The Brunswick daily news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1903-1906, 1903-09-27
BIG REDWOODS DOOMED
AMERICAS TALLEST TREES FALL
TO LUMBERMAN'S AXE.

That Young Shoots May Be Easily
Grown and the Race Preserved.
What is to be done for the redwoods
of the Pacific Coast is question that
has not only agitated California, but
is of sentimental concern to the whole
nation. The Bureau of Forestry, at
lacking the problem in a thoroughly
practical spirit, has worked out con-
illusions that should appeal as reason
able at once to the lumbermen, who
cut redwood on account of its CONNER
uial value, and to those who wish this
ancient and marvellous type of tree
growth preserved.
The results of this study are given in
a bulletin by R. T. Fisher, recently is
sued by the department of Agriculture.
The redwood forests are, in point of
merchantable yield, probably the dens-
est on earth, many stands yielding $780,,
600 board feet to the acre; and redwood
logging represents the highest develop
ment Of the numbering business that
has ever been attained on the Pacific
coast. The total supply of redwood is
estimated to be 75,000,00 900 feet The
amount cut in 1900 was $50, 100000 feet
with value of $3,645, Co.'S Although
only one-tenth of the forests of the
United States is owned by lumbermen,
according to the last census, one-fifth
of the redwood is in their hands, and
the stands they own are the handsom-
est and most valuable in the redwood
belt.
Seems Doomed to Extinction.
Ever since the Spaiiards began to
cut redwood along San Francisco Bay
the range of its growth has been dim
inishing; it now occupies an area of
about 1000 square miles. During the
last so years several hundred thousand
acres of timber have been cut over,
and the good lands put into cultivation
or turned into pasture. AS year by year
the redwood forests have dwindled, it
has come to be pretty generally be-
lieved that the tree is doomed to ex-
tinction.
The popular idea that the redwood
has no chance of survival is not we'll
founded. The studies of the Bureau of
Forestry have proved that possibilities
of new growth of redwood after the
old trees have been removed are ex-
cellent. Given half a chance, the red
wood reproduces itself by sprouts with
astonishing vigor. Measurements taken
by the bureau on cut-over land shows
that in 80 years, in fair soil and a
dense stand, trees will be grown 10
inches in diameter, so feet high, yield
ing 1000 feet board measure to the
acre.
Hope for Future Growth.
trees cannot be stayed, the Bureau of
Forestry, instead of wasting itself in
attempts to check the cutting, confined
itself to proving that it is worth while
to the lumbermen to do less damage to
the young trees in logging virgin red
wood lands, and to hold such lands for
second crop. The study made coll
Germs itself with young second growth
rather than with mature trees; with
timbered areas rather than with the
virgin forest. Where attention was
given the old forests and methods of
lubering, 1t was only that better
knowledge might be gained of second
growth and how to deal with it.
The redwood of California belongs to
a genus OF which the big tree is the
only other species now alive. Both are
allied to the cypress and their lumber
is often called by the same name, but
they are botanically distinct from each
other. They do not even occupy the
same situations. The big tree occurs in
scattered bodies on the west slopes of
the Sierra Nevada, while the redwood
forms dense forests on the west slopes
of the Coast Range.
Tallest American Tree.
The redwood grows to greater
height than any other American tree,
but in girth and in age it is exceeded
by the big trees of the Sierras. On
the slopes 225 feet is about it's maxi
mum height and 10 fest its greatest
diameter, while on the fats, under bet
the conditions, it grows to be $50 feet
high, with diameter of 20 feet. Most
of the redwood cut Is from 400 to 500
years old. After the tree has passed
the oge of 500 years, 1t usually begins
to die down from the top and to fall
off in growth. The oldest redwood
found during the bureaus investigation
had begun life 1873 years ago.
The bark of the tree offers such a
remarkable resistance to fire that ex-
cept under great heat it is not COM
bustible. 1t is of reddish-gray color,
fibrous in texture, and gives to full
grown redwoods, futed appearance.
Moisture available for the roots is
the first need of the redwood, as any
billy tract of forest will show.
Wherever small gully, or bench or
basin is SO placed as to receive an I'M
common amount of seepage, or where
ever a creek flows by, there the trees
are sure to be largest While moisture
of the soil affects the development of
the redwood. moisture of the atmo8-
phere regulates its distribution The
limits of the sea fogs are just about the
limits of the tree. The fogs, unless scat
tered by winds, flow inland among the
mountains. Western exposures receive
most of the mist they carry, except
those higher ridges above their reach,
which support, in consequence, only a
scattering growth of redwood.
The trees vitality is so great, it en-
dures so many vicisstudes and suffers
from so many accidents in the centuries
of its existence, that the grain of its
wood becomes uneven in proportion as
its life has been eventful. The wood
fibers formed under different rates of
growth sometimes get up a tension so
hot Iuh bn SC. I,o