30 STOCK RANGES OF NORTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA. 



Improvement of the woodland forage. —Except in portions of the red- 

 wood belt, the timber occupies land which would probably never be 

 fit for agricultural purposes on account of either or both of the fol- 

 lowing reasons : First, the steepness of the slopes, which makes them 

 practically inaccessible and exposes them to soil washing to a ruinous 

 extent as soon as cleared of the protecting timber and brush; sec- 

 ond, the poor and rocky nature of the soil. The clearing of the land 

 would therefore be unprofitable, uDless for the sake of the timber. 

 The clearing of such lands would seriously affect the water supply 

 of the upper ranges. This has been conclusively demonstrated near 

 Scotia, and near Guerneville, in Sonoma County, where the clearing 

 and keeping clear of the redwood land for pasture purposes has 

 resulted in the drying up of many springs and small creeks which 

 were formerly perennial. The way in which the stream beds are 

 flooded with "waste" water from the treeless upland ranges in times 

 of heavy rain is shown on the accompanying plate (PL V, fig. 1), 

 and, by contrast, the beneficial effect of a heavy covering of timber 

 and brush, which protects the tributary springs and creeks from 

 evaporation, is shown in figure 2 on the same plate. 



The timber produced (outside of the redwood belt) is not at pres- 

 ent considered worth lumbering, but is used for fuel and fencing. 

 The tan oak (Quercus densiflora) is highly valued for its bark, used 

 for tanning, and an extensive industry in oak bark is carried on in 

 the more accessible canj^ons near the coast. It is quite possible that 

 the future demand for tan bark, which is becoming scarcer each 

 year, a may warrant the systematic planting of the tan oak on these 

 canyon slopes. This would result in a large increase of hog feed in 

 the acorn season. 1 ' 



Forage plants recommended for trial. — It is not improbable that by 

 establishing pasture plots of shade-growing forage plants in small 

 clearings among the timber and brush the winter feed of the wood- 



a Sorae idea of the extent of the annual destruction of tan oak can be gathered 

 from the statement that in 1899 there were shipped 1,500 cords of bark (a cord 

 weighing 2.300 pounds) from Point Arena and 1.500 from Greenwood: 500 cords 

 are annually peeled at the Union Lumber Company's camps near Fort Bragg, and 

 large amounts are annually shipped from Gualala. Iversen. Navarro. Albion. 

 Little River. Mendocino City. Caspar. Westport. L^sal. and Bear Harbor, as well 

 as from other points. We met twenty-one 4-horse wagon loads of bark en route 

 to Bear Harbor in a morning's drive between Kenny and Thorn. 



The bark from the Greenwood lumber camps is supplied ' ' to the California 

 Tanning Extract Company, who have a plant in conjunction with the Greenwood 

 mill. The bark is reduced to a liquid form, and is barreled and shipped, princi- 

 pally to Japan. One cord of tan bark weighs 2.300 pounds: when in liquid form 

 it is reduced down to about 550 or 600 pounds." 



b Acorn-fed pork is. at best, considered poor in quality, being soft and oily: it 

 brings H cents per pound less than corn-fed pork: it is claimed that even though 

 •■ finished off " * on corn the quality of the fat remains the same. Poland-China 

 hogs are used almost exclusively for range feeding, being much more docile than 

 Berkshires. which become wild and unmanageable with the freedom of the range. 



