J I.
APRIL 30, 1903.
THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT.
11
THE REDWOOD
IThal Forestry Can do for Thli Noble Troo
Bnlletln From Bureau of
Forestry
Forestry and irrigation are two en
terprises fn which the Adam Smith
theory of laissez faire does not hold
good The private owner of a forest
does not, following his selfish in
stincts, act in such a manner as to in
ure to the benefit of society in all
cases. The whole future good is
ruthlessly sacrificed for the sake of
immediate returns. But one cannot
blame the private owner. He cannot
be expected to be any more . far
sighted or benevolent than other in
dividuals. -
Forestry is a proper matter to bo
conducted publicly for the good of the
whole people. A private capitalist
cannot wait for "the long run;" he is
looking after the ' now." He can
not wait thirty, fifty, a hundred years
to reap his harvest Society can.
Right now any further extension of
the private ownership of timber lands
should cease. They should remain
public property whatever remnant
may be left .
A bulletin from the bureau of for
estry contains an interesting account
of the redwood, well worth the pe
rusal of Independent readers:
What is to be done for the Red
woods of the Pacific coast is a ques
tion that has not only agitated Cali
fornia, but Is of sentimental concern
to the whole nation. The. bureau of
forestry, attacking the problem in a
thoroughly practical spirit, has
worked out conclusions that should
appeal as reasonable at once to the
lumbermen, who cut redwood on ac
count of its commercial value, and to
those who wish this ancient and
marvelous type of tree growth pre
served. The results of this study are given
in "The Redwood," bulletin 38 of this
bureau, by R. T. Fisher, recently is
sued by the department
The Redwood forests are, in point
of merchantable yield, probably the
virgin redwood lands, and to hold
such lands for a second crop. The
study made concerns Itself with youn;;
second growth, rather than with ma
ture trees; with timbered areas rather
than with the virgin forest Where
attention was given the old forests
and methods of lumbering, It was only
that a better knowledge might be
gained of second growth and how to
deal with it
The bureau's is the first systematic
study of the redwood ever undertak
en by a forester, and it has made
clear several points about the life and
habits of the tree that are little
known.
The redwood of California belong:
to a genus of which the Big Tree is
the only other species now alive.
Both are allied to the cypress, and
their lumber Is often called by the
same name, but they are botanlcally
distinct from each other. They do not
even occupy the same situations. The
Big Tree occurs in scattered bodies on
the west slopes of the Sierra Nevada,
while the redwood forms dense for
ests on the vest slopes of the Coast
Range. The redwood is popularly
thought to occupy a strip of country
10 to 30 miles wide, from the Oregon
line to the Bay of Monterery; but
these boundaries do not cover its act
ual distribution. Two thousand acres
of redwood, in two separate groups,
are growing in Oregon along the
Chetco river. South of the Chetco a
continuous redwood belt begins. By
way of the river valleys and lowlands
it increases its width from 10 miles
at Del Norte county to 18 or 20 miles
and keeps on unbroken to southern
Humboldt county. Here, for about a
township, it thins out, but becomes
dense again 6 miles north of the Men
docino line, and after entering that
country widens to 35 miles, Its great
est width. The redwood belt ends in
Mendocino county, but- isolated for
ests of the species, are growing in
Creek canyon in the Santa Lucia
mountains, Monterey county, 12 miles
south of Puuta Gordo and 500 miles
from the northern limit of the tree
along the Chetco river.
The J redwood grows to a greater
densest on earth, manv stands vield
ins 150.000 board feet to the acre: i height than any other American tree,
and , redwood logging represent? the Dut in sirth and in age it is exceeded
uy uie oig iiee oi ine Dierras. un
the slopes 225 feet is about its maxi
mum height and 10 feet its greatest
diameter, while on the flats, under
better conditions, it grows to be 350
sheltered spots as far south as Salmon
feet high -".wit'i a diameter of 20 feet
Most of the redwood cut is from 40)
to 800 years old. After the tree has
passed the age of 500 years it usually
begins to -die down from the top and
to fall off in growth. The oldest red
wood found during the bureau's In
vestigation ha I begun life 1,373 years
ago. : -:
The bark of -the tree offers such a
remarkable resistance to fire that ex
cept under great heat it is not com
bustible. " It is of a reddish-gray col
or, fibrous in texture and gives to full
grown' redwoods a fluted appearance.
