Year: 1859

tain communities and calculating the chances
of their permanence, one must not forget
the splendid timber which surrounds them,
and which must hereafter give employment
and wealth to thousands. The glorious for
ests of pine which clothe with everything
beauty the entire western slope of The Sierra
Nevada might well excite the enthusiastic
admiration Of Horace Greeley, who saw them
but for little while, when they are con-
slant feast to those who see them every day


Both for their lovelness and utility they will
be still more esteemed in the future. En-
bracing an area of not less than 450 miles
long by one hundred miles wide, standing
in thick ranks on every northern decliyity
and in every deep canon throughout this
vast region, and extending in an unbroken
body across the northern part Of the State
where they join the noble forests of the
coast range, they must endure for ages, in
spite of some reckless waste, and are des-
tined to create a business that will rival, if
not surpass, that Of any other lumber region
in the world The chief production at pre-
sent is to supply home wants-the miners
being the principal local consumers and
their demand a constant one. Tunneling
alone makes great inroads upon the pine
woods, as one may see at Forest City, on
the North Yuba Ridge, where the largest
trees have been CLEANED for miles around,
and the mountain for considerable distance
stripped of all trees more pretentious than
saplings. In districts where the hydraulic
process is mostly pursued, lumber is chiefly
wanted for the long fumes and sluices that
are continually wearing out. Rejecting upon
this, we sorrowfully anticipate the day when
the mountain towns shall stand amid bare
brown hills, except where cultivation may
intervene to clothe them with a tenderer
verdure than they knew of old


Some idea of what the lumber business
of California will amount to when increased
by expectation, can be acquired by glance
at its present dimensions. According to the
State Register, the number of mills in oper-
alton last year was 1888, of which 17S were
propelled by steam and 2lo by water Cost
of erection estimated at two and a half mil
lions Of dollars. and the aggregate capacity
at about five hundred millions of feet per
annum. Assuming that this quantity of
lumber is actually ttrned out annually, it
must sell at an average price of not less
than twenty dollars per thousand feet, which
would give ten millions of dollars as the
least value Of the lumber annually consumed
for home uses The true value-particularly
if allowance We're made for all the lumber
got out by hand would probably reach fif-
teen millions The annual exports amount to
solittle--n9t more than fifty or sixty thousand
| dollars previous to this year-that they need
not be considered in this connection. The
largest proportion Of these 3S8 saw mills is
| found in the mining regions. One sees ly-
ing around them logs that are four, FIVE, six
and seven feet in diameter; and a walk into
the adjacent woods makes him acquainted
with giants that have stood for centuries
their trunks rising fer two hundred feet and
more as straight as mast, half of their
hight bear of limbs, and measuring at their
| bases from four to eight feet, and OCCASION
ally even nine and ten feet. In such grove
as this, one feels as if amid new order of
beings, and the ringing of the axe sounds
! sacrilegious. In such grove we lately OBJ
served several parties getting out sluice-
blocks, shingles and "shakes." One party
| had made eighteen thousand shaved shingles
and fifteen thousand "shakes," or three feet
boards, out Of one sugar pine which was six
feet through at the butt, leaving three
twelve feet saw-logs besides, each of which
would yield fifteen hundred feet of sawed
lumber. The cash value Of this tree at
$5 per thousand for the shingles, Sc
for the boards and $50 (the local price,
per thousand feet for the sawed lumber,
would be S345. Other trees were pointed
out to US that were estimated to be worth
$500 Such groves as this offer inducements
to industry quite equal to any presented by
|
This same soil, by the way, is deep, rich
loam, capable of profitable cultivation, and
especially adapted to grapes, vegetables and
grasses A considerable portion of the best
timbered land in several Of the mining coun-
ties is claimed by saw mill owners and
ranchmen, though but little is well fenced


where fenced at all, ard few attempts are
made to prevent miners from using all the
timber their vocation demands. These tim
Der privileges are daily becoming more valu-
able and there are persons holding quarter
section enclosures for which they already ask
more than they would want for the same
4 amount of arabic land in the foot hills. The
finest timber groves lie within the line of
deep snow, and just where the snow con-
u. ft.