Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-01-01
TREE PLANTING.
FUTURE OF FORESTRY CULTURE
ON THE PACIFIC COAST.
The Kinds of Trees Best Adapted
to Our Climate, and their
Prospective Value.
written for the New Years RHooRp-uslos, by

Prof. Hilgard, of the California College of
Agricultural
1t is notorious that, until within compar-
| atively recent times, the American pioneer
has considered the giants of the forest as
| his natural enemies to be cut down and
destroyed as fast as the improved American
AK, fire, and tquite lately dynamite or
Judson powder can accomplish their de-
struction. Even now the intending settler
in western Oregon and Washington regards
the stately columns that surround his small
clearing as special aggravation; while his
| neighbor east of the Cascades painfully
picks up the scanty cottonwoods along the
water-courses, or the pines on the noun
| tain ridges, and hauls fthem a full days
drive away TO his prairie farm. Among the
| first thoughts of the latter, is the planting
Of few shade trees around the house, to
| relieve the glare of the summers sun; and,
! curiously enough, bis neighbor on the
rainy side of the mountain does the same,
after having first assiduously destroyed
every yestige of the original growth. But
| there, as in the States of the Mississippi
valley, the short growing seasons have to
] drag through weary years before q grove of
shade trees once more surrounds the dwell
| ing. In middle and southern California
where everything from turnip to an oak
| can grow twelve months, if so inclined
and the acacia and eucalyptus form tall,
| shady groves in the course of few years,
| the forests have also come to be regarded as
| a matter of small consequence, easily re-
| placed when needed. The forests of the
Sierra, and the redwoods of the Coast
| Range, also, are fast being encroached upon
at a rate which threatens to create lumber
| famine within the lifetime of those who
saw the emergence of California into State
hood. There would be much less danger
of this quick exhaustion if the actually
existing resources were fully utilized. But
the immense waste connected with the
present methods of lumper exploitation is
notorious. A forestry expert from Europe,
who lately visited the redwood lumber
mills near Guerneville, estimated that fully
| two-thirds of the entire yield of the trees
| is LETT to decay or to be destroyed by fire,
which in its turn prevents the renewal of
| the redwood growth by charming the stumps.
That in the shingling operations carried on
| in the sugar-pine districts of the Sierra the
waste is many times greater, has been often
| stated.
RENEWING OUR FORESTS,
| 1t is not my intention to discuss the
l
| ton of forests, however important; but
| rather to consider what it would behoove
| us to plant in the waste places naturally
existing or those created by the ak. with
view to the future necessities of the State.
Even in our favored climate, the growth of
trees whose wood is of desirable qualities
is not matter of a few years for the wood
of the rapid growing trees, like many things
| that are done in hurry, is available only
/ ,al< or
| firewood is chief. 1t is curious fact that
outside of the tribe of conifers-the frs,
pines, cedars and redwoods-but few Cali
| fornian trees yield wood of such texture as
to make it desirable for most purposes
| least of all for those uses which require
| strength and toughness. Witness the fact
that almost all the hard woods used for
wagons, agricultural implements, cooper
age, and the like, are at present imported.
| Nor is the brittleness that characterizes the
\ wood of nearly all our oaks the outcome
of rapid growth. The most brittle of all
the coast live-oak, which is sometimes said
to split about as easily crosswise as length
| wise-is very slow one; and moreover
the shape of our oak trees, with low trunks
and wide, spreading tops, is very unfavor-
able to most uses. So with the maple, the
| laurel, and most other deciduous trees of
| the coast.
lhffS ~ fLANl.
| The natural thought is to supply the
deficiency by introducing the Eastern oaks,
| hickories, ash and other trees of special
value for their wood. But we find, some
what to our surprise, that our climate and
| long growing-season do not favor the rapid
growth of these trees; that, in fact, they
appear to be slower than in their own
| home. AT least this has been the outcome
| of our experience with some twenty differ
ent oaks three or four hickories and some
other Eastern trees in the grounds at
| Berkeley. Their growth has not only
been very slow, but they show tendency
to remain low and bushy and to throw up
| suckers. 1t may be that this is attributa-
bic to the lack of summer heat under the
fogs of the Golden Gate but it is not likely
that the dry heat of the interior of the
State would suit them better, as they
| sometimes suffer from prolonged droughts
even in the Mississippi Valley States.
Still, the experiment should be tried.
On the whole, we should naturally seek
the trees for our future forest planting in
climates similar to ours; and the remarka-
BILE growth of the Australian eucalyptus
and acacias emphasize this view. Unfor-
| tunately, the Mediterranean countries of
! Europe, with whose climate ours claims
the closest affinity, are themselves treeless,
| or more nearly so than California itself
and history tells us that they have been
made so by the very processes of destruc-
ton that are now being re-enacted here,
and which, among other things, have ma
terially increased the aridity of the Medi-
terranean climates.
Among the specially Mediterranean for
est trees worthy of being extensively planted
in California the cork oak is the chief. In
growth and habit it resembles our white
oak, and it will grow wherever the latter is
found. 1t is also of slow growth but the
product for which it is chiefly valued cork
| is one so closely correlated with one of Cal
ifornia's chief industries that the special
propriety of its extended introduction is
manifest, The demand for cork is increas-
ling much faster than the supply which
comes chiefly from a very limited area in
western Spain and Portugal, so that what
ever might be grown here in excess of the
home demand would readily find sale in
the worlds market. If there were any
question as to the adaptablity of our eli
/, mate to the cork oak it has been settled by
the experience already had Several trees
oftwenty years and over exist in the State;
and, as they bear seed, it will be easy to
increase the number of plantations, which
is small thus far, in consequence of the diff
ficulty of obtaining sound seed from Eu-
rope. Most of the acorps borne by one of
the largest trees in Los Angeles county.
have been purchased by the University, and
the seedlings will be ready for distribution
a year hence. But special large-scale i'm
lportation should be made, in order to ex-
pedite the diffusion of this important tree,
which will probably be found adapted to
all but the most northern and the high
mountainous portions of California, and
more especially to the Coast Range coun-
try. The wood of the cork oak is not much
better than that of our white oak, and the
tree is too valuable for its bark to be cut,
so long as it will yield that product Like
ourselves, Spain and Portugal import their
cask slaves
By far the most promising tree for the
latter purpose, thus. far, seems to be the
European or English oak (Que,cais 'ro-
bur-, which shows not only remarkably
rapid growth, but also a resistance to
drought that, in view of its supposed spe-
cial adaptation to the humid English eli
mate, is quite unexpected. The explana-
ton of this fact lies in its habit of sending
Its stout vertical tap root straight down to
depth of as much as three feet the first
year, while the stem above ground rarely
exceeds eight inches at the same noe If