LUMBEE STATISTICS OF CALIFORNIA. 



607 



County there are doubtless more groves, but I should judge not over 200 acres in all.» 

 This is about the extent ; but this industry has commenced, and very soon the whole 

 interior will be dotted with forests of the Eucalyptus. 



Attempts have been made to introduce the cultivation of various 

 species of this tree in the Southern States, but without encouraging 

 success. It has been found not hardy at Augusta, in Georgia. At 

 Albany, in that State, hopes were entertained that it would be able to 

 survive the winters, but an unusual frost in the winter of 1876-'77 killed 

 it entirely, the temperature having gone down to 14P F.^ 



At New Orleans it has been found too delicate, and, if successful on 

 the Gulf coast, it would probably be in Florida or Southern Texas. 



Although of wonderfully rapid growth under a genial climate, it is by 

 no means certain that this timber would prove valuable for construc- 

 tion, or use in the arts, until ripened and hardened by time.^ 



Statistics of Lumber . Manufacture in California in 1874, 1875, a7id 1876, as reported by the 

 Assessors. {From reports of Surveyor-General.) 



I.— Number of saw-mills. 



3 Counties from which no returns were received are omitted from this table. 

 SACRAiTENTO CouNTY.— Two steam-mills, 1874 ; no product reported. 



1 A recent newspaper article states that the Southern Pacific Railroad Company are 

 preparing to plant 200,000 Eucalyptus trees, in groves, at their several stations in South- 

 ern California. 



- In an article in the First Annual Report of the Board of Health of Georgia, entitled 

 "Beport of Coviviittee on the Influence of Trees on Health," by Dr. Benjamin M. Cromwell 

 (1875), much confidence was expressed that this tree would grow and thrive in South- 

 ern Georgia, but this hope was disappointed by the casualty above noticed. The 

 greatest difiiculty had been supposed to occur in getting the plants through the first 

 summer, until their roots penetrated well into the soil, so as to get a full supply ot 

 moisture, to resist the evaporation under a hot sun in dry weather. It was hoped that 

 after the first year they would care for themselves, but experience proved that the dan- 

 ger lay in exceptionably cold winters rather than in dry and hot summers. 



3 Baron F. Von Mtiller, the eminent botanist of Australia, who has done so much 

 toward making known the value of the blue gum, in a lecture delivered at Melbourne, 

 June, 1871, says: "That a period of a quarter or even half a century must elapse 

 before a solid plank, hardened by age, can be obtained from even a rapid growing 

 Eucalyptus tree. It is estimated to require twenty to twenty-five years before even a 

 sleeper of blue-gum wood can be obtained from a tree planted in ordinary soil ; and 

 that double the time will elapse before a sown tree of the still more durable red-gum 

 eucalyptus will furnish sleepers, such as hitherto have been in use for our railroad 

 works. But a supply of fuel from these trees may be obtained much earlier. Mr. 

 Adam Anderson, a timber merchant of this city, concurs in this estim; te." 



