CHAPTER XX, 135 



The lumber trees in our reserve torests are the pines, flrs, Doug- 

 las spruce, incense cedar, and in one district of the Sierra Nevada, the 

 sequoia. 



Of the pines, there are but two in our reserves that as yet are an 

 important source of lumber. These are the yellow pine and sugar pine. 



The incense cedar is principally used for posts, ties, shingles, etc. 

 In our southern reserves the yellow pine is the principal lumber 

 tree. The sugar pine is indeed the king of the pine genus, but it has 

 a much more restricted range than the yellow pine, and but seldom 

 grows in masses. It is scattered through the forests of the middle Sier- 

 ra region. One of its peculiar properties is its straight grain and facility 

 for splitting. This invites the woodman to it for a source of shakes. 

 No lumbering in our mountains is more distressingly wasteful than 

 shake-making. Only parts of these giant trees are used, and quite fre- 

 quently the woodsman tires or the tree proves refractory. Thus it hap- 

 pens that the mountain traveler often sees sugar pines of two to two 

 hundred and fifty feet in height felled, with only a few feet of the trunk 

 used. The rest remains to rot, or furnish destructive fuel to some for- 

 est fire. 



(Foot Note: All of our lumbering is very wasteful. Under private 

 ownership and at present lumber prices, it will so continue, without a 

 forest system. A method has been proposed whereby the cutting of 

 lumber by private parties or corporations might be so conducted as to 

 promise a new forest crop and remove the danger and destruction by 

 fire, usually severe in cut-over districts on account of the lumbering 

 waste. This method is that rules be drawn up by foresters for the tree 

 cutting and removal of waste. The consideration to the lumber com- 

 panies to so conduct their cutting being an agreed price to be paid by 

 the government for the cut-over land thus treated. The rules to secure 

 forest safety and insure new growth are simple and not costly. A 

 number of lumbermen have expressed approval of this or some other 

 fair and reasonable plan. The only other way out of this difficulty is 

 by expropriation of private timber holdings. There Is, however, an 

 increasing interest amongst lumbermen in a private forest management 

 to secure continuous crops. This will surely grow with higher prices. 



A good deal of cut-over forest land is allowed to go delinquent for 

 taxes. Such lands, while falling back into the people's hands, fall into 

 State or local jurisdiction. This result is not satisfactory, because 

 lirt atate has no forest system and, besides, has no part in the man- 

 agement of the Federal reserves.) 



