1900. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



247 



Canadian papers Mr. A. K. Stuart says 

 that the principal reason why the Grand 

 Prix \vas awarded to Canada was that its 

 exhibit exceeded all others in the com- 

 mercial excellence and the extreme variety 

 of the woods which it displayed. The 

 Russian exhibit was much larger, and 

 many other countries spent much more 

 money on their exhibits than did Canada. 

 Mr. Stuart thinks that if Canada had made 

 as great an effort as these other countries 

 its exhibit might easily have eclipsed 

 theirs in almost every respect. As it was, 

 however, he says that it made a great im- 

 pression, and that if Canadian lumbermen 

 and manufacturers will follow up the op- 

 portunities which will undoubtedly come 

 from it they will gain greatly by the exhi- 

 bition. 



# 

 The Report on the Big 



Bfg Ct Trte OUt ^ Trees ' recentl y prepared by 

 the Division of Forestry, 

 contains as preface the following " sum- 

 mary of facts " : 



1 . The dimensions of the Big Tree are 

 unequaled. 



2. The age of the Big Tree makes it 

 the oldest living thing. 



3. The majestic beauty of the Big Tree 

 is unique and world-renowned. 



4. It now exists only in ten isolated 

 groves on the west slope of the Sierra 

 Nevada. Mountains, and nowhere else in 

 the world. 



5. The Mariposa Grove is to-day the 

 only one of consequence which is com- 

 pletely protected. 



6. Most of the scattered groves of Big 

 Trees are privately owned, and therefore 

 in danger of destruction. 



7. Lumbering is rapidly sweeping them 

 off ; forty mills and logging companies are 

 now at work wholly or in part upon Big- 

 tree timber. 



8. The southern groves show some re- 

 production, through which there is hope 

 of perpetuating these groves ; in the north- 

 ern groves the species hardly holds its 

 own. 



9. The species represents a surviving 

 prehistoric genus of trees once growing 

 widely over the globe. 



"The lumbering of the 

 the Big Tree is destructive to a 

 most unusual degree. In 

 the first place the enormous size and 

 weight of the trees necessarily entails very 

 considerable breakage when one of them 

 falls. Such a tree strikes the ground with 

 a force of many hundreds or even thous- 

 ands of tons, so that even slight inequali- 

 ties are sufficient to smash the brittle trunk 

 at its upper extremity into almost useless 

 fragments. The loss from this cause is 

 great, but it is only one of the sources of 

 waste. The great diameter of the logs 

 and, in spite of the lightness of the wood, 

 their enormous weight make it impossible 

 to handle many of them without breaking 

 them up. For this purpose gunpowder is 

 the most available means. The fragments 

 of logs blown apart in this way are not 

 only often of wasteful shapes, but unless 

 very nice judgment is exercised in pre- 

 paring the blast, a great deal of the wood 

 itself is scattered in useless splinters. 



" At the mill, where waste is the rule in 

 the manufacture of lumber in the United 

 States, the Big Tree makes no exception. 

 This waste, added as it is to the other 

 sources of loss already mentioned, makes 

 a total probably often considerably in ex- 

 cess of half the total volume of the stand- 

 ing tree ; and this is only one side of the 

 matter. 



"The Big Tree stands as a rule in a 

 mixed forest composed of many species. 

 The result of Sequoia lumbering upon 

 this forest is best shown by the photo- 

 graphs. The destruction caused by the 

 fall of the enormous trees is in itself great, 

 but the principal source of damage is the 

 immense amount of debris left on the 

 ground the certain source of future fires. 

 This mass of broken branches, trunks and 

 bark, is often five or six or even more feet 

 in thickness, and necessarily gives rise to 

 fires of great destructive power, even 

 though the Big Tree wood is not specially 

 inflammable. The devastation which fol- 

 lows such lumbering is as complete and 

 deplorable as the untouched forest is un- 

 paralleled, beautiful, and worthy of pres- 

 ervation. As a rule it has not even had 

 the advantage of being profitable. Very 



