152 REDWOOD FORESTS OF THE PACIFIC COAST 



To appreciate the magnitude of these figures, it may be said 

 that the annual cut of lumber in all the mills of the United 

 States is about one-third of this amount. The redwood strip 

 alone would therefore supply the entire country with mill timber 

 for three years. 



Man}^ estimates of the amount of standing redwood have been 

 made, with results widely at variance with one another. The 

 area of the belt has long been pretty well known, and the dis- 

 crepancies among the estimates seem to be due mainly to differ- 

 ences in the estimated stand per acre. The first estimate that I 

 find was made in 1881 by John Dolbeer, of Eureka, who gave 

 23,650 million feet. At about the satne time Mr E. L Allen, 

 secretaiy of the Redwood Manufacturers' Association of San 

 Francisco, made the estimate published in the report of the tenth 

 census, which was 25,825 millions. In 1885 Mr Hubert Vischer 

 published, in the report of the California State Board of Forestry, 

 an estimate of 30,500 millions, and in 1890 Capt. A. C. Tibbetts, 

 secretary of the Humboldt Lumber Manufacturers' Association 

 of Eureka, estimated it at 97,500 million feet. 



The area seems to be generally agreed upon as being from 

 1,000,000 to 1,280,000 acres. The measurements from the best 

 map available, that of the State Board of Forestry, give the 

 latter figures. It is out of the question that the redwood lands 

 yield, on an average, so little as 20,000 to .30,000 feet per acre. 

 All estimates of stand and all records of cut show yields far in 

 excess of these figures; and it cannot be contended successfully 

 that these estimates and records relate only to selected areas far 

 above the average. There is, as yet, very little selection of timber 

 lands taking place. The whole territory is so heavily forested 

 that it is no advantage to select those most thickty clothed with 

 timber, but rather a disadvantage. The only selection 3^et made 

 has been on the score of accessibility by stream in eai'lier times 

 and by rail route at present. I consider, therefore, that the fig- 

 ures quoted above, which represent 280,000 acres out of 1,280,000, 

 or nearly one-fourth of the entire area, together with the records 

 of the entire amount cut in Humboldt county, furnish a fair 

 sample of the stand in the belt. Captain Tibbetts' estimate seems 

 tome, under present loggingconditions, much too high, but I have 

 no reasonable doubt that his amount will eventually be cut from 

 the belt, owing to the economies to be effected in the future. 



The annual cut by the mills, excluding other uses to which the 

 wood is put, such as firewood, shingles, ties, posts, and poles — 



