The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-01-02
INVITING SETTLERS.
Opportunities for Large and Small
Capitalists.
Breaking Up the Immense Land Hold
fngs-The Timber and Farm Lands
of the Southern Pacihc-Unequaled
Advantages.
Advantages.
[san Francisco Chronicle, January LIST


| AS has already been noted in this issue
of the Chronicle, the year that has just
closed has been characterized by many
notable features in the line of the devel-
! opment of the manifold resources which
this State possesses in such surprising
abundance. These features have all been
| touched upon, with a single exception,
and that remains for discussion. The
/ point referred to is the inducements of
Tered to immigration and to the invest
ment Of capital in California, and the
progress made in breaking up the large
land-holdings, and settling intelligent,
industrious tillers of the soil upon the
small subdivisions. While little has
been said i'll the press concerning the
workings of one of the most prominent
agents in this important feature Of devel-
opment, it is only fair that on this first
| day of the new year brief recital should
be made of what has been accomplished
! by that agency.
Reference IS had to the land depart
ment Of the Southern Pacific Company,
and the plainest recital of what has been
accomplished by it during the past
! twelve months will convince all that
1 there is no element of exaggeration in
!
| 1t should be promised ut the outset that
! the land transactions CT this concern dur
! ing the past year were fully 90 per cent.
! larger than for the year previous, while
the prospect for the coming twelve
months encourages the belief that at the
| close Of 1892 an even greater ratio of pro-
! gress may be noted.
First comes theimatter of the timber
lands belonging to the Southern Pacific
| Company. AS most newspaper readers
| know, that company, or its predecessor,
the Central Pacific, was granted one
| half of all the vacant Government lands
| lying for twenty miles on either side of
its line. This road crosses the Sierra
| through the Truckee basin, and that sec
| ton is the center Of one of the largest and
| finest belts of timber in the world. I'M
medlately adjacent to the line Of the road
most of the timber land has been sold,
| and numbering has been carried on there
| continuously and very protitably ever
since the railroad passed that point and
afforded an opportunity for reaching the
market.
To the south of the Truckee basin,
however, and at such a distance as to be
| inaccessible at present from the main
line Of the Central Pacific, lies an i'm
mense body of forest, practically I'M
| touched, which is beyond question the
most valuable tract Of sugar-pne timber
| in the State. In this tract the Southern
! Pacific Company owns some 10000 acres,
| while another 10000 belongs to the Gov
eminent or to private parties. This re-
! markable body of timber lies almost due
west of Lake Tahoe and comprises the
| headwaters of the two forks of the Amer
lean River. 1t is embraced in the north
ern portion OF Ell Dorado and the south
ern part of Placer Counties, the county
lines passing directly through the heart
! of the forest. An idea of the amount OF
| ms no for cd
| from the fact that as many as fifty-six
| trees have been counted and measured on
a single acre which averaged five feet or
more i'll diameter, and each of which
would yield at least 1000 feet of sawed
! lumber. There is no body of sugar pines
in the State that will equal these except
those included within the boundaries of
! the Yosemite National Park, thus leaving
| this forest the finest available one of its
kind on the coast.
This belt of timber is readily accessible
! by way of that famous region known as
| the Georgetown Divide. Surveys have
been made which show that line can be
easily built, leaving the main road at
! Rocklin in Placer County, and by easy
! grade reaching the summit of the divide
mentioned. and so penetrating the heart
of the forest. In a direct line fl ON Sacra-
| mentO it is only about fifty miles to the
! very center Of this great Sugar-pine belt,
| but it only needs the construction of
! some twenty-eight miles of railroad from
! Rocklin to tap the forests. Rates of
! freight from Sacramento to deep water on
| San Francisco Bay are so low that when
this belt IS opened up lumbermen will be
! enabled to put their product on board
! ship or deliver it at any point in the cen
trail part of the State at far less cost than
| any other pine lumber on the coast.
! There is, in fact, no other sugar-pine in
! the world that will be able to successfully
compete with this.
Another advantageous feature of this
! belt is the fact that the ready means of
| transportation at low cost will enable all
! the timber to be put to profitable use. AS
! is well known, in most of the forests of
! California lew trees are utilized that are
much less than twenty inches in di-
ameter although at the East everything
! down to five or six inches is made use OF.
There is thus an enormous waste in our
! forests, since high cost of TRANSFORMATION
I prevents the conversion into fuel of the
! timber that Is not suitable for lumber
/ With the timber accessible from the
! Georgetown Divide, however. this OBJ
! lection viii not apply. By cutting the
| waste into cordwood and converting the
! undesirable timber into charcoal, every
| particle may be protitably used, and there
| need be no waste whatever. Still another
| desirable feature is the fact that much of
the area covered by these sugar-pine
| cleared
| makes most desirable agricultural land
| The apples and other fruits OF the George
| town Divide are famous, and these pine
! lands are among the most productive in
| the State.
Instead of the deforestation of these
| slopes and plateaus being injurious there
! fore the result will be exactly opposite
The wild growth will simply give way to
! the cultivation OF orchards and vine
| yards, and all the i'll results ascribed to
forest removal will be obviated.
The constantly increasing demand for
/ lumber makes 1t certain that this belt of
| timber can scarcely remain untouched for
any great length of time. Freight rates
are steadily decreasing, and California
| lumber is just as steadily increasing in
| favor all over the world. The export
/ trade of this coast is assuming larger
proportions every year, and California
| can successfully compete in the lumber
trade with any other part of the world.
1t is a certainty, that the forests accessible
| only by way of the Georgetown Divide
will before long be the scene of active
] numbering operations.
The grant made in aid of the construc-
ton of the California and Oregon branch
of the Southern Pacific system extended
for thirty miles on either side OF that
road, the additional ten miles being given
/ because of the much smaller amount of
vacant land within the twenty-mile limit
! than on the Central Pacific line. To the
east, therefore, of the California and Ore
gon road the grant extends well into the
timber belt of the Sierra, and in Shasta
and Siskiyou Counties, as well as over
the line in Oregon, it embraces a vast
area Of forest. The traveller over this
/ line of railroad, while he passes through
a portion OF this great forest, in reality
obtains but faint idea of it's immense
extent. From the timber line on the
slopes of Mount Shasta it extends in