206 PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS * CONVENTION. 



Let us grant that the first instance of the $5 3 000 valuation is extreme, 

 and while it may obtain again, it is highly improbable. But the second 

 instance surely is not, for after careful consideration fair men made 

 such award as compensation for its destruction. 



But aside from the financial value — the calculated, hard and fast 

 value of so many pounds and ounces for so many dollars and cents — 

 let us look at another value, still greater. Let us go back to the old 

 days when the "wood lot" was common, when a whole community gath- 

 ered on the bank of the river under the great sycamores, walnuts, 

 maples, and beeches and enjoyed a day of unadulterated happiness. 

 Such a grove brought many a stray dollar to a community. 



It is not possible to compute the amount of gold poured into Switzer- 

 land's lap because of her wonderful mountains. Neither is it possible 

 to compute the gold poured into California because of the fame of her 

 giant sequoias. The lumber man looks with measuring stick in hand, 

 and begrudges the waste of such a vast quantity of lumber as one of 

 those trees contain. But should the greed of immediate possession 

 overcome the more far-sighted and enlightened policy of protecting our 

 great heritage, it will be a sorry day indeed for California and result in 

 the loss of millions — millions, not of sentiment nor in simple pride that 

 one can stand and boast that 11 We have the largest trees on earth!" 

 but millions of hard dollars. 



"But why reduce the consideration of those noble friends of ours to 

 such a sordid basis? Is not our love for the Sequoia of the Sierras, 

 or the oak of the hills, or the sycamore of the valleys and canons, suffi- 

 cient to protect them?" 



Too often it is not. Within a stone's throw of my home, I can look 

 down on hundreds of fine sycamores lining either side of Arroyo Seco; 

 yet often I can hear the ax claiming the gnarled old giants for a few* 

 more cords of stovewood for the owner too ignorant to appreciate the 

 great patrimony he is sacrificing. And as to the love of the trees sav- 

 ing them, there would be fewer of them to-day if that were the only 

 consideration. 



Let me illustrate: A few years since the temperance, or so-called 

 prohibition, sentiment began to be agitated in many southern California 

 towns. Year after year a campaign more or less hysterical,, with " Ten 

 Nights in a Bar Room" scenes and strong appeals to sentiment and 

 sympathy, was waged, with indifferent success on one side, then on the 

 other. 



But, presto! It was discovered that the town without the saloon was 

 securing a class of people which all towns wish to secure to help 

 upbuild and make them move in step to the twentieth century swing. 

 That moment the appeals to sentiment and sympathy ceased, and a 

 cold-blooded consideration of wiping out anything inimical to the best 



