1903 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



303 



growth are as soft and juicy as young siderable trouble and expense. L,ogs 



asparagus. are peeled and the bark and branches 



The enemies of the Red wood 'are few, set on fire. Then the yarding crew, 



and the tree suffers little from them, with donkey-engine and tackle, gets 



Wind seldom damages it. Even fire, the log under way for the mill, and as 



the greatest enemy of all, though it has it goes plunging and plowing along 



hardly a tree in its vicinity is left unin- 

 jured. 



If reasonable care were exercised 

 there would be a much better chance 

 for good stands of second growth Red- 

 wood, which is valuable timber at 45 

 years old, and w r hile the virgin stands 

 are yielding from 20,000 to 150,000 



for centuries run through these forests, 

 has had comparatively small effect. 

 Underbrush and young trees are killed, 

 but the thick bark protects the old 

 trees. In cut-over lands, however, the 

 damage from this source is great. Dr. 

 Hermann von Schrenk has found that 

 fungus attacks it but seldom, and then 

 does but little injury. 

 A brown rot does some 

 damage at the base of 

 trees, but does not 

 affect them for any 

 great length, and the 

 tree's remarkable im- 

 munity from forms of 

 decay has enabled it 

 to reach such a great 

 age. Dr. A.D.Hop- 

 kins finds that the in- 

 sect enemies are few 

 in number and insig- 

 nificant in their dam- 

 age, being held in 

 check by parasites in 

 great measure, and 

 for the most part pre- 

 ferring other trees in 

 the same neighbor- 

 hood to the Redwood. 

 It remains, then, to 

 be said that man is 

 the greatest enemy 

 these forests have. 



Even now, with the growing demand board feet per acre, the cut-over lands 

 for the tree and the awakening appre- in the number of years specified should 

 ciation of its uses, lumbering operations yield at least 3,000. And with the 

 are carried on with a small margin of future which Redwood assuredly has, 

 profit, as the methods have to be on a this would be a profitable holding. In 

 gigantic scale, from the size of the tree Sonoma county trees are now cut to a 

 and the trouble in getting the lumber diameter of 10 inches at a profit, and 

 to market. Steam is used throughout they grow to this size in from 20 to 25 

 the process of lumbering, and the fall years. 



of a tree not only destroys everything The uses for Redwood are growing, 

 within its path of 250 feet, but in most Its resistance to fire has been noted, and, 

 cases splinters the tree itself, so that all as stated, insects seldom injure it. In 

 of the crown and a large portion of the sea water and in moist places generally 

 bole is a shattered and tangled wreck, it resists decay, but the marine teredo 

 At least a quarter of the stand is a total destroys Redwood piling as readily as 

 loss, and is, moreover, a source of con- any other. At present the market is 



SECOND GROWTH REDWOOD AT MENDOCINO, 40 TO 45 YEARS. THE 

 YOUNGER GROWTH FORMS A RING AROUND THE PARENT TREE. 



