ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



103 



sufficient right of way to protect the timber 

 along the route, but actually had contracted 

 with the owners of the land for the removal of 

 the timber. In other words, the Commission 

 bought a hundred foot strip with the under- 

 standing that the owners should cut off the only 

 thing of value, namely, the timber. This in- 

 credible folly can only be explained by the 

 widespread belief that a strip of timber along 

 the road will blow down unless covered and 

 protected by the forest behind. 



The writer does not intend to enter into a 

 discussion of this question, but it seems to be 

 universally believed in the Redwood country 

 that trees blow down if the adjoining forest 

 is cut off. There is but the slightest basis for 

 this tradition. Trees on ridges which have been 

 exposed by cutting, or an isolated strip of trees 

 standing across the line of prevailing winds, 

 may in exceptional cases be blown down, be- 

 cause the Redwoods, like the other great trees 

 of California and Oregon, are without taproots. 

 The writer (who has been through the Redwood 

 belt twice from end to end and has visited 

 practically every grove of importance) never 

 has seen a single instance where trees have 

 been blown down en masse, and he has seen 

 again and again isolated trees and groups of 

 trees in most exposed positions, that have stood 

 for years in defiance of wind and storm. This 

 is particularly significant as many of these 

 trees were imperfect or burned at the core and 

 consequently had but insufficient support. 



This myth of trees being blown down has 

 been exploded again and again, but in order to 

 kill definitely this old woman's tale it must be 

 made the subject of an authoritative report by 

 the Bureau of Forestry. The superstition stands 

 precisely in the same class of evidence as does 

 the silly story universally believed by trappers 

 that the porcupine shoots its quills. It is strange 

 that the one place where misinformation about 

 zoology and the habits of animals flourishes most 

 is among backwoodsmen and even guides, just 

 as ignorance of the true principles of heredity 

 is so widespread among the breeders of horses 

 and dogs. In the same way, men in the lumber 

 country are surprised when a skeptic from 

 the outside world ventures to question the sacro- 

 sanct doctrine that, if cutting in a forest is once 

 started, all the trees must be lumbered or they 

 will be blown over by the wind. Possibly this 

 belief has been encouraged by the wiser lumber- 

 men for ulterior purposes. 



The mere fact that there is little or no evi- 

 dence of trees blowing over even though in the 



most exposed positions, and the further fact that 

 numberless trees, isolated or in groups, which 

 have been deprived of all their supporting trees, 

 stand for years without falling, are of little 

 weight against this venerable superstition. 



This yarn is encountered throughout the 

 north, perhaps with rather more justification, 

 among the yellow pine forests, but even there 

 the writer has failed to find any evidence for it, 

 although he does not pretend to have covered 

 the ground as in the case of the Redwoods. 

 Among the Redwoods one of the most noticeable 

 features is the absence of fallen trees, such as 

 cover the ground everywhere in Canada and the 

 northern greenwood forests. 



Another superstition of the same character is, 

 that Redwood trees and timber are not injured 

 by burning over because of the fact that these 

 trees, like nearly all other very large trees of 

 California, are resistant to fire by reason of 

 their thick bark, and that many of them show 

 scars of ancient conflagrations, even in the damp 

 forests of the north. The result is that there has 

 been a great deal of deliberate burning of brush, 

 both preceding and following lumbering opera- 

 tions. In the ordinary lumbering operations the 

 trees are felled and the masses of fallen ma- 

 terial brush, shattered branches and some- 

 times trunks are then burned. This is said to 

 be necessary in order to saw up the giant trunks, 

 several reasons being given, chiefly the difficulty 

 of lumbering among masses of fallen debris. 

 The statement is also made that the workmen 

 object to the alleged danger of cutting unless 

 the rubbish has been burned. 



However that may be, the burning results 

 in very substantial destruction of good timber, 

 estimated in some cases as high as thirty per 

 cent. This proportion was said to be established 

 by an experiment made many years ago by the 

 A. B. Hammond Lumber Company, which has 

 been unusually intelligent in the utilization of 

 its holdings. A comparison was made between 

 two tracts of equal area, one burned over in 

 the usual wasteful manner and the other logged 

 without burning, and the result showed that the 

 burning destroyed about thirty per cent, of the 

 timber. Whether or not there is any economy 

 in the method of lumbering with assistance of 

 fire, the public has a right to put a stop to this 

 destruction of good timber because the time is 

 coming when wood will be as valuable in 

 California as it now is in Europe. What action 

 would the state take, and rightly take, if 

 the hotels in New York threw away one-third 

 of the food which was purchased to supply 

 their guests on the theory that it was their prop- 



