The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1895-10-24
CALIFORNIA FORESTS.
Sot Likely Ever to Give Out, Because
They Are Reproductive.


They Are Reproductive.
The native forests of California
are marked by two peculiarities
wherein they differ widely from
those of most other countries, and
in which peculiarities the inhabit-
ants of this state are assured against
the occurrence of anything like a
timber dearth hereafter. In the first
place, more than three fourths of
our heavily timbered lands consist
OF mountains too elevated and rug
ged to ever be worth much for
agriculture or grazing; wherefore,
If stripped of their forests, the
latter will be permitted to grow up
again. In the second place, when in
this state the original forests are cut
away, they reproduce themselves
with such certainty and rapidity
that in the course of single gener-
alton the young trees attain size
sufficiently large to render them of
economic use, this being rarely the
case elsewhere.
That portion of the Sierra Nevada
and the northern coast range that,
for the reason stated, may be re-
garded as a perpetual timber re-
serve, covers a belt fully 400 miles
long by rs broad, an area equal to
$4,000 square miles. This may be
considered a domain dedicated to the
use of the future. Both here and in
the redwood forests, covering at the
least 2, 500, 900 acres, the first growth
being cut away, the young trees
spring up and grow with such as
tonishing rapidity that, if properly
protected, the timber supply can be
kept nearly up to its present mark,
despite the heavy drafts made on it
meantime.
While only small proportion of
these redwood forests occur on the
mountains proper, the country they
occupy is for the most part so bro
ken and uneven, being traversed by
humorous ravines and canyons, that
not much of it will ever be cleared
and kept SO for the use of the farm
or, the stock man or the fruit grow
er, though the soil is nearly every
where rich. Even where the land is
comparatively level, the trees hav-
ing been cut down, it costs a great
deal to remove the stumps, so enor-
nous and deep rooted are these. For
breaking them up and hosting their
fragments out of the ground re-
course to dynamite is frequently
had, this with sometimes the aid of
the stump machine, and always the
use of fire, being the agencies re-
sorted to for dispossessing these
troublesome tenants of the land.
Left to itself, the redwood stump at
once begins to send up shoots around
its entire periphery, these growing
up and in process of tinae showing
can manage to livesand re- "A. q circle re as
ity.
In this tendency to reproduction
no other tree equals the redwood, its
vitality as manifested in this respect
being sometimes astonishing. Ifonly
man will second It's efforts in this di-
rection to the extent of guarding the
young trees for few years until
they can get fair start, they will
afterward be able to take care of
themselves, no ordinary fire sufficing
to destroy them after this AS for
the full grown trees, these are apt
to suffer no material injury, except
in case of a great conhagration, as
where fire, having been started in
the dry season, happens to be famed
by a strong wind.-Wood and Iron