﻿12 BULLETIN 9, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



also for firewood, as well as for fences and windbreaks. The Acacia 

 pycnantha used in South Africa is the superb "golden" or broad- 

 leaved wattle of South Australia, which yields one of the richest tan- 

 barks in the world. 



In California. 



California has large areas of sand along the coast, more or less cov- 

 ered with beach plants, such as the abronias, lupins, and artemisias. 

 Such sand areas have but little value, and have not improved in the 

 past 50 years. These and similar areas in the Mojave region and the 

 upper Salinas Valley can be readily reclaimed by the use of acacias, 

 which can be selected not only for their sand-binding qualities but for 

 their value as pasturage and as supplies of fuel wood and tannin. On 

 such sand wastes the covering of shrubby acacias can be secured by 

 sowing seed with the first rains in the fall. If the forage-yielding 

 Australian " myalls" and u mulgas," such as Acacia pendula, salicina, 

 and aneura, are chosen, they are likely to prove the most profitable 

 crop that can be grown oh such soils. Albizzia lophantha belongs 

 with these as a shrub for browse. All of these species readily repro- 

 duce themselves, widening their extent along the seacoast, and will 

 eventually produce a large amount of firewood. 



As a matter of fact, acacias which have escaped from cultivation 

 have become naturalized in many places along the California coast. 

 There are thickets near the ocean between Watsonville and Santa 

 Cruz, also near Morro, San Luis Obispo County, along the coast in 

 Sonoma County, and likewise a few miles from Santa Monica. In a 

 gulch near Carpinteria, south of Santa Barbara, there are self-sown 

 seedlings and also large trees of Acacia decurrens, melanoxylon, and 

 longifolia, which have grown from the stumps of older trees. Near 

 old Ventura Mission there is the same adaptation of the Australian 

 acacias to the California coast and foothills, even where they receive 

 no care whatever. 



In many cases the smaller acacias merely serve to fix the sand, and 

 will properly give way to the larger acacias, to eucalypts, pines, 

 casuarinas, and other timber trees. One large district whioh can be 

 reclaimed in this way covers many square miles of coast in Monterey, 

 San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and other more southern counties. 

 The same is true of large areas north of Monterey and about San 

 Francisco, and of large inland areas where the sand is decomposed 

 granite, adapted to Acacia aneura and A. salicina. Von Mueller 

 recommends Acacia excelsa and the very shrubby form of Acacia longi- 

 folia, as valuable sand binders; both yield tanbark. According to 

 the same authority, Acacia giraffea (Willd.), of South Africa, and 

 Acacia seyal, of the Nubian Desert (neither of which has been tested 

 in California) , are especially drought resistant and have great economic 

 value. 



