The record-union., 1897-06-28
CALIFORNIA FORESTS.
SUPREME AMONG THE GLORIES
OF THE GOLDEN STATE.
Immense Coniferous Forests and
Wonderful Groves Of Oak, Ma
drono, Laurel and Maple.

ticles in the forthcoming souvenir
book of the State Board of Trade is
the following from the pen of Charles
Howard Shinn:
Supreme among the glories of the
Golden State are its immense confer
Gus forests Wonderful also are its
great groves of oak, madrono, laurel
and maple, and historic are it's marvel
Gus single trees, such as the Hooker
oak, the FELTON, redwood and the Griz-
Zly Giant of Calaveras. Those who
visit us, and fail to see these things,
have not only missed a great pleasure,
but have lost one of the cleWs to the
nature of California and the Califor-
mans Our mount aims, our forests
and our horticulture are linked to-
gether in one vast alliance. If we
can keep our superb forests as the
orchards of the mountains, gathering
the surplus timber crop there, as we
gather the annual fruitage below,
fruit-tree belt and forest-tree belt will
meet, and every acre of our waste
lands will finally become valuable.
For more than a hundred years bot
anists and foresters have been study
ing with ever-increasing admiration the
noble California specie of trees. Luis
Nee, of the Malaspina expedition in
1871, had the good fortune to find and
name our sturdy evergreen valley oak,
Quercus agrifolia, which Keith so
loves to paint Bluff ship surgeon
Menzies, poetic Adelbert Won Chamisso,
sturdy Eschscheltz, Governor Wrangel
of the Russian colony, and many another
old time wanderer, carried piecemeal
reports of the California forests to
Europe. At last, in 1928, stanch Da-
vie Douglass, that notable Scotch bot
aniSt. began those adventurous pill
grimages, during which he collected
nearly 500 species of plants in Cali
fornia, including many of the finest of
the conifers. Then came Doctor COul-
ter, Thomas Nuttall and other ex-
plorerS of the closing decade of the
Spanish Californian period, followed by
kindly c. c. Parry, Doctor Torrey,
George Thurber and other botanists Of
the Mexican Boundary and Pacific
Railroads expeditions. Later, collect
ors for the Smithsonian Institution and
various universities and the workers
of the State Geological Survey, under
Professor Whitney, covered the main
features of the subject, so that, while
changes in nomenclature have oc-
Cured, and still occur, hardly any
new species of trees, excepting the
beautiful Picea Breweriana of the Sis
kiyous, have been listed in the last
decade.
The Pacific Coast forests contain ff-
three species of conifers, and TWEEN
ty-seven or twenty-eight species of
oaks, beside NAPLES, ashes, walnuts
sycamores, madronos, buckeyes, lau-
rels, alders, the giant dogwood (Cornus
Mutually, and many lesser trees and
shrubs. In the madrono (Arbutus Men
ziesiD We have by far the finest and
largest species of the heath family in
the world, and in the manzanitas we
have another group Of superb and in
deed unique heaths. Among the con-
ifers, also, our sequoias, our Monterey
cypress, our California nutmeg (Tor-
reya Californica), and many others
have especial interests for botanists.
The forests and woodlands of Califor-
mia, at the time of the American con-
quest, probably covered about $4,000
square miles, out of 15S,000 square
miles Of total area, if we include. as
We should, the oak-covered foothills.
At the present time we certainly have
much less, including all grades of fire
wood and lumber producing forests,
half Of which has been cut over once,
or is very difficult of access, or is COM
posed of species of less commercial
value than those heretofore used. Per-
haps we have 100000 acres of first
~ e 6
estimates by the easy method of multi
plying the length and width of a
mountain range, We get much larger
results. The Sierra alone will then
contain about 100000 acres of forest,
or over %, 900 square miles. But we
must leave out of such calculations the
high, barren peaks, the grass grown
openings, the vast areas which, though
covered with luxuriant vegetation, are
far from true forests. In this sense the
Piedmont Range so sparsely sown with
scrub oaks and brittle pines that the
territory only furnishes fuel, and must
draw upon other districts for the lum-
Der supplies of it's mines and towns,
are not to be Included in the 5000 600
acres of real forests.
In truth California contains but two
large bodies of valuable timber, both
of which are chiefly coniferous. One,
commonly known as the redwood belt,
occupies a comparatively narrow strip
of fog-swept mountains, deep canyons
and narrow valleys, near the ocean
from Monterey Bay northwards to Or
egon. 1t is divided into lesser forests,
such as the redwoods of Santa Cruz, of
Sonoma, of Mendocino and of Hum
boldt, and it's fame has been sung in
every language.
Limited in area, the whole extent of
the coast redwoods being only about
1 100000 acres, some 20 per cent. of
which has been cut, the most recent es-
Inmates are that II 17,G00,0O0.O00 feet of
lumber, board measure, remain in these
redwoods, which will not last more than
thirty or forty years, unless waste is
checked. The demand for this beauti-
full and durable wood, the true cedar of
Lebanon for America, is greater each
year in every civilized country. Fortu-
nately the redwood has such powers of
reproduction from sprouts and from
seeds that the present forests can cas-
ily be maintained for centuries to come.
Nevertheless, like all forests. they must
have intelligent care
The astonishing size of single red
woods has often been described. Giants
Of sixteen, twenty, and even twenty
four feet in diameter, whose shafts rise
300 and 400 feet in the air. have been
measured, and some Of these still stand
in easily accessible situations. Single
trees have been known to yield 100000
feet of FIRST ola &C moro n ANITA hIa linn ,nr
even with the ordinary waste of our
Californian mills. On Russian River
Mr.. Guerne cut "a 100000 feet of red