28 



THE KEDWOOD. 



consistently log-o-ed with an eye to the future value of its holdings. 

 The forest is the usual ridge-timber type of Redwood, Red Fir, and 

 Tanbark Oak, varied with occasional bottom-land stands of pure 

 Redwood; and the practice has been to cut no trees under 20 inches 

 in diameter (PI. Vlll). The trees left standing have in a few years so 

 restocked the ground with Redwood suckers and Fir seedlings that at a 

 distance the hillsides look well wooded. In most places the stand is 

 thick enougli to insure clear trunks and render the danger from lire 

 much less than it would have been under the usual system of laying 

 bare the land. 



The result has been in every way worth the effort. It cost next to 

 nothing to make the experiment, for the trees left standing had no 

 market value. 



Instead of bare ridges washed hy rain and run over by tires, there 

 is now a young forest, which keeps the soil moist and ffrm and feeds 

 the water into the streams so gradually as to cause an even flow. The 

 land is becoming more and more valuable as the forest grows. 



These advantages were gained at the trifling expense of using care 

 to save the small trees in logging. On some areas, where the old stand 

 was heav^y, there is 3'oung Redwood only 45 years old that is 20 to 30 

 inches on the stump and nearly 100 feet high (PI. IX, tig. 2). This 

 timber is already mai'ketable as piles. The whole area of the Mendo- 

 cino Lumber Company will again bear timber and regain much of its 

 former value. 



The Mendocino Lumber Company's management of its Redwood is 

 worthy of careful attention. The example it has set is especiall}" to 

 the point, because it shows a practical and cheap method of dealing 

 with a dilBcult problem. At little expense and trouble the conipan)- 

 has assured itself of future crops of timber, and has thereby con- 

 siderably increased the selling price of its cut-over lands. The con- 

 ditions under which these results were brought about were not 

 exceptional, but average; the}' prevail throughout a greater part of 

 the Redwood l)elt. 



Something more than what the Mendocino Compan}' has done may 

 be necessary in some cases. For example, something might be spent 

 in protecting the cut-over lands from tire until the young growth can 

 protect itself. But whatever is done must be done with a sharp eye 

 to the cost. 



