336 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
No. 154 . 
The “Big Trees” of California. 
Far up among the recesses of the Sierra Nev¬ 
ada (snowy mountain ridges), which were unvisi¬ 
ted by civilized man before the search for gold 
sent prospecters into every hidden 
corner of the mountains, stand iso¬ 
lated groves of giant trees which are 
wonderful even in California, that 
country of remarkable productions. 
Indeed, for size and magnificence, 
they are unequaled by any in the 
world. What Niagara is among 
cataracts, or Mount Blanc among 
mountains, these noble evergreens 
of California are among trees— 
the grandest of their kind. Other 
trees may have the charm of histor¬ 
ic association, like the cedars of 
Lebanon ; or like the famous Ban¬ 
yan, be remarkable for the peculiar¬ 
ity of their growth ; but these, with 
their wide spread bases and their 
lofty tops reaching heaven-ward, 
seem to typify the solid character 
and onward progress of the vigorous 
young state in which they are found. 
Near the head waters of the Cala¬ 
veras river is found one of the most 
noted groves of these forest giants 
or “ big trees ” as they are termed 
in California, a group of which is 
represented in our engraving. These 
three, known as the “ Three Sisters ” 
are each about ninety-two feet in cir¬ 
cumference at the base. Figures we 
know are rather uninteresting, but 
as neither our engraving or descrip¬ 
tion can give a proper idea of the 
immensity of these trees, let the 
reader take for comparative meas¬ 
urement the size of the house he 
occupies, or the hight of the nearest 
church spire or some other familiar 
object as a standard of comparison, 
and he will then be able to form 
some correct notion of their grand 
proportions. A friend of ours, whose 
statements are perfectly accurate, 
visited the Calaveras grove just after 
one of the largest trees had been 
felled. He paced the circumfer¬ 
ence of the stump of this tree and 
found that it took thirty one paces 
(of three feet each) ; while the pros¬ 
trate trunk measured three hundred 
feet in length. Of course a tree of 
this size could not be cut down in 
the ordinary way, with the ax; so 
recourse was had to boring with 
large pump-augers. It took five men 
twenty-two days to bore through and 
through until the connection was 
completely severed ; even after this 
was accomplished the tree stood un¬ 
moved, the monarch that had with¬ 
stood the mountain storms of centuries was not 
to be so easily dethroned. Two more days of 
hard work at driving large wedges with a batter¬ 
ing-ram were required to bring him down. This 
tree was felled by a party of speculators who 
wished to procure a section of the trunk for ex. 
hibition, a most wanton act of destruction, and 
one which we are rejoiced to hear did not pay as 
a speculation. The trunk of this tree lays where 
it fell, but the stump has been leveled off and 
serves as a dancing floor for the use of the nu¬ 
merous parties who visit the grove. Near the 
tree of which we have spoken grew another, of 
still greater size, which was many years ago 
prostrated by the joint action of fire and wind. 
This, at three hundred feet from the but, is forty 
been proposed for it, but it is found to belong to 
the old genus Sequoia, to which the celebrated 
Redwood of California belongs. The wood of 
the big tree resembles the Redwood (which is 
very much like our Red Cedar). The nearest re¬ 
lation to the California tree, now liv¬ 
ing in the Atlantic States is the Cy¬ 
press. Mr. Greely, who lately visi¬ 
ted the Calaveras grove received 
the singular information that the 
trees produced neither “seed-cone 
nor nut.” The friend whom we 
have above quoted says that when 
he was there, in May, the ground 
was completely covered with fallen 
cones and seeds. The cone is about 
the size of a pullet’s egg, and very 
hard and woody.—Much has been 
written concerning the age of these 
trees and the various estimates have 
ranged from eighteen hundred, to 
many thousands of years. One wri¬ 
ter makes them out to have been of 
considerable size at the time Moses 
was found in the bulrushes ! A sec¬ 
tion of the trunk of the tree which 
was cut down was carefully exam¬ 
ined by Prof. Torrey, who counted 
all the rings and could only make 
about eleven hundred. Though the 
true statement destroys some of the 
fanciful ideas with which writers 
have invested them, they are still of 
sufficient age to command a respect 
which shall prevent their further de¬ 
struction and allow them to stand in 
future ages as they are now, the 
most wonderful representatives of 
the vegetable kingdom. 
THE "THREE SISTERS," 
feet in circumference, and must have been be¬ 
tween four hundred and fifty, and five hundred 
feet in length ! The trunk of this tree is hollow, 
with an opening so large that a man on horseback 
can pass through it without inconvenience : our 
friend, when asked if he tried this novel ride, re¬ 
plied that he could not “ as there was a river go¬ 
ing through just then ”—his visit being in the 
rainy season. The botanists have given the name 
of Sequoia gigantca to the big tree ; other names 
such as Washingtonia and Wellingtonia have 
Autunmal Foliage. 
Again, the Fall is with us. It is 
the fall of flowers in the garden, ot 
fruit in the orchard, of nuts in the 
woods, of leaves everywhere. Ex¬ 
pressive old Saxon word, the “Fall.” 
How noiselessly and almost un¬ 
perceived, this season has been ush¬ 
ered in. While we were engaged in 
summer toils, or summer enjoyments, 
the wheels of nature kept on their 
rapid revolution until, ere we were 
aware, the flowering season had fled 
away. At the axil of every leaf, on 
eveiy tree and shrub, Summer packed 
away her next year’s wardrobe, in 
little oval cases, water-proof and 
frost-proof. She prepared her seeds 
of grain, and grass, and flowers, and 
did all the other work expected of 
her, and then sat down to rest. Even 
before this was accomplished, a care¬ 
ful observer could see that Autumn 
was just at hand. A russet hue 
tinged the forest; here and there a 
maple branch turned crimson, and ripened leaves 
from other trees rustled to the ground. Then, not 
long after, came the Frost King, and with magic 
brush painted all the hills. Say rather, he gath¬ 
ered all the rainbows of Summer and threw them 
in broken fragments upon the earth. O, the gor¬ 
geous woods ! What a brilliant pageant do our 
eyes behold ! Is it, indeed, reality, or some fair 
vision of dream-land 1 
The striking displays of American foliage in 
Autumn, have long been the poet’s theme, and 
