CALIFORNIA 
325 
a schooner of 125 tons, was cut by a lumberman in Mendocino 
county. One of the redwood trees, known as the Fremont tree, 
in the group near Santa Cruz, is 275 feet high and is 19 feet in 
diameter six feet above the ground. In the hollow of this tree 
a family some years ago found a comfortable residence for an 
entire winter. It was in or near this grove that Fremont en- 
camped before the conquest of California had been fully made. 
This great timber district is within the humid belt of California, 
and all the picturesque valle}^s that extend along the base of 
these wooded mountains have a network of living streams that 
find their way to the sea. The valleys are dotted with beautiful 
towns and the landscape is a succession of vineyards and 
orchards. This redwood, besides its extensive use for the in- 
terior finish of houses, is everywhere admired for its natural 
color tones and is now in quest by Europeans for ornamental 
use. The pine and the fir tree, so common in California, are 
denizens of man}^- countries, but the redwood makes here the 
one exclusive timber belt of its kind in the world. 
The Sierra and the parallel Coast range inclose the great and 
continuous valley of the San Joaquin and the Sacramento, 350 
miles long and with a breadth of about 40 miles, making an 
aggregate area of about 14,000 square miles. Forty-five years 
ago the greater part of the land in the San Joaquin valley could 
have been bought at $1.25 an acre. Thirt}^-five years ago there 
were thousands of acres which the Government had offered at 
the minimum price that found no buyers. The parched and 
desolate valle}^ la}'’ there at the base of the mighty Sierra, adown 
which the mountain streams descended, but made no fruitful 
fields. Today there are flourishing cities and towns, vineyards 
and orchards, and great wheatfields. From that valley enough 
raisins were ])roduced this year to supply two-thirds of the con- 
sumption of the whole country. From this and the related val- 
leys 9,000 carloads of oranges and 400,000 cases of lemons will 
this season go forward to Eastern markets. Add to this ]>roduct 
not less than 4,000 tons of raisins, and we come to see the rela- 
tion of all this wealth of production of the great mountain ranges 
which send their streams down to fertilize this great valley. 
From the hot plains men look u]) to these snow-clad mountains 
and know that the reservoirs will never fail, and that the winter 
gales that sing in the toj)S of the hr trees and smite the giant 
sequoia serve best to make eternal spring in the valley helow. 
The San .Joaquin from the south and the Sacramento from the 