Moisture available for the roots is the
first need of the redwood, as any hil
ly tract of forest will show. Wher
ever a small gully, or bench, or basin
is ?o placed-as to receive an uncom
mon , amount of. seepage,, or wherever
a creek flows by, there the trees are
sure to be largest. While moisture of
the soil affects the development of the
redwood, moisture of the atmosphere
regulates its distribution. The limits
of-tbe sea fogs are just about the lim
its of the tree. The fogs, unless scat
tered by winds, flow inland among
the mountains Western exposures
receive most of the mist they carry,
except those higher ridges above their
reach! which support, in consequence,
only a scattering growth of redwood
The wood of the redwood varies
greatly. Th-3 softest and best trees
usually grow in the bottoms, th-3
"flinty" timber occurs on the slopes.
But tliis rule does not always hold
good. All sorts of unexpected and un
accountable differences in the qual
ity of the timber occur. J A soft, fin -i-grained
tree will be found close be
side one "flinty" and less valuable.
Even the practical logger is never
sure until he cuts it What kind of
lumber a reiwood will yield. The
tree's vitality is so great, it endures
so manv vicissitudes and suffers from
so many accidents in the centuries of
its existence, that the grain of its
wood becomes uneven in proportion
as its life has been eventful. Th
wood fibres formed under different
rates of growth sometimes get up a
tension so great that when the log
is sawed (he wood splits with a loud
report.
The seed of the redwood will not
germinate in shaded places; the small
seedling demands plenty of light
The crown is almost as thin and open
as that of a larch, another sign that
the tree is not naturally tolerant of
shade. In a mixed stand the red
wood'3 branches die off more rapidly
highest development of the lumber
ing business that has ever been at
tained on the Pacific coast The to
tal supply of redwood is estimate!
to be 75 billion feet The amount cut
in 1900 was 360 million feet, with a
value of $3,645,608. Although only
one-tenth of the forests of the United
States is owned by; lumbermen, ac
cording to the last census, one-fifth
of the redwood is in their hands, and
the stands they own are the bandP
somest and most valuable in the Red
wood belt. ,
Ever since the Spaniards began to
cut redwood along San Francisco Bay
the range of its growth has been di
minishing; it now occupies an area of
about 2,000 souare-miles. During the
last 50 years several hundred thou
sand acres of timber have been cut
over, and the good lands put into
cultivation or turned into pasture. A3
year by yea1 the Redwood forests
have dwindled, it has come to be
pretty generally believed that the
tree is doomed to extinction.
This popular idea that-the redwood
has no chance of survival is not well
founded. The studies of the bureau of
forestry have proved that possibilities
of a new growth of redwood after the
old trees have been removed are ex-r
cellent. Given half a chance, the red
wood reproduces Itself by sprouts With
astonishing vigor. - Measurements
taken by the bureau-on cut -over land
show that in thirty years, in a fair
soil and a dense stand, trees will be
grown 16 inches in diameter, 80 feet
high, yielding 2,000 feet board meas
ure to the acre.
With the knowledge that the Red
wood as a type need not become ex
tinct, it is possible to consider the
impending fate of the giant redwoods
in the old forests with a more "cheer
ful mind. Occasional parks and re
creation grounds, such as the Big
Basin Redwood Park of the Santa
Cruz mountains, may preserve small
areas of virgin redwood lands; but
the richest, the densest, the most
beautiful of the forest are owned by
lumbermen, and will inevitably be
cut The trees represent invested
capital; they are merchantable and
will yield a profit now, small as it is.
.Besides, in the virgin stands most of
them are past maturity, and the
growth put on is inconsiderable. Ev
ery consideration, then, induces the
redwood lumberman, reasoning from
his standpoint to cut his trees.
Realizing that the fate of the old
trees cannot be stayed, the bureau of
forestry, instead of wasting itself in
attempts to check the cutting, con
fined itself to proving that it is worth
while to the lumbermen to do less
damage to the young trees In logging
than those of it? companions, and the
crown bends eagerly to places where
the light enters the forest canopy.
