750 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1 



line. A few of the smaller of these forests, 

 especially in San Mateo, Alameda, and 

 Contra Costa Counties, have already been 

 deprived of their timber trees. Being- near 

 San Francisco, they were the first drawn 

 upon for lumber. None of these small for- 

 ests had many trees of remarkable size. In 

 Santa Cruz Co. some large redwoods are 

 to be found, and it will be many years be- 

 fore the woodsman fells the last one. 



It is only a few years back since a grove 

 of these Irees was found in the Big Basin, 

 sixteen miles north of Santa Cruz, toward 

 San Francisco. The State has since ac- 

 quired ownership of the Basin, and con- 

 verted it into a public park. In this park 

 are to be found some of the largest redwood 

 trees in existence. The tree is a native of 

 California, and the State wishes to pre- 

 serve the finest grove, as it is also doing 

 with the big trees already referred to. 



Northward of the Pacific metropolis, in 

 Sonoma, Mendocino, and Humboldt Coun- 

 ties, are' dense forests of redwood. While 

 thousands of fine trees have been ruthlesslj' 

 slaughtered, there is yet a supply left that 

 it will take years, may be a century or 

 more, to remove. Those who have been 

 over the coast country tell me that the for- 

 ests so far have only been "fringed" in 

 places. This is encouraging; j^et the lum- 

 ber-hunters may swarm into these forests 

 and fell the trees in the most strenuous man- 

 ner. 



Ten years ago, when traveling in com- 

 pany with the late Mr. J. H. Martin (the 

 lamented Rambler), several times for a 

 good portion of a da} we would traverse a 

 redwood forest, the trees of which would 

 sometimes be fully six feet in diameter. 

 These trees would be far fiom the habita- 

 tion of man, and further still from a rail- 

 road. The vastness of these forests can 

 not be realized until one has been within 

 the silent and cathedral- like expanse the3' 

 form. Tbey truly must have been " God's 

 first temples." Ofitimes the trees are so 

 tall and close together that the very light 

 above is shut out. It is in these northern 

 countries that the rainfall is greatest in 

 California. Such a thing as a dry year is 

 unknown. The county of Mendocino, which 

 has boundless redwood forests, is one-half 

 the size of Massachusetts. Then the forests 

 of Humboldt are nearly as large. The city 

 of Eureka owes its prosperity principally 

 to its being a redwood center. I visited one 

 of its lumber-mills, and was struck with 

 wonder at the rapidity with which immense 

 logs are converted into building material. 

 Big band saws would cut through a log as 

 fast as the truck or car could feed it to the 

 saw, and the inch sheet or slab of wood, 

 often from four to six feet across, would 

 then be carried to another machine, which 

 would trim it and then cut it into boards of 

 the required widths. The demand for this 

 wood during the past four or five years in 

 our Californian cities, owing to the rapidly 

 increasing population, has been great, and 

 the price incre:i£ed so high that the mills of 



Oregon are sending in a pine rustic which 

 is being used as a substitute for redwood 

 rustic, the pine being cheaper, and, as 

 might be expected, far inferior to the other. 

 To show how highly redwood is prized, it 

 will suffice to state that cirpenters and 

 architects will not allow any thing but the 

 former wood to be used on the front of a 

 building, mainly because it is sc> durable 

 and almost free from shrinkage. While 

 Oregon pine forms the framework and 

 floors of a California building, it is redwood 

 that is used for shingles and the siding 

 and mil] work portions. Nothing else will 

 do, as already stated. 



Until a few years ago the wocd chopper 

 cut the trees ofi" high above the ground. 

 This was owintr to the butts being heavy, 

 and inc <pable of floating to Ihe mill. Now 

 the "sinker" portion of the Iree, which 

 contains the choicest wood, is cut low, as 

 modern means of transportation are used in 

 taking the logs to their destination. 



There is an organ 'zation in San Francis- 

 co called the Sequoia Club that has for its 

 object the fostering of a tnste for the uje of 

 the wood under consideration, for furniture 

 and in ihe arts. It is doing good mission 

 ary work in this direction. The wood is 

 susceptible of a hitrh finish; and its grain, 

 in the choice stump and root portions of the 

 tree, are very pretty. The wood is highly 

 prized in foreign countries, and forms the 

 interior finish of many a nobleman's pal- 

 ace, to which it was carried at a neat cost. 



The wood is devoid of any visible gum or 

 pitch, and is noted for beirg slow of com 

 bustion. This is said to be the reason wh}' 

 no serious fires have occurred in California 

 cities, though I doubt that, if a fire should 

 get a good start when the season is at its 

 driest, and the wind at a brisk pace, the 

 redwood material would offer any great 

 barrier to the fire- fiend. Yet the fact re 

 mains that, to burn a redwood stump out of 

 the ground, is almost as hard a task as to 

 get rid of a granite boulder in a cow pas- 

 ture by similar means. Again, redwood is 

 durable. It is the fence- post wocd of Cali- 

 fornia — in fact, it is the only wood that can 

 be trusted near or in the ground. It does 

 not rot rapidly, as do the pines. 



A redwood's life is not ended by cutting 

 the tree down. In due season, a crop of 

 sprouts springs up around the stump, and 

 in time several fine trees will be found 

 growing where but one tree grew before. 

 A fine forest of these 3'oung trees, sixty to 

 one hundred feet high, is to be seen at Mill 

 Valley, a fashionable suburb of San Fran- 

 cisco, in Marin Co. The parent forest was 

 raided and destroyed some forty and more 

 years ago. 



For hives, as I have hitherto said, there 

 is nothing better than this wocd. Even the 

 cheaper grades of the wood are serviceable. 

 When the wood is seasoned for a few months 

 in summer, there is no fear of anj- material 

 shrinkage thereafter. I have used it for 

 hives for thirty years, and the older ones 

 are as good to day as they were when made. 



