The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-02-26

California lumber trade.
With such abundant supplies, there
fore, of one of the finest varieties of
lumber, it seems something more than a
pity, but rather a matter calling for Sc
we're criticism, that the lumbermen
should be permitted to destroy. as they
are doing, within a few exceptions, these
groves of Sequoia gigantea. These trees
grow nowhere else in the world, and
their beauty, grandeur and marvellous
age combine to make them objects of
such surprising interest that the folly
and neglect of the government in per-
hitting their present destruction will
pass the comprehension of succeeding
generations. The Calaveras grove, north
Yosemite valley, is still untouched, and
Mariposa grove, thirtv-fve miles south
of the valley, is safe, because included in
the Yosemite grant, but the Fresno Flats
grove, the next one in the belt, is scene
of destruction. 1t belongs to the Cali
fOrnia Lumber Company of San Jose.
Their policy has been to slaughter the
trees without regard to age or size,
beauty or grandeur. This was once one
of the most beautiful of the groves, but
to-day it is a pitiful wreck. Giants of
the forest, fifteen, twenty and thirty feet
in diameter lie on the ground in every
direction. The largest trunks, those
that are too large to be handled easily,
with the saw, have been shattered with
blasting powder. Stumps of the trees.
six, ten, or a dozen feet high, are all
about. an army of witnesses to the male
VIOLENT avarice of man. Occasionally
there is mighty tree still standing, with
a great cash, perhaps five feet deep, cut
81 tva1 into CiHn This
has been almost annihiated. When tie
company cleans up the trunks and limbs
that now cover the ground, its work of
destruction will be just about completed.
1t has been engaged on this grove for a
number of years, and has turned it's at
tention almost wholly TO the Sequoias.
If the big tree lumber brought higher
prices than any other Sort the zeal
which is shown in the destruction of the
groves could be understood. BUTT rates
no higher in the market than the sugar
pine, with which the mountain slopes
are dcnsely covered. The lumber com
panies could have made just as much
money and been at no expense fol blast
ing powder, if thew had let the big trees
alone and turned to the sugar pines.
In the groves further south the same
scene is repeated time after time. In
that portion of the scquoa belt between
the north and south boundaries of Tu-
lare county alone there are at least ten
mills, every one of which is industri-
ously working away at tine big trees.
Their owners evidently fear that the
National Government will some day
awaken to the wisdom of throwing
protection around these unique groves,
| and they are determined to get Just as
much money out of them as possible be-
fore that day comes.
In the Fresno grove, which is on the
| line between Fresno and Tulare counties,
the General Grant National Park pre-
serves few of the big trees. 1t is only
a square mile in extent, and does not in
| clnde the whole of the grove. The rest
of it is rapidly disappearing. A little to
| the southeast the Sequoia National Park
| includes the North Kaweah and South
Kaweah groves, which were withdrawn
| from sale in time to save them from de-
structiOn. Through the remainder of
the groves one comes upon the same
scene again and again. Everywhere AK,
saw and blasting powder are doing their
detestable work with speed and thor
oughness
1t has been proposed to extend the
boundaries of the Sequoia Park so that
it will embrace all the sequoia groves in
| Tulare county and cover the mountain
slope from the summit of the Sierras
nearly to the lower timber line. If the
proposition included the whole belt of
| tie Sc quotas from the most northern
grove to the most southern tree, it would
be still more heartily approved by al
housekeeping always the mill owners
who have visited the groves and know
how HOPELESS is their preservation in any
| of waV