428 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



September 



results are already evident ; it is a pol- 

 icy emphatically in the interests of the 

 people as a whole, and especially the 

 people of the west ; I believe they cor- 

 dially approve it; and I do not intend 

 to abandon it." 



The specific withdrawals in Idaho 

 which Senator Heyburn opposed and 

 which Senator Dubois recommended, 

 now established as reserves or as addi- 

 tions to reserves, are as follows : Hen- 

 rys Lake, Sawtooth, Payette, Squaw 

 Creek Division of the Weiser, and 

 Cassia, and additions to the Yellow- 

 stone and the Bitter Root. 



Appended to the correspondence is 

 a report of Special Agent Schwartz, of 

 the General Land Office, based on 

 "certain examinations of the Shoshone 

 Forest Reserve temporary withdrawal, 



in Idaho." 



In the discussion of the advisability 

 of withdrawing certain lands for for- 

 est reserves, it was objected that for- 

 est reserves discouraged settlement 

 and worked hardship for those who 

 had already acquired claims within the 

 areas affected. According to the re- 

 port of Special Agent Schwartz, about 

 90 per cent, of the claims which he ex- 

 amined have never been resided on by 

 their claimants, as is required by law. 

 It would appear, furthermore, that a 

 considerable number of the claimants 

 are railroad employees and others 

 whose interests in their claims seem 

 very indirect. On the whole, the re- 

 port goes to show that the claims ex- 

 amined are in a large number of cases 

 not legitimately held. 



TRANSPLANTING OF BIGTREE 



SEEDLINGS 



BY 



S. J. FLINTHAM 



Forest Assistant, U. S. Forest Service. 



HTHE ancient race of the Sequoia, 

 species of which in prehistoric 

 times flourished over a wide range in 

 North America, seems, from the de- 

 structive course of lumbering through 

 the restricted present range of the two 

 Sequoia species, in the Coast and 

 Sierra ranges of California, to be in a 

 fair way to become extinct in time or 

 to be maintained only in a few pro- 

 tected National Parks and Forest Re- 

 serves. 



Despite their great antiquity both 

 the species are of great virility. The 

 coast redwood, reproducing itself 

 readily by sprouting from the stumps 

 after lumbering as well as by abun- 

 dantly-produced seed, seems capable 

 if protected of recovering its cut-over 

 lands to some extent, and to have 

 within its range a future timber im- 

 portance in forest operations. 



With the bigtree, however, such re- 

 covery appears more difficult. The 

 species does not reproduce by sprouts, 

 and though its light, wind-blown seed 

 is spread to some distance, young 

 growth is hardly to be found extend- 

 ing outside the well defined limits of 

 the bigtree groves, and within them 

 reproduction grows with difficulty un- 

 der their shade. 



The seed of the bigtree commands a 

 good price. It is collected and the 

 species propagated by nurserymen 

 both at home and abroad, but mainly 

 as an ornamental tree. Neither sap- 

 ling nor young seedling reproduction 

 is very abundant in the bigtree groves 

 on the Sierra slopes, and little or no 

 attempt has been made to transplant 

 the wild forest-grown seedlings. 



An interesting experiment, however, 

 which has proved an entire success- 



