The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-10-06
HOMELESS PAN.
THE SYLVAN GOD ExILED AND THE WooDsMAN
REIGNs SUPREME IN CALIFORNIA.

hElGNS oUPREME IN CALIFORNIA.
Not far from my rustic studio. located in one
| of Californias redwood belts, 1 see from time
! to time a team of horses who seem to have been
| kept for some months in clothespress with
| out food or drink and wholly unprovided with
! camphor or red pepper to save them from be-
| coming wofully moth-eaten. What has par
| ticularly called my attention to these wretched
creatures is the noise made by the driver when
| the wagon gets stuck in rut, for he seems at
| times to urge them on to renewed activity by
means of a shovel applied with force to their
| furry sides. The only consolation to be de-
rived from a spectacle of this kind is the
! thought that possibly the horses in the course
| OF their spiritual evolution may once have
| been brutal drivers, and are thus expi-
atipg the sins committed in previous
form of existence. Be this as it may,
| the driver was persuaded to apply the
| shovel to the earth beneath the wheels and re-
| equine exertions the poor beasts dragged their
| overload OF redwood down the mountain side.
| Inquiring into the details OF the industry,
| which in this case seems to be carried on under
difficulties learned that large quantities of
valuable timber are being hewn down, and TO
| no particular purpose, for the men are barely
| able to defray their expenses. l yesterday
visited the scene OF destruction with q friend
who is well-informed on the subject and who
| was much panied as l to see large tracts
| laid waste and countless trees available for
| lumber and furniture sawed into cordwood
| Nor is this all, for some hundreds OF tons OF
| smaller wood which would keep many poverty
| winter, are soon to be burned in one vast bon
| fire in order that the destruction may be COM
! plete
How thoroughly American is all this. Aside
| from the absurd appearance of the devastated
| district, which looks like man shaved bald,
| saving lock or two about the ears, the ele-
ment of waste is quite characteristic OF our
| countrymen. In harvesting the trees neces-
| sary for building purposes the Americans have,
| us far as know, made no provision Tor the
needs of future generations Instead OF Sc
| Letting the choicest specimens leaving the
! younger and undeYeloped to mature and ripen,
as is done in Europe, the method in vogue IN
| this country has been to fell everything in
| sight, the young us well as the full grown, al
| lowing great quantities OF timber to rot on the
| ground, owing TO some. flaw, real or fanefed
| Then, instead of saving for fuel or other pur-
| poses the smaller pines, immense machines
have been invented to grind them to powder
| and send them down stream in the form or
| sawdust.
| This has been, to my knowledge, the mode of
procedure in Wisconsin, and doubt not that
| in other Eastern and Middle States affairs are
much the same. Learning that, after the de-
| struction of pine forest, the ground becomes
| covered with second growth of scrub oak and
| other trees unavailable for building purposes,
1 asked Wisconsin man what the Inhabitants
| of the State were going to do hundred years
hence without these products, now being
wasted. ''fhat is their lookout" was the an
swer. Such is the feeling, evidently, OF the
majority, who echo the sentiments of Artemus
Ward, "What has posterity done for US ~
Fortunately, the California redwoods, "tan
oaks and madronas are more difieu IL to ex-
| terminate than the pines so that no matter
how naked the land may be left it is soon again
covered with verdure, but as for timber, that
requires time.
| TO get an idea of how long we must wait be-
| fore we see such forests again, and to satisfy
! my curiosity regarding the age OF the fallen
| trees, applied myself to counting the rings III
the stump of a freshly executed redwood.
Beginning al the outer edge l noticed the
minuteness OF the annual accretions of fiber,
| the lateral growth in this instance since the
battle OF Lexington having been but Two
| inches. From the line which marked this data
| to that which grew the year the Pilgrim Faith
| ers landed at Plymouth Rock, the distance was
somewhat greater, for during. the earlier
| relatively more rapid than in its maturity.
| When, therefore, arrived at the ring which
marked the circumference OF the tree when
| Columbus set sail for the New World, the lay
| ers were possibly quarter of an inch thick,
| and as it was about fifty years old at that
| time, must have already attained a goodiy
! height. Another stump contained layer as
| old as the Magma Charta, but third was of even
| greater historical interest for its enormous
| bark inclosed the ring deposited while William
! the Conqueror was doing what he could in be-
| half of nature by destroying the works OF man
| planting new forest.
Such was the size of this tree that in its very
center were to be seen portions which, accord
| ing to my calculations, must have been in eX-
| istenee during the reign of King Arthur, bit
| regret to say that the core was so badly de-
cayed that it was impossible to determine with
any degree of accuracy the exact layer which
marked the founding of the Order of the Round
! Table. To think OF the fourteen centuries and
| more which were employed by nature in build
| ing this tree, and how unlikely it is that man
will permit those saplings that have sprouted
| this year 10 grow to such an age and size, is
saddening to the lover of the beautiful.
To make an appeal for the protection of the
| forests from sentimental standpoint would
! be worse than useless, for those who are adj
| dicted TO the indiscriminate slaughter of the
redwood are blessed with neither sentiment
| rial reasons why the woodsman should spare a
| certain number of trees, and surely that which
can favorably affect the woodsman's pocket is
worthy OF consideration, even though the gen.
eral public be also benefited thereby.
The Germans call a man who tills the soil a
| bauer, from bauen-to build or cultivate-liter-
| ally a builder OF the soil, one who truly de-
| velops the land, one who adds to as well as
takes from the ground that Dourishes him.
How many OF our American farmers are worthy
| OF the title? Here we usually understand by
| the phrase developing the country chopping
! down the forests, burning over the land and
| sowing 1t from year to year with the same crop
| till the soil is exhausted. Then the spirit of
| progress seiZes us and we go west and ode
! velop'' more land.
| If this system be persistently followed up the
| country will become enfeebled, impoverished
and rendered undesirable as g place of resi-
| dence in less than a century. Strong indiea-
| tons of danger ahead are already manifest
| In Wisconsin, Michigan and other interior
| lumber States the irregularity OF the rainfall,
the terrible changes OF temperature from blast
ing heat to blighting cold, are not the only re-
suits of the robbery of nature and the un-
balancing of her forces. Every year shows an
! increase in the number and violence of those
| frightful storms which were formerly unknown
| excepting as rare phenomena.
| The cyclone cellar has become much a
necessity in certain districts the water wells
and yet in spite of all precautions over one
| hundred people are annually killed by the
| avenging tornado. If men will persist in I'M
| claiming the elements they must take the con-
sequences, but the saddest part of ii ell is that
SO many of the innocent suffer along with the
| guilty.
| The people of New York. realizing their de-
| pendence on the Adirondack region for their
| water supply, are doing their utmost to pre-
vent those large forests from falling into the
| hands of the railroads. In region like Cali
| fornfa, where no water falls during such long
periods, there is all the greater need of efforts
| being made TO preserve the forest prfmeval
| That it is not only possible, but quite feasible
! to main tain large tracts of wooded land thus
| insuring regular supply of lumber, and at
! the time yielding q goodly revenue is
! shown in the interesting statement made by
the East Indian Inspector-General OF Forests, 3.
| Riobentrop, recently published in THE CALL
| The sugges tons OF this gentleman as to what