The San Francisco call., 1898-08-23
The Lumber Industry Carried OD Vigorously by Huge Cor
 pordtionS.
In Fifty Years the Forests of Tbis Stute Will Have Dsoppeored-Bush Fires Wreok
 Destruction

,,ae a+ +be present rate. And the de- mand is likely to increase rather than to decrease
 Mir Van Arsdale is a timber king Of the biggest kind, so he did not make this startling assertion without cons1d- ering the import of his words. We were sitting on the Veranda Of a little cot . tsge right In the heart or the pine woods All around were the giant firs, SO soon to be converted into prosalc boards and boxes, while above us, III eublirne majesty, lowered the magnih- cent white-capped Shasta, it's scared volcanic sides flecked only here ana there by a patch of lingering spoW' for if has been a terribly hot and dry sum mer. and within the memory or -fnah Mount Shasta has never appeared so bare.
 It is hot, even though the fragrant pines cast a grateful shadow around us' and dusty, because the little clearing Ill +he woods is the scene of almost super human activity and bustle During the nresent season a whole township has sprung up in this secluded spot. saw mills of the most modern pattern have been erected, whole streets Of small cot tages cover the ground, 2 large club
 
 I'D: all the appurtenances, In short, or big and permanent logging camp have been created The McCloud River I.-nber Company is not handling this enterprise timidlv It Is out to get lufn- her. and every appliance which capltai and skill can provide has been pressed into service, In order to get the Jumper as eheaply and rapidly as PosSipIe' What goes on here is going on al doz- ems of other mills throughout the State, wherever shrewd business men, pos sessed of both brains and money, are engaged in the timber trade; so tndt one has no difficulty in accepting MT: Van Arsdale's assertion as to the pIlei life left our forests
 There is a puffing and snorting' creaking and grooming or WheelS, ana from out the bush In front or 'ls huge traction engine emergeS. II drags De- hind it-apparently without efrort-a large wagon piled high with logs or timber As 1t passes along its great wheels grind the friable soil into impai- pable powder, and vast clouos or chok- ing dust pollute the mountain air. All through the woods you will come across these uncouth monsters, noisily pur- suing their avocation. They never grow tired, no task Is too great Tor their strength, no load too heavy TOT them to haul; their mechanical activity has signed the death knelI Of our glant pines
 A little artificial lake, its surface cov- cred with floating logs, marks the end of the traction engines work. The ouzZ saw takes up the contract, and day ana night without cessation, Its ripping, whirring sound huns through the woods. Properly speaking, there Is neither night nor day at these mllls; the electric light has changed all that It is just one period of continuous Work, logs coming in at one end of the mill and boards going out at the other, throughout the whole twenty-four hours.
 The rapidity with which huge log, measuring perhaps eight feet in diam eter, can be converted into boards IS something marvellous. The log IS no sooner hauled out of the water than 1t is jerked on a travelling bench and rushed against the revolving saw. Slice after slice falls off and Is car ried away on a traveller to be further subdivtded and in a minute or two the log, once part of magnificent tree, is only a stack of boards on railroad car awaiting transportation to San Francisco, or 1t may be. to the other side of the Pacific. There are sugar pines now standing in the McCloud forests which, within thirty days, must be on their way to Australia in the form of boards. There are contracts which must be kept. and ships which
 
 that, in less than three months, our forest giants will be incorporated into some Sydney dwelling house.
 Everybody who appreciates the skill and energy with which the lumber business is being handled will under stand how rapidly our forests, once the pride of the State, are disappear ing And the worst of 1t is, we are taking no steps to check the waste, no measures to reforest the denuded DOT tion of our. domain. Capitalists buy the land and strip 1t of it's timber without any consideration for the wants of posterity. We cannot blame them, for the law, as it stands, gives them their privilege. It is the duty of the State to take measures to check this waste, and to preserve for all time crop which, If properly husbanded, would be of ineXhaustible value to the country.
 The pity of it is that 1t Is now too late to replace many of our finest trees. MT. Van Arsdale declares positively that there will be no second growth of sugar pine. "The conditions under which the sugar pine grew" he says, have passed forever The climate has changed or something has hap pened, but whatever the cause, the su gar pine does not come up again. There is a piece of land at Truckee which, to my certain knowledge, was cleared of
  the trees which have come up are mis- erable little things, not more than six inches in diameter, and utterly value less"
 Another proof of this Is the fact that no young sugar pines are to be seen In our forests. The trees which are now being cut down are mostly from two to three hundred years old, and average from four to five feet In diam eter Many trees still standing, how ever, are much older and larger. Eight feet Is not an uncommon diameter while twelve has been seen, though but rarely These magnificent trees must be at least five hundred years old, and yet, for the sake of little commercial profit, we destroy in a few hours na- ture's handiwork of an age. Tree fell ing is no longer the labor 1t used to be. Two men with a saw cut rapidly through. the soft wood. and the tree falls in few minutes. No matter how large the wood giant there Is no need to prepare bed for 1t. The pine is sufficiently elastic to stand the shock cn