8 WOOD-USING INDUSTRIES OF CALIFORNIA. 



Further statistics may be fouud in the publication " Lumber, Lath 

 and Shingles, 1910," compiled by the Department of Commerce and 

 Labor, Bureau of the Census, in cooperation with the Forest Service, 

 which is referred to both here and elsewhere in this publication. 



KINDS OF WOODS USED. 



California manufacturers report the use of 63 species of wood; and, 

 in 1910, they consumed 662 million feet, or 35 per cent of the total cut 

 of the State, in producing their commodities. Twelve species were 

 logged wholly within the State, five partly within, and the remaining 

 46 wholly without. Of the latter, 24 were grown in foreign countries, 

 including the Philippine and Hawaiian islands. 



A list of these woods with their common and botanical names and 

 other information, is given in Table I; while a short discussion upon 

 the California grown species is given below. 



REDWOOD. 



Although redwood grows also in southwestern Oregon, the lumber is 

 exclusively produced within the borders of California by 67 mills, whose 

 average cut each for 1910 was about 8,112,000 feet board measure. In 

 the latter year redwood ranked twelfth in the amount of lumber pro- 

 duced within the United States. 



The redwood belt extends in a strip 500 miles long, from southern 

 Oregon to central California. The strip is narrow, ranging in width 

 from 10 to 30 miles. The commercial range has been estimated to cover 

 3,000 square miles, but the dense logging woods cover a much smaller 

 area than that. The heaviest stand is near the center of the redwood 

 region, in Humboldt County, though very dense forests exist both north 

 and south of that point. 



Redwood is one of the few soft woods that reproduce bountifully 

 from sprouts. Few trees surpass it in that particular, and the vigor 

 of the sprout growth is remarkable. A large portion of the forest is 

 renewed in that way and the largest trees retain their ability to send up 

 shoots from the stump. 



The height that the tree attains commonly varies between 180 and 

 280 feet, and the diameter between 6 and 12 feet. 



The wood is light, soft, brittle, and moderately strong; the grain 

 usually fine, even and straight, though sometimes curly ; the color light 

 to dark red, with thin, almost white, sapwood. It splits and works 

 easily, and polishes well ; and is very durable in contact with the soil. 



Its good qualities are well known abroad and in the east, as in 1907, 

 over 47 million feet of it were shipped to Australia and other oriental 

 ports, South and Central America, Mexico, the United States, Atlantic 

 ports, Europe, Africa, and the Hawaiian Islands. This amount includes 

 water shipments only, as other parts of the United States are supplied 

 by rail from San Francisco and Los Angeles. 





