AMERICAN FOREST TREES 213 



owners will not wait much longer than the seventy-five or one hundred 

 years required to grow trees of crosstie size. Railroads pay good prices 

 for this wood, for it lasts well, holds spikes in a satisfactory manner, 

 and is strong and hard. As far as can be seen, bur oak will fare in the 

 future about like white oak ; that is, few trees will be left standing long 

 enough to attain large size, because it will pay better to cut them while 

 comparatively small. 



CALIFORNIA BLUB OAK (Quercus douglasif) receives its name from the color of 

 its foliage in spring and early summer in the valleys and on the rolling foothills of 

 central California. Later in the summer, when the dry season is on, the leaves lose 

 some of their blue, on account of age, but more from an accumulation of dust ; but 

 even then the form of the tree, from its habit of growing in open formation like an old 

 apple orchard, presents an attractive picture. It is often associated with the valley 

 oak, which is larger and more stately, but the blue oak loses nothing by the contrast. 

 It is occasionally called rock oak, but for what reason is not clear. It is known, too, 

 as mountain white oak, or simply white oak, and as blue oak. Its range covers central 

 California from Mendocino to the Mojave desert, and from the immediate coast inland 

 through the valleys to the Sierras, and upward to an altitude of 4,000 feet where the 

 tree degenerates into a shrub which has neither beauty nor utility. The species 

 reaches its best development in the Salinas valley from twenty to sixty miles from 

 the coast. There the largest trees are found, and also some that have assumed pe- 

 culiar forms. In positions exposed to the never-ceasing sea winds which sweep up 

 the valleys, the blue oaks lie prone like logs, their tops pointing away from the 

 wind. They grew in that unnatural position, having been pressed flat by the wind 

 since they were seedlings. This oak's ashen gray bark harmonizes well with the dry 

 summer grass and dull sand and gravel which surround it during the hot period. The 

 branches are often covered with green-gray lichens which somewhat modify the 

 aspect of the tree under close inspection. The leaves are irregular in form. Some 

 closely resemble leaves of the eastern white oak, while others are almost or quite 

 without lobes. During the growing season the acorns are deep green, but when 

 approaching maturity they change to a chestnut-brown. They vary in shape as 

 much as the leaves. Some are almost eggshaped, bulging out above the cup which 

 seems too small; but all of them do not assume that form, but may be short and sym- 

 metrical, or very long and slender. Woodpeckers store these acorns in large numbers, 

 and they search out peculiar places for their hoards. A knot hole in the weather- 

 boarding of an old barn, granary, or school house is considered ideal, though when the 

 acorns are so disposed of, they are out of reach of the woodpecker forever. Another 

 method is to peck holes just large enough for an acorn in fence posts or dead tree 

 trunks, and hammer the acorns tightly in, small end first. The surfaces of dead trees 

 are sometimes absolutely covered with such holes, each with its acorn. The wood- 

 pecker's purpose is to wait until the acorns become infested with larvae. He has no 

 intention of eating the acorn itself. 



California blue oaks range in height from shrubs to trees of ninety feet, with 

 diameters of three or four feet. The average height is about forty-five and the 

 diameter two or less. The trunk frequently divides a few feet from the ground into 

 large limbs. That form excludes the wood from sawmills, and only in rare cases does 

 any of it find its way there. The lumber is of poor quality, brittle, black, and other- 

 wise defective. The sapwood is white and thick. A cubic foot weighs 55.64 pounds, 

 or nearly ten more than eastern white oak. It is weak, and is low in elasticity. The 



