The St. Johns herald., 1893-06-22
FORESTS AND RAINFALL
A Western TiInberman's Views on
 tho Subject.
He Thinks That All Uncnsiuess About the Denudation of Timber Lands tD the West Is Without Foun-
 datioa.

A correspondent of the San Francisco Bulletin from the foothills of Butte county advances the proposition that in the Sierra, where the original timber has been cleared off, a second growth has sprung up which has more than twice the retaining capacity for moist ure of the first growth. From this he deduces that the alarm about the de- nndation of our mountain forest lands is unfounded. In fact he attributes this theory mainly to the influence of the railroad company, which aims to get government rangers to watch its tim bered grant lands.
 Anyone familiar with the methods of the railroad company will accept the general suggestion that it would be prompt to avail itself of any plan for shifting its burdens upon the govern ment or the public. Possibly there may be something in this idea, although it may look little far-fetched. Yet it is understood that often it is necessary to scrutinize byways as well as highways to get at railroad schemes. Government rangers might not take 1t directly upon themselves to protect railroad timber, but indirectly their supervision of ad- jacent sections would tend to that re- suit.
 Aside from this, however, it may be admitted that our correspondents views are partly right and partly wrong. The result would depend much on lccal con- ditions. No doubt in many portions of [f~1s H. especially in the mountains, is abun- dant, second growth would soon cover the ground after the clearing cf the original forest. A like fact may often be observed in the redwood forests along the coast. There, where the an- nual precipitation is profuse and the climate and soil are naturally damp, the redwood tends to reproduce itself. In other localities the contrary appears. In the Contra Costa range, for instance, where the natural moisture is less, the clearing of the redwoods is not followed to any great extent by the appearance of a second growth.
 The same will be found true in a greater or less measure of the forests of the Sierra and of other mountain ranges. Where any tendency to aridity exists it will undoubtedly prove true that the wholesale destruction of for csts will not be followed by renewal, but by permanent denudation and eli matic changes. It might be safer to destroy the original mountain forests in northern than in southern California. In the ranges of the interior states and territories, where aridity is more pro- nounced, it would be a most dangerous experiment. In such cases only a judi cious thinning of the larger growth should be permitted on any conditions.
 Even in moister reglons it would be better economy to confne cutting to the larger timber, giving the smaller oppor- tunity to mature. Instead of that the past policy has been to cut indiscrimin- ately for lumber or fuel purposes and complete the destruction by sheep browsing and fires. It is time for definite and intelligent system of for estry. It may be both preservative and reproductive in scope. In many DOT tions of France forestry now includes not only the preservation of the natural growth but replanting on a large scale. In the latter work due attention is given to the species used. Medicinal and aromatic plants are included and become commercially important. This may be somewhat in advance of present needs on the coast, but it indicates the tendency in countries where necessity has put the problem of forestry more forcibly before the people. We can af- {, ford to take lessons from the larger ex- perience of these European countries ' By avoiding the past errors we may also avoid some of their present necessities .