/O £ 
Voi.. LXXI. No. 4165. 
NEW YORK, AUGUST 24, 1912. 
WEEKLY. $1.00 PER YEAR 
THE CALIFORNIA VALLEY OAK. 
A Study of the Big Tree. 
The largest of Western oaks, and usually the most 
conspicuous of California deciduous trees, is the 
great Valley oak, Quercus lobata, familiar to all 
daylight travelers through the Sacramento Valley, 
where it is seen at its best, everywhere dotting pas¬ 
ture and grain field and occasionally forming vistas 
as charming as those of a well-planted lawn. The 
Valley oak grows over a witfe extent of interior 
California, and in most of the central coast valleys, 
in great luxuriance, but becomes stunted and poor 
as it straggles up to higher levels. The park-like 
stretches of growth, still so characteristic of the 
immense ranches of the Sacramento, are yearly 
diminishing as the subdivision of old estates goes 
on, and as the trees fail 
from storm or maturity 
and are cut for firewood. 
There is no reproduc¬ 
tion in open fields, and 
very little even near 
water courses, the 
abundant acorns occa¬ 
sionally germinating 
during moist Winters 
but failing to endure the 
prolonged drought of 
Summer. It is, indeed, 
a mystery how the 
original stand became 
established, as there has 
scarcely been a season 
within the memory of 
civilized man when con¬ 
ditions really favored 
natural reproduction. 
The early settlers rode 
through endless leagues 
of massive oaks, often 
disposed in picturesque 
open array, and were 
greatly impressed with 
their rugged luxuriance. 
The survivors, in sadly 
lessened numbers, and 
often in decrepit condi¬ 
tion, still diversify the 
landscape, but rare in¬ 
deed are the saplings to 
take their place. The 
abundant new plantings 
of Eucalyptus, walnut 
and locust now being 
The leaves of the Valley oak are small and dull 
green in color, except in early Spring, when the 
bright olive tint of the young growth is very pleasing. 
I hey are partially shed in the heat of Summer and 
completely so in Fall, turning dingy brown, with no 
trace of the lovely Autumnal coloring of our Eastern 
oaks. The acorns are characteristically long and 
pointed, varying in size, the larger ones being borne 
on the younger trees. Fig. 382, page 893, shows acorns 
in natural size from a particularly vigorous young 
tree, but most specimens are smaller than these. 
I he acorns ripen in October, and are gathered in 
great quantities by the W estern Red-head woodpeck¬ 
ers—the liveliest and most entertaining of California 
birds—for the grubs they generally contain. At this 
of the tillable value of the soil, but the Valley oak, 
from its preferred location and manner of develop¬ 
ment, correctly indicates the agricultural possibilities 
of its environment. It should be borne in mind, 
however, that possibilities of agricultural production 
do not of themselves imply even reasonable certainty 
of agricultural profit. These rich deep soils, un¬ 
leached by adequate rainfall, require liberal irriga¬ 
tion for the production of many of the most desirable 
crops, and this may only be had in many instances 
at an outlay out of all proportion to the monetary 
returns from cultivation. This condition, it may 
readily be imagined, is not dilated on by the land 
boomer, and may be too readily overlooked by the 
home-seeker. 
The Valley oak, notwithstanding its great propor- season the grubs are minute, but later grow almost 
tions, is usually seen as a broad and comparatively # as large as the Eastern chestnut maggot. The 
cunning woodpeckers, 
from hereditary experi¬ 
ence, are aware of this, 
and instead of opening 
the acorns store them in 
holes thickly drilled in 
the bark of oaks or 
other rough - barked 
trees, driving them so 
tightly in that they can 
scarcely be extracted by 
the fingers. Thousands 
are stored in the bark of 
a single trunk, the butts 
of the acorns projecting 
in places as thickly and 
almost as symmetrically 
as ornamental bosses on 
harness. When the 
woodpecker's tid-bit has, 
in midwinter, grown to 
the proper size, a blow 
or two of the strong 
beak dislodges the 
acorn, which is quickly 
split and the grub ex¬ 
tracted. 
The Valley oak casts 
a good shade, and for 
this purpose is highly 
valued in pastures, and 
unless the head is too 
low does not greatly in¬ 
jure the cropping ca¬ 
pacity of the land under 
the branches. Newcom¬ 
ers are inclined to locate 
their dwellings in the 
THE HOOKER OAK, SACRAMENTO VALLEY, CAL. Fig. 378. 
Height, 105 feet; Spread of Branches, 212 feet; Diameter of Trunk, 9feet. 
en0UEh J n tl,dr "WT Can never ,0w - crowned T1 “ as a rule, is short; shelter of these imposing trees' if 3 but Ihc 
m,Jln „V ™ effe TT eS a ' “ , P “ SSIng lmraense ’ ,ortuous 1!mbs ’ as lar « e as »” ordinary experienced native rarely commits that indiscretion 
. & y ks ; The ? ,7 . e and abundance of \ alley oak tree, start within a few feet of the ground, while the As a dooryard tree the Valley oak is messy from the 
“ *T h V X t°V ht , deP ‘ ,, and r na,ural dr °° ping tips oft “ *>»• A, an average falling leaves and brittle twigs broken even by light 
six eTt or sotl ,n which they grow. It needs distance of 25 feet from the ground it breaks up winds, and not without danger, as immense limbs 
. or more of alluvial loamy soil, with open into a great arching dome, but occasional individuals ‘overweighted by foliage, sometimes crash to the 
waer-c frying subsoil at no great depth below, to have narrow, short-limbed crowns and tall, undivided ground without warning on the stillest days The 
grow typical specimens, which may reach 100 or more trunks sufficient for a length or two of saw timber, greatest objection, howler, is that most trees are 
in height, with trunk diameters of eight or but the wood is so coarse and brittle and the boles colonized with a large and active red ant of most 
wider Ui ’ r, a . S rt 0 branches considerably generally so ill-shaped that this species is rarely pungent and disagreeable odor that forages into the 
de than the height Hardpan. dry or rocky sub- used for other purposes than fuel, for which it has dwellings and drives the housewife to distraction 
soi or shallow infertile top soil is indicated by sup- long been an ample but unfortunately not inex- by tainting and devouring all edibles that are not 
pressed development, the crowns diminishing to less haustible mine. .A mature Valley oak, trunk and protected by moats of water and oil The annoyance 
than 30 feet with trunk diameters scarcely exceeding branches, may produce up to 20 cords of excellent of these ants is so great that the Californian prefers 
a single foot. The truly gigantic conifers of Cali- firewood, but the cost of working up the gnarled to build in the open and trust to the future shade 
orn.a the _equoia or Big-tree the redwood, the limbs and cross-grained butts is no small item of its of his plantings of poplars, walnuts, figs and cher- 
ugar pine, ouglas spruce and White fir—occur far value. When ax, maul and wedges fail, recourse is ries. The ant nuisance, in one instance was onl v 
up the mountain slopes and afford little indication had to giant powder to split the massive boles. controlled by constructing a cement-lined ditch 
