Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-01-05

/ command fancy figures now. What Will
they be worth In ten years?
Experiments an growing eucalyptus for
stove and engine wood have proved that
the value of the annual growth Is from
SIP to $40 an acre. By combining with
the wood growing industry the lumber
growing business the gross returns may
be increased to from $1,000 to $lSOO per
year. returns greater than realized from
| fruit or other crops under the most raw
orable circumstances, while requiring less
care and less e oendlttre.
California, while the most favorable To-
calty for this industry. is not the only
section in which the trees may be grown
successfully. Professor Alfred j. Nc
Claiche Of the Arizona experimental sta
ton at Phoenix, who has been expert
menting with the trees ten years, says:
Although of foreign origin, the eucalyp-
tus seems specially fitted to the dry
country of Arizona. New Mexico, South
ern California ana Western Texas. where
its value would be hard to overestimate.
Its drouth-reslsting powers enable 1t to
flourish wherl 70 large American tree
will grow. 1t yields oil. gum. nectar for
honey bees, furnishes shade for the ranch
house, windbreaks for the field crops,
flrewood for localities where fuel is scarce.
But its chief value lies in the possibili-
ties for reforestation.
y Rivals Redwoods
mo native American species can equal
the extraordinary development of this
exotic from remote Australia. On the
ranch of Elwood Cooper, near Santa Bar
bara, Cal. there are eucalypts twenty
five years old as great in girth as oaks
300 years old. And time and again the
species called blue gum has, when cut to
the ground sent up sprouts from the
stump which in eight years have reached
a height of 100 feet No: does this rapid
ity of growth shorten the life of the tree;
for the eucalyptus, In its Australian
home, reaches great age and rivals in
size redwoods and the big trees of Cali
fornia."
Regarding the strength and hardness OF
the timber recent tests were made in
Western Australia with the eucalyptus
carmita, commonly known as the ''yate,"
which shows is average tensile strength
to be $4,000 pounds to the square inch,
equal 10 that of cast iron. One piece
tested up to seventeen and one-half tons
to the square inch. 1t is asserted that
the sawn timber of this wood is the
strongest In the world
The United States government has ar
ranged to investigate the California Gu
calyptus question, especially regarding
its timber value, and 104 logs of different
species have been procured from the
Cooper and Bishop ranches near Santa
Barbara for experimental purposes
Reports made by agents of the company
to the tie and timber department of the
Santa Fe Railway company show the
rapidly Of growth of this timber An ex
tract from one of the reports reads thus
nave personally seen blue gums
seventeen years old with butt diameter
of twenty-seven inches, height over 100
feet, and others fifteen years old two feet
IN diameter, and again. twelve years oil
sixteen inches in diameter"
Eighteen years ago hundreds OF eu-
calyptus trees were set in Beaumont
Today these trees measure from five to
seven feet about the trunk These hava
grown without care or irrigation.