Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-07-31
TREES OF CALIFORNIA.
The Sequoia There Grows 400 Feet
High and 26 In Diameter.

High and 70 In Diameter.
The sequoia here in Humboldt Is the
tallesr tree in the whole Omitted States.
But the tourist from the east or
west knows it not. What would he say
to the information that in the north
west Of California grows a mighty
continuous forest Of these great trees
and that 1t takes days to travel mere
ly from end to end of that forest,
which is longer than the distance
from Boston to New York or from
Chicago to st. Louis. Yet such is the
case.
On the ridges and flats Of Humboldt
Is the forest, and Of that forest the
trees grow to 26 feet in diameter and
tower 400 feet in the sky. Do you
know what those figures mean ?
Measure the room in which you are
now sitting. If it is a very large
room the longest dimensions would
just about contain one Of these great
trunks. Look out o. your window
and see the people more than city
block away. This is the distance from
which one sees the topmost bough of
these stupendous giants.
The redwood Of California Is the
great tree Of the Pacific coast. Two
thousand acres Of it exist in Oregon
along the Chetco river. South Of the
Chetco a continuous redwood belt be-
gins and increases in width from ten
miles at Del Norte county to eigh-
teen or twenty miles and keeps on un-
broken to southern Humboldt coun-
ty. Here is a gap, but in Mendocino
the belt becomes dense again and
widens out to thirty-flve miles. South
Of that county the trees grows in iso-
lated patches.
The climate and topography of
northern California have brought
about this limited distribution. North
and south along the coast in nearly
parallel ridges lie the mountains OF
the coast range, steep and rising to
attitudes of 1000 to 1000 feet. A few
large rivers, the Smith, klamath,
Mad, EEL Russian and many sn aller
streams cut through them to enter
the sea, and along their courses In
places are broad bottom lands and
gentle slopes.
West of the coast range the climate
is even and moderate, with temper
ature running from just below freez-
ing to eighty degrees. Snow lies on
the tops Of only the highest ridges
Thirty to sixty inches Of rain falls In
the autumn and winter; and during
the summer sea fog bathes the coast
But east of the mountains, less than
fifty miles from the sea, lie hot inter-
ior valleys, never visited by fog,
parched and rainless in summer and
wet only occasionally by the winter
transformations too unfavorable to
permit the growth Of redwood. 1t re-
quires very little from the soil except
that it be moist. 1t is so dependent
on moisture of the air that this fac
tor mainly or wholly determines Its
distribution and the eastern limits OF
the forests are determined by the dis
tance inland to which sea fogs may
drift.
There are two types Of the tree
that which grows on the hillsides, and
the second, which grows on the riats
along the rivers and streams. The
usual type is that of the slope; that Is
the growth found on the steep sides OF
the coast ranges, and side by side with
the redwood grow other trees, such as
red fir, tanbark oak, white fir and ma
drone. AS the slopes become moder-
ate, the altitude lower, the soil deep
er, the forest becomes denser, until on
the rich flats and in the gulches the
second type is developed. On the
best redwood flats no other tree
grows.
On the slopes 225 feet Is about the
maximum length and ten feet It's
greatest diameter, while on the flats
under better conditions, the tree
grows to be $50 feet high with a di'
ameter of thirty feet, and occasional
ly giants exceed this. Most OF the
redwoods are from 400 to 500 year:
old. The oldest tree scientifically
measured was 1,4OO years. After the
tree has passed 500 years it usually
begins to die down from the top. II
has a straight. slightly taperad trunS
without limbs for more tnan one hun
dred feet and crown OF horiZonta
branches that may occupy a third tc
half of it's length. The roots strike
downward at a sharp angle and are sc
large and so numerous that they form
compact mass. The bark Is OF
reddish gray color, fibrous in texture
gives to the full glown tree a nuteC
appearance and Offers such remark
able resistance to fire that except un'
der great heat it is not combustiole
Insects do 1t little harm, the wind car
scarcely uproot it and fungi seldom
affect it.-Humboldt Standard.