Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-29

show evidences OF having been thoroughly
read. they are less worn than one would cx-
pect from their long journeys. Some OF
them travel long distances. over noun
tains and across deserts. For example,, a
little hamlet called Bieber, in Lassen coun-
ty, receives travelling library every three
months by way of the Red Bluff stage
line, eighty miles over an uninhab lted, vol
canic region surrounding Lassen's peak.
Other travelling libraries are carried up
and down the coast by ocean steamers.
One day last spring a stage carrying books
was upset while fording the swollen waters
of Coon creek in Suffer county, and the
box, getting adrift, fioated down the stream.
The driver dropped his reins, let his horses
find their own way to land. and jumped
into the river. It cost him struggle and a
narrow escape from drowning, but he res
cued the books, and when the box was
opened they were found to be uninjured.
California has library association with
more than seventy members, and ranks
with any other state in library progress.
Last September the people of San Fran
cisco voted to spend 81. 647 900 for. new
library: Stanford University Is expanding
a million dollars for a building. and the
University of California is erecting a new
building with money left by the late
Charles Doe. Mr.. Carnegie has given $751;
200 for twenty-nine libraries in this state,
but many towns have built their own with
out asking outside assistance. During the
past five years So. 750, GOO has been expended
for library purposes in the state.
Cultivation of Timber.
The Diamond Match Company has recent
ly purchased 10000 acres of timber lands
on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada
mountains, in Butte, Plumas and Tehama
counties 1t has erected sawmill near the
city of Chico, that will cut up 25O,00O feet
of logs a day Into matches, and Is building
a little town around 1t with all the advan-
tages Of modern civilization. Thirty miles
of railway has already been laid to haul
logs to the mill, but the most Interesting
and important feature Of this great enter
prise is the fact that the forests are not to
be destroyed but Is to be cultivated as a
timber farm, so as to furnish a perpetual
supply Of matchwood to the company.
The timber will be cut under the direc-
ton of skilled foresters recommended by
the Department of Agriculture at Washing
ton. They will select only ripe trees. and
young ones will be planted and cultivated
to take the place of those that are removed.
Every time tree is cut away a new one
will be started in its place. This Is the
first example 1 have heard of in which a
corporation has attempted to cultivate tim
Der. and 1t Is worthy the study and emula-
ton Of the millmen In the sugar-pine re-
gions of California. who have been stripping
the mountains in the most wasteful and
wicked manner.
The Diamond Match Company has organ
lied its own corps of foresters, who not
only select and mark the trees to be cut.
but have organized a fire patrol. An OBJ
servatory has been erected on the summit
OF Bald mountain, at an elevation Of $500
feet from which Waterman may over
look the entire property and can give warm
ing by telephone to headquarters whenever
evidences of fire appear. system of trails
has been constructed to every corner with
frequent stations containing tools and other
facilities for fighting fires, and these, too,
are connected with headquarters by tele-
phones Within a few minutes after an
alarm is given the entire force may be as
serabled at the point of danger. r.e