796 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



WHERE SHADOWS ARE DEEP. 



THE ROAD AFTER WINDING THROUGH A REDWOOD FOREST WHERE 

 THE TREES ARE SO THICK THAT THERE IS LITTLE SUNSHINE 

 SUDDENLY TURNS INTO AN OPEN SPACE WHERE THE SUNSHINE 

 IS STARTLINGLY VIVID. 



the fireproof sheathing of 

 shaggy bark with which the 

 old trees protect themselves. 



The yield of the Redwood 

 will average from 75,000 to 

 85,000 board feet per acre, 

 but some of the flat lands 

 will show a stand of 1 ,000,000 

 feet or more to the acre. It 

 is estimated that there is 

 standing today about 75,000, 

 000,000 feet of merchantable 

 Redwood timber, so that at 

 the present rate of production 

 there is more than a century's 

 supply to look forward to. 

 The value of the stumpage 

 varies from $1.50 to $5.00 per 

 M feet, depending upon the 

 character of the timber and 

 its location 1 and accessibility. 

 The flat timber is less expen- 

 sive to log, and produces a 

 greater amount of the upper 

 grades. Redwood lumbering 

 is expensive and difficult. 

 The average cost is $5.00 to 

 $6.00 per M. On the flat lands 

 it will go as low as $3.00 per 

 M. The greatest care must 

 be taken by the choppers in 

 felling a tree so that it will 

 strike throughout most of its 

 length at the same time, other- 

 wise the wood will break and 

 splinter badly. After the 

 choppers have done their 

 work, the bark is peeled and 

 the tree cut into lengths from 

 16 to 40 feet, i Skid roads are 

 constructed over which the 

 logs are hauled to the land- 

 ings and loaded on cars by 

 donkey engines on their way 

 to the sawmills. 



The cost of converting Red- 

 wood logs into lumber is from 

 $2.50 to $3.00 per M, this 

 cost being increased because 

 of the waste in manufacture, 

 and because of the large 

 amount of small sizes which 

 the market calls for. Some 

 logs are so large that they 

 have to be split before the 

 carriage will handle them in 

 the mills. All machinery 

 must be of the heaviest in 

 order to stand the strain. 



