606 EUCALYPTUS CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 



It is particularly successful in the French colony of Eeiinion, where 

 M. de Chateauvieux is occupied in the cultivation with marked success. 



The superintendent of the botanical garden, Jamaica, reports (in 1877) 

 that the blue gum, planted six years ago in the Cinchona plantations, 

 ■were GO feet high, with trunks a foot in diameter near the ground, and 

 G inches at 20 feet. During the past year 3,000 plants were distributed, 

 in addition to 2,000 the year before. Most of these were sent to the 

 lowlands, where they do not succeed as well as those planted on the 

 hills. He says : 



The value of this plant on the hills consists in its importance as a timber tree, as it 

 is not only one of the most durable and useful woods, but it grows with greater ra- 

 pidity and to a larger size than any other known timber tree. Judging from the rate 

 of growth attained by plants introduced six years ago, trees two feet in diameter are 

 certainly producable in ten years from seed. It possesses another advantage, namely, 

 the branches are not wide-spreading, like most other trees; hence, in forming a plan- 

 tation, the plants may be set unusually thick. 



The lowest altitude at which this tree should be planted within the 

 tropics is probably 2,000 feet. The imports of timber in Jamaica amount 

 to about 8,000,000 feet of timber and 5,000,000 of shiugles. 



The Eucalyptus globulus, and several other species of this genus, have 

 been introduced into California with much success, and Prof. Eobert E. 

 C. Stearns, in a paper published in the proceedings of the California. 

 Academy of Sciences, July 1, 1872,^ says: 



An instance of rapid growth under my immediate observation is that of a specimen 

 purchased by me of a nurseryman, which, at the time of planting (Jannary 5, I'^Tl), 

 measured from the ground level to the extreme tip 6^ feet, and in about eleven months 

 (December 8, 1871) had reached a height of a trilio over 15 feet. The diameter of the 

 stalk when set out was half an inch, and at the final measurement If inches. I am 

 prepared to hear of instances far exceeding my figures, but it should be borne in mind 

 that we had very little rain after this tree was idanted, and furthermore, that the 

 locality was upon nearly the highest ground in Petaluma. This tree was occasionally, 

 but only moderately, watered during part of the time. Other trees of this species 

 planted at the same time also made a remarkable growth. Specimens raised by me 

 from the seed, whose growth I have noted, show a gain of 10+ inches in 21 days, or 

 half an inch per diem. The development of lateral branches is as suprising as its per- 

 pendicular growth. George C. Potter, esq., of Oakland, informs me that specimens 

 upon his grounds nine years old, show a diameter of 12 inches. 



The late Col. Ezekiel Jewett, in writing from Santa Baraba, Cal., 

 September 13, 187G, says : 



There are some thirty species of the Eucalyptus here, and their growth is marvel- 

 ous. The blue gum seems to be the favorite, and there is one before nie, three years 

 and one month old, that is 20 inches in circumference 6 feet from the roots, and 32 feet 

 high. 



Professor Brewer cites from a local authority that a tree cut in 1874, 

 in Sonoma, Cal., of 9 years' growth, which had attained the height of 

 96 feet, and a diameter of 18 inches at 4 feet from the ground. 



Mr. Ell wood Cooper, of Santa Barbara, who has done much toward 

 making known the value of this timber for cultivation,^ in writing, 

 November 28, 187C, says : 



The only parts of California that have commenced the planting of Eucalyptus for- 

 ests, so far as my knowledge extends, are Alameda County, Gen. J. T. Str'atton, the 

 principal, some 60 acres ; in San Rafael there are probably 50 acres; in Los Angeles 

 County, 100 acres ; Santa Barbara County, 100 acres. In other parts of Alameda 



' On the Economic Value of certain Australian Forest Trees, and their CuUivation in Cali- 

 fornia. 



' Forest Culture and Eucalyptus Trees. San Francisco, 187G. 12mo., pp. 204 ; and an 

 other volume of the same title, pp. 621. The first of these contains a lecture by him, 

 and two lectures and an article by Baron Ferdinand Von Miiller, of Melbourne, Victo- 

 ria. The larger volume embraces several lectures and articles by Baron Von Miiller 

 having an interesting application to the subject of Australian vegetation and its in- 

 troduction into California. 



