68 



EORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



February 



stump will be found rotted, the main tap 

 root dead, and what sprouts do start 

 will be feebler than the earlier ones. 

 At this time it will probably pay to kill 

 the old stumps entirely and replant the 

 ground. This can be done by burning 

 around the stumps. 



The Blue Gum is one of the most 

 rapid growing trees in the world. On 

 average soil it will produce 500 cubic 

 feet of new wood per acre per year, 

 which is about six times as much as is 

 produced by the trees on an eastern 

 woodlot in the same time. 



At Florence an acre five years old is 

 said to have produced 50 cords.* An 

 adjoining acre, 7 years old, produced 75 

 cords, and still another adjoining acre 

 produced 1 35 cords in ten years. These 

 figures show that the tree produces more 

 wood by being left ten years than if cut 

 twice, once every five years, as is the 

 usual custom. 



*The California cord contains only about 96 

 cord feet. It is a pile 3 feet high and 32 feet 

 long, and from 8 to 14. inches, with an average 

 of 12 inches, wide, thus making about three- 

 fourths of a true cord. 



At Santa Fe Springs a grove five 

 years old produced an average of 34 

 cords per acre. This is about the aver- 

 age growth of the Blue Gum on good 

 soil. 



The wood is w T orth $6.50 per cord, cut 

 and piled; it costs $3 per cord for cut- 

 ting, making its value on the stump 

 $3 5 P er cord . This shows a net profit 

 of $23.80 per acre for each of the five 

 years of growth. As the land is valued 

 at $200 per acre we have as interest on 

 the investment a gain of 1 1 per cent. 

 Other groves give 25 cords per acre in 

 five years, or about 8*4 per cent on the 

 investment. 



A favorite use of the Blue Gum is for 

 windbreaks. Owing to its great height 

 and rapid growth, it easily stands at the 

 head of the list for this purpose. Pol- 

 larding the tree at six feet the first or 

 second year after planting causes it to 

 form a thick growth near the ground, 

 w r hile the main stem shoots up at the 

 rate of ten feet a year for ten years, and 

 then grows more slowly. The main stem 

 is very flexible and bends with the wind, 

 thus forming a sort of cushion which 



T IN EAST I.AKE PARK, LOS AXGEI.ES, CAT,, SHOWING EUCAI.Y 



PTS AS SHADE TREES. 



