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U. y. . . _ u of A;j;rioultur« 







WITH Ul'TCIJi: SA:,I'S ITATURALISTS Friday, Jtdy 1, 1952 



FOR BROADCAST USS OITLY 



AIT^TOUITCaiSITO : ITow for a visit with some of Uncle San's Haturalists of tlie 

 United States Departnent of A^ric-ulture, This time we have some of na~ 

 t-ure's lore from the "big tree°inen of the United States Forest Service, 



T7e have a lofty subject for you today. 



The foresters liavc told us a little something about trees — hig 

 trees, redwoods tliat tower head and shoulders ahove their fellows of the 



forest, Even if you liave never stood in a grove of those trees, and 



felt yourself dwarfed in the presence of the massive trunlcs najesticly soar- 

 ing skywaxd, you have seen pictures of them. 



However, it is not their impressive size or epic "beauty that vro 

 want to tallc ahout. Rather it is the way they grow, not individually, hut 

 as a forest. The specialists of the United States Forest Scr-zice liavc liad 

 occasion to study them to learn how nature grows timber. They make similar 

 investigations in other sections with other Irirds of trees. But wc will 

 talk ahout those other investigations some other time, 



I've always heard our virgin redwood forest spoken of as "being 

 thousands of years old, Tliat seems to "be the common impression. Yet Uncle 

 Sam's foresters tell mo nothing is further from the fact. The redwood 

 forest is niany aged. 



For example, here is the wide range of ages found on one t^'pical 30- 

 acre plot of redwoods. TTithout coxmting young sprouts and saplings less than 

 200 years old, there were 108 trees from 200 to 300 years old, 89 from 300 

 to 400 years old, 81 from 400 to 500 years old, 102 "between 500 and SOO yerj-s 

 old, and 57 from 500 to 700 years old. You see those young giants laclred 

 considerable of being the saiae age. 



But that is not all those trees, the wide range of ages runs on up. 

 There were 38 redwoods in that 30 acre plot that were between 700 and 800 

 years old. ITearly as man^' more, or 34, were 800 to 900 years old, while 

 there were 31 trees found to be 900 to 1,000 yecrs old. There were just 17 

 more than 1,000 yesors old. 



In other words, that patch of redwoods is a good example of nar- 

 ture's way of growing timber; so as to have a new crop of trees coming on 



