Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1908-10-10

giant forest in the Sierras.
Nature seems to have protected
many of these trees from. slaughter
by providing home for them in a
mountain fortress. The big trees
were discovered by the lumbermen
when the land on which they grew
could-be had for song under the
homestead act or the timber and
stone act, but the problem of trans
porting the timber to the mill in
volved so great an expenditure that
the lumber companies hesitated to
tackle the job. Some of the more
audacious acquired ownership of
those tracts nearest the market and
expended large sums of money in the
construction of fumes. 1t has been
paying investment. The Hume
Bennett Lumber Company purchased
tract containing 100000 feet
of standing timber, about 100000
900 feet of which is big trees. To
float this timber to the mill flume
more than fifty miles long was con-
structed. But even this company did
not have the hardihood to make the
expenditure that would be necessary
to cut and market the timber on the
crest of the mountain range.
Before the glacial period the Sc
quota f1ourished in the temperate
zones of Europe, Asia and America.
The geologists say that when the
ice receded juOt two species, the big
tree and the redwood, survived. Both
grew in California, the redwood in a
narrow strip of the coast ranges and
the big tree in small groves along the
west slope of the Sierra Nevada
Mountains.
There are but ten main groups of
big trees. They are among the
scarcest of known tree species and
have the extreme scientific value of
being the best living representatives
of former geologic age. The big
tree has come down to us through the
vicissitudes of many centuries solely
because of It's superb qualifications,
says T. w. Brahany, in the Milwau-
kee Sentinel. It's bark Is often two
feet thick and almost noncombustible.
The oldest specimens felled are still
sound at the heart, and fungus is an
enemy unknown to 1t.
Yet-with all these means of main
tenance the big trees have not in
creased their range since the glacial
period. They have only just man
aged to hold their own on the little
strip of country where the climate is
locally favorable. John Muir, the
celebrated geologist, says he never
saw big tree that had died a natural
death. Barring accidents, he says,
they seem to be immortal, being ex-
empt from all the diseases that aflict
and kill other trees. Unless de-
stroyed by man they live on indef1-
nitely until burned, smashed by
lightning or cast down by storms or
by the giving away of the ground on
which they stand.
The largest belt of big trees Is in
the Sierras in Tulare County, some
forty miles northwest of Visalia.
These trees are scattered over the
slopes and on the valleys, but are
larger in the depressions where the
soil is more moist. The trees are
not collected together in groves but
are scattered through the forests and
associated with sugar pine, fir and
other species usually occurring at
this altitude. They are more abun-
dant at from 5000 to 1000 feet ele-
walton above sea level.
In 1885 some enterprising men Ia
California hit upon a scheme where
by numbering operations in the high
Sierras could be conducted profitably.
They organized a profit sharing soci-
ETY. known as the Kaweah colony. IT
had the germ of the socialistic spirit,
for each member contributed his pro
rata of money or labor to the cause.
A cooperative store was organized,
a cooperative mill established, farm
lands were apportioned and work was
begun on the construction of road
to the, mountain battlements where
were growing the grand old trees
that had stood since the days of
Christ.
The Kaweah colony had a member
ship of 352, nearly every State in the
Union being represented. Several
members of the colony worked on the
road and fully two-third of splendid
wagon way up the steep slopes had
been completed when, without warn
ing; Congress exploded a bombshell
that scattered the industrious Ka-
weahans to the four corners of the
United States. Only few hours 'beI
fore Congress adjourned in March,
1891, the President signed bill con-
tanning not more than a dozen lines
creating the Giant Forest National
Park.
Members of the colony had neg
lected to file on the land on which
the big trees stood. The creation of
a national park meant the withdrawal
of the land from entry. All the road
building had been in vain, for not
one of the sequoias in this forest of
the worlds most magnificent trees
could be cut. About $68,000 was ex-
pended in road construction by the
colony. The colony disbanded when
the park was created and no claim
ever has been made against the Gov
ernment for the money spent in road
building. The road to the interior of
the forest was completed by the Gov
ernment, and now it is public high
way. About 1900 acres Of the for
est is in private ownership, but the
trees have not been cut. They could
not be hauled to the valley, as heavy
teaming on the Government road is
prohibited.
1t is estimated there are $4,000
sequoias in the forest, the big trees
running about twenty to the acre.
While nurseries have been estab-
lished, no marked success in the
growing OF these trees has attended
the efforts OF the Government. The
parable of the acorn and the oak is
familiar to those who have been ad-