 inches in diameter, on which I counted 480 

 cones. No other Sierra conifer produces 

 nearly so many seeds. Millions are rip- 

 ened annually by a single tree, and in a 

 fruitful year the product of one of the 

 northern groves would be enough to plant 

 all the mountain ranges of the world. 

 Nature takes care however, that one seed 

 in a million shall germinate at all, and of 

 those that do perhaps not one in ten thou- 

 sand is suffered to live through the many 

 vicissitudes of storm, drought, fire, and 

 snow-crushing that beset their youth." 



Of their age Mr. Muir says : 



" Under the most favorable conditions 

 these giants probably live 5000 years or 

 more, though few of even the larger trees 

 are more than half as old. I never saw a 

 Big Tree that had died a natural death ; 

 barring accidents they seem to be immor- 

 tal, being exempt from all the diseases 

 that afflict and kill other trees unless de- 

 stroyed by man, they live on indefinitely 

 until burned, smashed by lightning, or cast 

 down by storm, or by the giving way of 

 the ground on which they stand. The 

 age of one that was felled in the Calaveras 

 Grove, for the sake of having its stump 

 for a dancing-floor was about 1300 years, 

 and its diameter, measured across the 

 stump, 24 feet inside the bark. Another 

 that was cut down in the King's River 

 forest was about the same size, but nearly 

 a thousand years older (2000 years), though 

 not a very old-looking tree. It was felled 

 to procure a section for exhibition, and 

 thus an opportunity was given to count its 

 annual rings of growth. The collossal 

 scarred monument in the King's River 

 forest mentioned above is burned half way 

 through, and I spent a day in making an 

 estimate of its age, clearing away the char- 

 red surface with an axe and carefully 

 counting the annual rings with the aid of 

 a pocket-lens. The wood-rings in the 



section I laid bare were so involved and 

 contorted in some places that I was not 

 able to determine its age exactly, but I 

 counted over 4000 rings, which showed 

 that this tree was in its prime, swaying in 

 the Sierra winds, when Christ walked the 

 earth. No tree in the world, as far as I 

 know, has looked down on so many cen- 

 turies as the Sequoia, or opens such im- 

 pressive and suggestive views into history." 



Professor Brewer writes of the Cala- 

 veras Grove : 



"'The Calaveras Grove' is the one 

 nearest San Francisco. It was the first 

 one discovered and has been more visited 

 than any of the other groves, and all in 

 all, is the best preserved and the most in- 

 teresting of those left. There has been so 

 much written about it, and so many have 

 seen it, and it has become so well known 

 to the world, that a special description is 

 unnecessary here. It became private prop- 

 erty almost immediately after its cliscoverv, 

 almost fifty years ago, and for some years 

 it has belonged, it is understood, to Mr. 

 James L. Sperry, of Stockton. He has 

 long wished that it might become public 

 property and several attempts have been 

 made, both to the state and the general 

 government, to have the property become 

 a public park." 



" About eight years ago when the 

 United States set aside theYosemite Park, 

 an effort was made to persuade the officials 

 at Washington to extend the boundaries 

 of the reservation so as to include the 

 Calaveras Grove. The title of the inter- 

 vening land was then in the government, 

 and there were no difficulties in the way 

 of such an extension of boundaries, except 

 that the national authorities were not 

 awake to its importance, and the public 

 was indifferent as to who owned the grove 

 so long as it could be seen and visited by 

 any one." 



These extracts represent a few of the 

 claims which the Bigtrees have already 

 made upon the world's interest. They 

 could be extended almost indefinitely. 

 Just now it is more important that people 

 should know what threatens the trees as a 

 species, and what has and may be done for 

 their protection. 



