46 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



each other. It is impossible to estimate now how 

 great influence these early observations exerted 

 against the conception that California, except where 

 water ran, was a desert. 



It was not long before the early California farm- 

 ers and miners learned that these great trees were 

 not only wonderful but that their companionship was 

 salutary to both body and spirit. When the lack of 

 sanitation brought serious trouble to those who were 

 mussing below with water from the ditches either 

 for gold or for crops, through ignorance that malaria 

 was the result of mosquitoes rather than of the water 

 which bred them, the settlers fortunately recovered 

 health and courage by dwelling for a time in the for- 

 ests beside the pure cold springs and streams of the 

 mountains. It is a notable advantage that through- 

 out a distance of at least four hundred miles in the 

 great interior valley of California, and for less dis- 

 tances in shorter valleys, persons are nowhere more 

 and generally less than fifty miles from mountain 

 forests. Each year the government is extending roads 

 and trails to supplement the State highways and make 

 easy access to the well-ordered camping places and 

 hostelries which are multiplying both at public cost 

 and through private enterprise. 



Details of forest policy and practice, of private 

 owners, of the national government in the manage- 

 ment of the national forests and of the State officials 

 in protecting forest property, are beyond the scope 

 of this writing. Estimates of forest areas, of stand- 

 ing timber and records of current production of 



