FOREST RESOURCES OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 611 



Such was the primative aspect of the native forests of this State. 

 We have giveu on a preceding page, in connection with our account of 

 California, Professor Newberry's statement, from more particular exam- 

 ination made many years later.^ The amount of foreign exportation will 

 be presented fully in the statistical portion of the report. The coastwise 

 trade is largely to the San Francisco market ; but the amounts from 

 this State cannot well be separated in these returns from those of Wash- 

 ington Territory. 



A business article on the lumber trade of the Pacific Coast, published 

 at San Francisco in July, 1877, states that the lumber shipped to that 

 place from Puget Sound consists in the main of Oregon pine, with much 

 spruce, rough and dressed, some cedar and some maple. The redwood 

 comes from California ports. The ports then principally shipping to San 

 Francisco were Crescent City, Coos Bay, the Columbia River, and along 

 up the Coast to Victoria. The increase in the amount received at San 

 Francisco had been as follows : 



In 1874.-139,856,486 feet of Oregon pine, 11,866,163 feet of rough 

 spruce, 765,690 feet of dressed spruce, 3,144,343 feet of rough cedar, 

 188,856 feet of maple, 1,019, 646 feed of redwood, 10,000,000 (nearly) of 

 rough sugar-pine pickets, railroad-ties, telegraph-poles, &c. 



In 1875.-163,695,426 feet of Oregon pine. Total increase over 1874, 

 about 53,073,634 feet. 



In 1876.-309,159,972 feet received of all kinds. 



The carrying trade in lumber on the coast required a capital of about 

 $12,000,000 annually, and employed a fleet of 123 sailing craft, chiefly 

 schooners and sloops. 



WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 



A correspondent of the Northwestern Lumberman, (March 17, 1877,) 

 in speaking of the timber resources of Oregon and Washington Terri- 

 tory, says that four fifths of the area, embracing the eastern part, is an 

 agricultural region, the fir timber being limited to the mountain ranges, 

 chiefly along the coast and on the streams tributary to the sound. He 

 says: 



Perhaps the size of some of the trees has been overstated. Perhaps also, the yield 

 per acre for a limited area has not been exaggerated, but the error lies in the supposi- 

 tion that those immense trees are the ordinary growth, and the marvelous yields the 

 average production of the whole Territory. The timber belt on Puget Sound, is about 

 170 miles long and 30 wide, and of this not more than one third ia timbered with fir, 

 there being scarcely any pine in Washington, though the fir is a species of pine. The 

 r^st of the timber is hemlock, vine and soft maple, alder, and cedar. The latter is in- 

 terspersed with the fir, and will in time become valuable, though at present it has 

 little commercial value on the sound. On the highlands the cedar attains a remark- 

 able growth, and is smooth and straight-grained. I saw one tree recently that meas- 

 ured 63 feet in girth,"- while 120 feet high is no unusual growth. The araa of pine, or 

 fir, is then about 1,700 sections, or 47 townships. 



Estimating the yield at 25 M feet per acre as a fair average, the Pu- 

 get Sound timber region would yield 27,200,000,000 feet of fir, or about 

 equal to the best estimates of standing timber in the lower peninsular 

 of Michigan. Two grades of timber are known in the trade us sap and 

 overgrotcn, the former yielding some 7 M feet to the tree, (sometimes not 

 over 2 M), and the latter from 8 to 15 M. The sap fir does not grow as 

 high as the other, which runs to 120 feet without a limb, and sometimes 

 160 feet. With regard to future lumbering operations, the writer, un- 



•This account by Professor Newberry was prepared in 1854-55, in connection with 

 Pacific Railroad surveys. 



