230 



THE SEQUOIAS 



summer wood, and the medullary rays are small and incon- 

 spicuous. It is very straight-grained and splits easily. Rail- 

 road ties and fence palings are split out and require little 

 dressing, and shingles six inches wide and three feet long, 

 called "shakes," are split and used without further labor 

 being bestowed upon them. It shrinks endwise appreciably 

 when seasoning. Woodworkers assert that the wood dulls 

 planes and other tools used in working it. It is not valua- 

 ble for fuel, although used for that to some extent, but 

 mainly because no better can be secured in the vicinity. 



The tree is a prolific seeder, but the percentage of fer- 

 tility is low, not exceeding twenty-five per cent. The cones 

 are small and mature in one season. If permitted, natural 

 reproduction from seed would take place, but as it sprouts 

 freely from the living tree as well as from cut stumps, re- 

 production would surely result if not seriously interfered 

 with, and, therefore, seed-planting would be wholly un- 

 necessary if fire were kept out, unless additional areas were 

 sought. No one of our valuable timber trees is more sus- 

 ceptible to natural reproduction than this, and yet nothing 

 is being done to encourage or even permit it. 