But In spite of these signs of its
sensitiveness to light, the redwood
forms one of the dsnsest forests that
grow.
The reason for this is that the
stand is maintained chiefly . by suck'
ering from old trees. Supported and
nourished by full-grown roots and
stems, young trees grow under shades
that would kill the small seedling.
The sprout will endure an astonishing
amount of shade. In stands "of sec
ond growth, sc. dense that not a ray
of sunlight can enter, saplings G or 6
feet high are to be found growing
from stumps, bare of branch, or fol
iage except, for a few inch es of nal
green crown at the top. In very dark,
damp places in the virgin forest ono
may find clamps of shoots as while
as sprouts from a potato.
Redwood possesses qualities whicn
fit it for many uses. In color It
shades from light cherry to dark ma
hogany. It is easily worked, takes a
beautiful polish, and Is one of the
most durable of the coniferous woods
of California. It resists decay so well
that trees which have lain 500 years
in the forest have been sent to the
mill -and sawed into lumber. The
wood is without resin, and offers a
strong resistance to fire, as the record
of fires in San Francisco, where it is
much used, indicate. Insects seldom
Injure It, because of an acid element
it contains. In sea water, however,
the marine teredo eats off redwood
piling as readily as other timber.
Redwood timber, says Dr. Hermann
von Schrenk of the bureau of plant
industry, possesses lasting qualities
scarcely equalled by any other wood.
Although very light and porous, it
has antiseptic properties which pre
vent the growth of decay-producing
fungi. So far as is now known, none
of the ordinary wood-rotting fungi
grows in redwood timber. It is be
cause of its resistance to most forms
of decay that the redwood reaches
such a great age.
The Abdication cf Reason
Editor Independent: Clarence S.
Darrow, counsel for the miners, in a
speech in Chicago said: "We have
been trying the case as to how much
wages, how much of the coal that the
miner brings up shall be taken by him
and how much by the operator, who
has confiscated the earth.
"The public has not yet been con
sidered. The public never Is consid
ered and hardly deserves considera
tion. They let other men do their
thinking; they let other men do their
voting; they let other men make and
enforce the laws, and, of course, they
have no right to say anything about
t ,The great public sits still while
seven or eight railroad companies de-
iberately take possession of all the
anthracite coal which nature has
placed in the bosom of the earth all
of it They sit quiet while said com
panies are organized into one heaJ
and pass under one management; they
Bit still while these same companies
take possession of all the soft coal
fields there are in this country. They
raise no murmur while railroad com
pany after railroad company is con
solidated into one, until a single per
son in Wall street may not only fix
the price of every pound of coal we
burn, but may determine absolutely
whether we shall freeze or not."
It was declared long ago by word
of God: "My people are destroyed for
ack of knowledge; because thou hast
rejected knowledge I will also reject
thee." (Hosea iv., 6.) Again: "The
ox knoweth his owner and the ass
his master's crib; but Israel doth not
know, ray people doth not consider.
Oh, sinful nation, a people laden with
iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children
that are corrupters."
The great material distinction be
tween man and the brute creation is
that of reason. Because of It the gos
pel of eternity can be preached to the
former. We are somade, and history
and the present time shows the sure
disaster that follows man's refusal to
exercise his reason. Because man
cannot be his own butcher, baker and
candlestick maker he is led to be
lieve that it is right in every partic
ular (except his own trade, perhaps)
to seek and submit to mental author
ity. He does this in spiritual affairs,
and his folly cannot be measured by
its results in this life, nor leave an ex
ample to warn his children who yet
live. He does this in material mat
ters, and lives a slave,- often worse
off than the ox and the ass. The man
who reasons becomes the master. It
will always be thus. The man who
reasons will wear the crowns of those
who refuse to reason. There Is no
sin of greater enormity in heaven's
sight than that of. mental abdication
to men or organizations. As a man
sows he shall reap.
