20 THE REDWOOD. 



CTJT-OVER LANDS: POSSIBILITY OF SECOND GROWTH. 



During the fifty j^ears in which the Redwood has been lumbered, 

 several hundred thousand acres of timber have been cut over. The 

 good lands have been put into cultivation under fruit or grain, or, 

 where mills have had a large and permanent force of men to feed, the 

 mill owners have turned their cut-over lands into pasture for the rais- 

 ing of cattle. 



The chance for the reproduction of the tree has been small. On 

 the farms the stumps are either grubbed out or shorn of their suckers 

 every year; on pasture lands, burning and the cattle have prevented 

 reproduction; and those lands not used after lumbering have also been 

 subjected to fire. As 3'ear bj^ year the Redwood forests have dwindled, 

 it has come to be pretty generally believed that the tree is doomed to 

 extinction. 



The popular idea that the Redwood has no chance of survival is not 

 well founded; the possibilities of second growth are much better than 

 they appear. While most of the lumbered areas have been kept bare 

 by lack of protection, there are tracts where accidentally favorable 

 conditions have allowed the sprouts to develop, and here the real 

 vigor of the Redwood second growth is apparent. 



VALUABLE SECOND GROWTH. 



On the northernmost slashings near Crescent City, which is perhaps 

 the most isolated of all the lumber regions on the coast, there is one 

 small tract among acres of unpromising brush and stumps where the 

 growth of sprouts has been unimpeded, and there a stand exists which 

 averages 12 to 16 inches on the stump and is 60 to 80 feet in height. 

 Only the very best of the virgin timber may be profitabh^ lumbered in 

 this place, and the second growth is not cut. A hundred miles south, 

 near Humboldt Bay and Eureka, are tracts of young growth only ten 

 years older than those at Crescent City, which have a market value. 

 Men who have found their old claims grown up to sticks 20 inches 

 through and a hundred feet long have sold the trees for piling, for 

 which they are locally considered almost as good as Red Fir. A good 

 many mill men in Eureka believe 'that the Redwood sucker will in time 

 and under the proper conditions produce valuable timber; but they say 

 that the wood of the sprout is too soft and brittle — "brashy '' they call 

 it — not taking into account that it has not been grown in dense stands 

 and has not had time to harden. 



This soft timber can be used. In Sonoma County, where the coun- 

 try is well settled, .Redwood was never so dense as farther north; but 

 there has been a better chance for reproduction and there is a better 

 market. Sonoma Countv second-growth Redwood is cut to as low a 

 diameter as 10 inches, and the mills are making money at the business. 

 The timber is sappy, but it makes good box boards and good lumber. 



