PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 53 
At the close of the meeting ] was handed a letter and card which proved 
to be a ticket and seat reservation in the stage line to Yosemite Valley, and 
the big tree grove of Mariposa County. Leaving San Francisco in the evening 
by a Southern Pacific train, I found even the sleeping car reservation had been 
made. 
Arriving at Raymond during the night we were not disturbed until morn- 
ing, when, after an excellent breakfast, the stage drove up and seven pas- 
sengers began the trip up the mountains. 
As it was midsummer, the season extremely dry, and hot as well, there 
was an abundance of dust, but notwithstanding this drawback, the trip was 
a most enjoyable one. 
It was of special interest to me, as I was to see the sequoias of the Mari- 
posa grove for the first time. In 1866 I had visited the Calaveras grove, having 
ridden horseback alone across the Sierras from Nevada to see those monsters 
of the mountains. The sugar pines and many other trees of the Sierra Nevada 
Mountains were of great interest. 
A long day’s journey in a stage, or open spring wagon, as it really was, 
with only a brief stop for dinner, the entire way being an upward climb, would 
be considered very fatiguing, to say the least, but the changes of scenery at 
every turn of the road attracted our attention so completely that not a thought 
was given to any inconveniences. 
Arriving at night at Wawona Hotel, we were well cared for and spent a 
few hours most agreeably. 
At this elevation, almost at the summit of the mountains, with fresh, pure 
air, delicious water to drink, glorious scenery, we would delight to remain a 
week or more at Wawona but with me time was an important factor. In less 
than a week I was engaged to address the Farmers’ National Congress at Colo- 
rado Springs, and I could not tarry. 
A few hours’ ride brought us to the head of the valley and we looked 
with awe at the wonderful works of nature. 
To our left stood El Capitan, its base resting two thousand feet below us, 
while its top was lifted a thousand feet still higher than we were. The halftone 
pictures which we present give a better impression of the various views 
throughout this wonderful valley than any pen can do. 
Probably tens of thousands of people have seen the Yosemite Falls as the 
water pours over the precipice, falling two thousand feet, where one has seen 
it as I did, during the season of excessive drought. Not a drop of water moist- 
ened the rocks, although the beautiful Merced River winding at the bottom of 
the valley was well filled. 
A few hours spent in this marvellous valley were entirely too short, no one 
should think of coming here for a stay of less than a week—and this I hope at 
some future time to do. 
Seven hundred feet above the base of the rock El Capitan, in Yosemite 
Valley, yet half a mile below its summit is a shelf where a piece of the granite, 
long ago, was thrown down. Upon this shelf a bird carried the seed of a 
pine, depositing it among the accumulation of dust. The rains moistened it, 
causing its germination. Its tiny roots crept into the little crevice and se- 
