Connecticut western news., 1885-10-28
GIANTS OF THE FOREST.
Something About the Califor-
 mia Redwood Tree.
Twenty-Five Thousand Feet of Lumber
 from Single Specimen.

The Redwood of California is the second largest and the third loftiest tree of the known world. It reaches it's greatest perfection upon the sea- ward slopes and along the transverse ravines of the Coast Mountains of the northern and central parts of the State. It is occasionally found scat tered or clumped among other growths, but is generally massed in dense for ests. It grows so high, branches so thiclly and stands so close as to dark en even monday brightness into shad- owy evening twilights among the huge, monumental trunks below.
 Fog seems it's favorite food. The lofty, thick and spreading tops form vast and swift condensers of the heavy fogs which descend in local daily rains, forming pools which often remain till high noon even in hottest days of the dryest season. Where the trees have been cut away, with no provision for regrowth, springs have dried up and streams have failed.
 The name Is one of those simple, obvious, Saxon christenings which every spectator understands the mo- ment he sees the color of the wood. Its hues show all varieties of red, from the most delicate pink of the finest cedar to the deepest and dark est shades of the richest mahogany. In some cases its reddish-browns rival those of black walnut, while under long exposure to the weather it takes on a blackness equal to that of ebony. In texture and appearance the wood is occasionally waved, eurled. flecked, veined, mottled, twisted and inter woven in the most varied, intricate and beautiful manner. Indeed, some specimens show all these varieties of formation combined. Its knots, roots and burls furnish veneers as exquisite ly beautiful as those of the most costly imported woods. If they came from some distant foreign land, fairly staggering under some polysyllabic, unpronounceable name, our cabinet makers, artists in carving, and their wealthy patrons would esteem them almost priceless. It's grain and densi- ty vary from those of the softest pine to those of the densest beech. When wet or unseasoned the wood is often enormously heavy. Specimens have been known to sink instantly. The thickness of the bark varies from four to twelve inches. Its texture resem- bles that OF the famous Sequoias, or big trees, which are but a gigantic species of the Redwood.
 In height the California Redwood allows but two other vegetable growths to look down upon it. Those are it's lofty relative above alluded to and the Australian Eucalyptus. It has been known to reach 320 feet; | quite often 250; very commonly POO to 225. In diameter specimens reaching , twenty feet have been authentically measured, Thousands of trees now standing in the newly opened Loma i Prieta and others districts girt from thirty to forty feet. The logs from these trees are often so large that they have to be blasted into halves and even quarters before the wood-teams and sawmills can handle them. One tree yielded seventeen logs each twelve feet long, and the upper one six feet through at the smaller end. It is true that these stories may seem incredibly "big" to the Eastern reader, but the trees them selves are very much bigger. as the in- credulous may easily satisfy them selves by visiting the localities already named.
 Twenty-Five thousand feet of lum- Der from single tree is very common. In the foggier and moister northern counties the average from each tree is fully one half greater.
 1 For posts, sills, ties, fumes, aque- ducts and sewers the wood is the best ! known. It is also admirably adapted i to the inside finish of halls, dining rooms, billiard-rooms, music-rooms, libraries, churches, cars and steam ships, as we'll as for many forms oi cabinet-making.
 When exposed to the weather with i out paint or oil, it turns nearly black It has also the remarkable quality oi shrinking endwise, and. what is still more remarkable in the same log diff. ferent years growths sometimes shrink un-equally. Sparks and cin. ders of burning redwood, falling upon flat or sloping surfaces, even shingle roofs, go out at once. Shingles of il ignite with great difficulty from sparks of other wood. 1tseems to be natural ly ireproof in the midst of exposure which would quickly kindle other woods.
 i The beautiful redwood is already an. nually supplying a constantly increas- ing demand in our Eastern cities while new and wealthy syndicate is exporting millions of feet to Europe To her already vast income from the great staples, wheat, wine and wool, the Golden State now adds a new source of wealth in the regular and in. creasing export of the valuable and haanAifnl finn her and lnnnhnr nf Ali.