CHICO FORESTRY SUBSTATION STUDIES OF TREE GROWTH. 



107 



TABLE I. REPRESENTATIVE CONIFERS. 



Name. 



Araucaria Bidwelli 



Chamsecyparis Lawsoniana .. 



Cupressus sempervirens 



Pinus austriaca 



Pinus insignis 



Pinus resinosa 



Pinus sylvestris 



Pseudotsuga taxifolia .._ 



Sequoia gigantea 



Sequoia sempervirens 



No. of Trees 

 Measured. 



1 

 5 

 5 

 5 

 5 

 5 

 5 

 5 

 5 

 5 



Av. Size, Oct., 1897. 



Size, Oct., 1901. 



Height. 

 12ft. 

 18 

 26 

 18 

 25 

 22 

 16 

 11 

 27 

 22 



Girth. 



6 in. 

 22 

 18 

 16 

 2* 

 17 

 14 



8 



36 

 16 



Height. 

 20ft. 

 21 

 42 

 22 

 32 

 38 

 21 

 16 

 42 

 43 



Girth 

 Sin 

 30 



36 

 21 

 42 

 36 

 24 

 15 

 48 

 46 



These trees are in age fourteen or fifteen years from seed, but no record 

 was kept at the station by those in charge before the University assumed 

 control. There is but one Araucaria, and it stands too close to large 

 oaks to have a fair chance. The numbers of the other species range 

 from 10 (Pseudotsuga) to 400 and 500 (Pinus sylvestris and Cupressus 

 sempervirens). The trees chosen stand on the outside of the blocks 

 which are now being thinned. 



The only difficulty in regard to the continued development of these 

 blocks of conifers and the maturing of as large a timber-crop as this 

 soil can possibly carry, lies in the nature of some of the root systems in 

 transplanted trees. When a block of 225 trees of Pinus resinosa was 

 partially thinned in the spring of 1902, a violent gale from the north 

 blew down several of the standing trees, and showed conclusively that 

 the roots of conifers planted in sacks, as these were in 1889, are 

 more or less prevented from properly descending. There is no reason 

 why much smaller conifers should not be used, or seeds sown under 

 temporary shelter plants. In all cases where deep-rooted, healthy trees 

 are desired, pines and other conifers can be transplanted from boxes 

 when only a foot high, in small " puddled " balls of earth, without the 

 use of sacks. Certainly the sacks should always be removed, not merely 

 slashed across. 



Self-sown seedlings already show in the groves, and the reproductive 

 powers of any natural forest in this district, if properly protected, are 

 evidently great. Allusion has been made to the rise of large oak groves, 

 but no less interesting is the extent to which young Pinus sabiniana 

 thickets abound on Rancho Chico. This forestry station shows on 

 every hand satisfactory natural increase of many species, coniferous 

 and deciduous. 



Further Notes on Conifers. There were two cedars, Cedrus deodara 

 and Cedrus Libani, planted in 1895 at the eastern end of the substation. 

 The former has far outgrown the latter, and is 23 feet high, with 

 branches touching the ground; the latter is but 13^ feet high. 



The Italian cypresses (C. sempervirens) are in some cases nearly 50 

 feet high, and are superb trees. Many are heavily branched, and the 

 lower branches in these blocks begin to fall, but the columnar specimens 

 still receive light on all sides. 



The best block of Pinus austriaca averages over 25 feet high, with 

 girths that often equal or exceed 20 inches, but the specimens tabu- 

 lated were from a block of somewhat smaller size. 



The growth of conifers in the mixed forest planted in January, 1895, 

 affords the best illustration the substation can give of the ease and 



