IS-' 



AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



of others, and secure a share of light, they show no disposition to go 

 higher. The doctrine which they silently put into practice is to live 

 and let others live. That habit makes it possible for redwoods to grow 

 in very dense stands, which they could not do if a few trees domineered 

 over the others, and appropriated the light to themselves. 



When old age overtakes the giant redwoods, they exhibit the first 

 symptoms of weakened vitality by dying at the top. Most trees over 

 five hundred years old are "stag-headed." From that period they die 

 slowly, but usually survive two or three hundred years after the visible 

 Bigns of approaching death strike them. 



Redwood has an advantage over nearly all other needle-leaf trees 

 in that it propagates by both seeds and sprouts. Few softwoods send 

 up sprouts from stumps or roots. Redwoods of large size are produced 

 that way, and the stumps of very old trees send up many vigorous shoots. 

 Sometimes a ring of large trees surrounds a depression in the ground 

 where the parent tree grew, died, and decayed. 



Sprouts are of course confined to the immediate proximity of the 

 parent tree, but redwood seeds are scattered by the wind over vacant 

 spaces. This results in dense stands where other conditions are favor- 

 able, but the species has never been able to establish itself far inland or 

 high on mountains. 



In 1880 the Federal census made a rough estimate of the available 

 redwood, and placed it at 25,825,000,000 feet. More than twenty years 

 later, with heavy cutting all the time, private estimates placed the 

 remaining stand at over 50,000,000,000 feet. The second estimate was 

 unquestionably nearer correct than the first. The stand of no important 

 timber tree in this country is more easily estimated than redwood. 

 The forests are compact, the trees large, the trunks similar in form, 

 and the well- timbered area is comparatively small. Redwood has been 

 called the most important timber tree of the Pacific coast. The title 

 probably confers too much, though the tree's importance is beyond 

 question. The annual cut of Douglas fir is nearly ten times as large as 

 of redwood, and the supply still in the forests is much greater than 

 that of redwood. The cut of western yellow pine likewise exceeds the 

 output of redwood, and the remaining supply is larger. The cut of 

 western red cedar, including shingles, is about the same, and the 

 remaining stand of cedar is very large. Western hemlock, too, exists 

 in large quantity, and its importance as a source of timber supply may 

 be equal to redwood. 



Redwood is frequently referred to as one of the lightest in this 

 country. Its weight per cubic foot, oven-dry, is 26.2 pounds. On the 

 same basis, white pine is 24, southern white cedar 20.7, northern white 