The edict that shall stand for ail
time has gone forth .- Refuse knowl
edge and live of necessity the brute
life that has not knowledge. The man
who refuses knowledge has no right
to pray. The mass of children abhor
the school life because it entails the
exercise and development of the men
tal powers. In like manner the teach
er who prods the public into intellect
ual effort is detested. It is so much
easier (?) to pay someone to do our
thinking for us. We prefer sleeping
to waking. Don't mal;e me think is
the demand until we lose the power to
do so and become so dead that the fir
ing of a cannon of the caliber of that
of Clarence S. Darrow fail3 to arouse
us. I will strain my arms and break
J Jttvfc 4i iitUJtUmi CaXUitr AiUUl BliU "
rise to sunset, but I will not at all
exercise my. mind further than the
mere skimming of the surface of
things. . '
"Knowledge is power." If In us it
is for us, and will make possible the
life that now is and that to come. If
we intrust to others' generosity or
honesty the knowledge that should be
our own the power of it will accrue
to them at an expense to us that is
fatal. To know is half the battle, the
other half lies in doing.
LEVIN T. JONES (237).
Baltimore, .Md.
Experiments In Orchard Culture
The Nebraska experiment station
has just issued Bulletin No. 79, In
which are reported the results of ex
periments showing the effects of vari
ous methods of culture on the growth
and winter-killing of young orchard ,
trees.
It was found that careful cultiva
tion during spring and early sum
mer conserves soil moisture and pro-.
duces a thrifty, growth of young trees.
Good cultivation in early summer can
often be given by growing some cul
tivated crop like vegetables or corn,
in the orchard. , Uncultivated crops .
like grass or small grain dry the
ground early in the summer and in
jure young trees very seriously.
Cultivation continued late , in fall ,
may cause growth to continue very
late and is often responsible for win
ter-killing of tender trees. Cover-
crops sown in midsummer cause trees
to ripen their wood early, in prepara
tion for wintr, and do not injure
them like grain crops grown in early
summer. '
Late cultivation, by leaving the
ground bare, may increase the ten
dency toward root killing in severe.
winters, while cornstalks, cover-crops,
etc., protect tree roots against severe
freezing. Late growing cover-crops .
or any method of culture that leaves
the ground very dry In fall will in-,
crease the danger of root injury.
R. A. EMERSON,
Agri. Experiment Station,
Lincoln, Neb.
W. E. Curtis has at last found out .
and publishes the fact in the Record-
Herald that "for some reason or an
other there seems to be an impression
prevailing in various quarters that
this (trust) legislation was intended
for political purposes to satisfy pub
lic clamor against the trusts, and
that the people are to be humbugged .
by a demonstration that will amount
to nothing and have no serious effect
upon the adherence of the railway
companies to the republican party or.
diminish their contributions to its
campaign fund." . , '
WANTKD SKVKRAI, INDUSTRIOUS PER-
sons in each sta'e to travel for house estab.
:shrd eleven years and w;th a larire capital, to
call upon merchants and upends for successful
and profitable line. Permanent enpafrement.
Weekly cash f alary of fi8and all travelintr ex
penses and hotel bil's ad' a' ced in cash each
week. Experience nrt ewntial. Ment'on ref
erence and etic'ose self-ad 'reed envelope.
THE NATIONAL, 334 Pearborn St.. ChicKO.
THE HANDY POCKET ACCOUNT BOOK.
A SKLy-ivsTRt-CTOR In keeping private accounts In
irstematle form, a business refkkknck and aocwnt
book coiiibinrd, far pocket ase. i irssiy, nicely bound
Pocket and flap. fOc postpaid. Fend M. O. or 2o
stamps. If unatlsfactory and returned at once un
damaged, money rctunded. Address F. O. Johnson,
Pub., Marlon, Iowa.
The republican party has got back
ip its national, state and municipal
legislative bodies to the status of the
credit mobilier times which many
men now living will distinctly remem
ber. Turn th rascals out
Readers of The Independent should
write for the spring catalogues now
offered free by advertisers. Buying
by mail is as safe and more economi
cal than buying over the counter. Try
it and always mention The Indepen
dent when writing.
Good paint Is cheap. It will pay
you to paint your house and barn this
spring. See the special paint bargains
offered by the Farmers Grocery Co. of
this city in their ad. this week. Write
for color card and mention The Inde- '
pendent
I
T""'f
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