LUMBER STATISTICS OF CALIFORNIA. 

 The exports by sea were reported as follows : 



609 



Alameda County. — The prevailing winds of this region are northwest. The rains 

 vary greatly — from 7 to 20 inches in a year. The deciduous trees are the soft maple^ 

 California walnut, buckeye, cottonwood, willow, white oak, and sycamore. The coni- 

 fers are cypress, of four species, redwood, Monterey pine, sugar pine, and Picea amaiilis^ 

 and P. grandis ; of broad-leaved evergreens, are laurels of several kinds. 



The Eucalyptus, of several species, does well in the valleys and on rocky hills — 

 wherever the scrub oak grows — but will not endure the frost. The fig bears well, but 

 the fruit is not so sweet as it is farther south. It requires a rich and rather moist 

 soil. The orange, lemon, and lime ripen, and are perfectly hardy, their cultivation 

 promising to develop into a large industry. They need water, and protection from 

 chilling winds. The Eucalyptus forms the best wind-break. They are sold at about 

 |6 per thousand, when one foot high. The coflfee tree is under experiment, but it is, 

 too early to be certain as to the result. 



The Japanese persimmon {Biospyrus kaki) is becoming a favorite, but has not yet 

 fruited. The cork oak is growing well, but there is not yet much interest taken in it. 

 The hemlock spruce, Norway spruce, and Austrian pine do not thrive, being stunted 

 and miserable in the best soils, evidently from climate. The hickory and hard mapla 

 grow very slowly, and the pecan and beech much better. The locust grows, but not 

 as well as in the Eastern States, and is apt to get diseased and to die young. 



The woolly aphis is a continual trouble on our grafted apple-trees the second year, 

 but on sandy soil less. Whale-oil soap has been found the best remedy. The stumps 

 and refuse should be burned to get rid of the insects that harbor in them. The oak. 

 of this region is liable to attack from a borer. Among fruits, the cherry is most liable 

 to injury by disease and insect ravages. Conifers can only be raised successfully by 

 making seed-beds. They should be about four feet wide, sown in November, covering 

 with sand, and protecting the next summer with laths. Deciduous tree seeds, apples, 

 pears, &c., are sown in depressed beds in March, near a drain-furrow, mulching and. 

 watering by filling the beds (which are sunk two inches) with water from a hose when 

 they need soaking. In this climate this treatment just suits them. — {Chas. H. Shinn, 

 Niles, Alameda County, California.) 



Mariposa Countv.— In this county occurs the Yosemite Valley, of wide notoriety. It 

 comes within our province to notice only so much of this as relates to its forest vege- 

 tation, as mentioned in the " Yosemite Book," already quoted. 



Along the banks of the river near the falls, there is a dense growth of alders (Alnns 

 viridis), which sometimes forms quite a large tree, with ash-colored bark, associated 

 with small trees of the Bhamnus Mensieii, remarkable for its large and somber leaves. 

 A few willows, the Douglas spruce, and, in the upper part of the valley, an occasional 

 sugar pine are also found in this position. Where the valley widens out, and the river 

 banks become lower, so that sloughs and swamps are found, the baJm-of-Gilead poplar 

 (Populus ialaamifera) comes in ; this is a common tree in the valley, and is usually 

 mistaken for the cottonwood. With this occurs large willows, an abundance of the 

 Douglas spruce, and also the Azalea occideritalis, whose superb white and fragrant 

 flowers form one of the charms of the vaUey. 



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