200 



The iirincipal timber cut is ]?ine. Spruce aud Cedar are also cut and 

 sold ; the latter largely split for posts. The most important trees in 

 the mountains are : 



Finns Lamhertianaj Sugar Pine. 



Finns ponderosa, Pitch Pine. 



Fimis Coulteriy Nut Pine. 



Finns Sabiniana, Digger Pine. 



Finns Jeffreyi, Yellow or Bull Pine. 



Fseudotsnga Bouglasii, Spruce. 



Juniperns Californica, Juniper. 



Lihocedrus decurrens, White Cedar. 



Abies concolor, Silver Fir. 



Quercus chrysolepis, Red Live Oak. 



Qnercns Kelloggii, White Oak. 

 The timber is said by the lumbermen to be softer and less valuable 

 than that farther north. The low foot-hills near the coast are generally 

 devoid of trees or shrubs. Those on the desert are absolutely bare. 

 With these exceptions, all the foot-hills and mountains not covered with 

 trees are more or less thickened with evergreen bushes, called, collect- 

 ively, chaparral. These grow from 3 to 15 feet in height and are fre- 

 quently almost impenetrable. This chaparral is composed principally 

 of Scrub Oaks, Manzanita, Wild Lilac, Grease- wood, and Sumac. On 

 the lower foot-hills this brush is cut and grubbed up for fire- wood. In 

 the mountains and canyons it furnishes food for the bees, and, most im- 

 portant of all, it acts as a reservoir, in allowing the rains of the wet 

 season time to seep into the soil and rock veins, to appear again in the 

 dry season as springs in the low country. This brush, together with 

 the trees, also protects the country from the formation of destructive 

 torrents and floods, and modifies the desert winds, which are already 

 somewhat detrimental, at times, to vegetation. 



These brush lands almost all belong to the Government, and, being of 

 little direct value, will probably long remain its property. Every year 

 disastrous fires sweep off great areas of this mountain covering. The 

 Government sets no watch and takes no heed of its property, and the 

 fires run into and destroy the timber as well as the brush. Every year, 

 as a consequence, water-rights are decreased in value, through the 

 springs diminishing in summer, and torrents run more violently and 

 bring down more sand and stones to scatter on the farms. The floods 

 each wet year are more destructive than before. Lately, floods have 

 swept away twenty-two houses in Los Angeles^ and interrupted travel 

 for weeks on the Southern Pacific Railroad, in the Soledad Canyon, and 

 for months on the California Southern road, iu the Temecula Canyon. 

 On each of these water-sheds extensive destruction of trees and brush 

 had taken place in the Soledad by deliberately set and deliberately re- 

 Ideated fires. 



It is very important that steps should be taken to preserve these 



