American Forests Volume 9 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt: ...on the Stanford University estate, and gave the name " Palo Alto," or "high stick," to the university town. Eastern and southern slopes, where the sun is hot and the sea mists strike only occasionally, show few Redwoods, and these are short and limby. As stated above. the quality of the wood varies. The softest and best comes from trees which have grown in the bottoms or " flats" under favorable conditions. " Flinty" timber is more apt to be found on the slopes, and the tree's vitality is so great and it endures so many vicissitudes, all of which leave their record, that the grain of the wood bears a direct relation to the eventfulness of its life. These differing conditions of the lumber give rise to such varying statements as are quoted in the first part of this article. The Redwood forest itself is of the selection type, and contains trees of a wide range of _ age in a single mixture, but, contrary to the usual selection for est, the large, mature trees outnumber the small ones. Sucker and seedling share in the reproduction, but unequally, in a ratio of about I00 to 1. The germination quality of the seed is 'poor; so also are the opportunities for germinating, as the seed requires considerable light, and the suckers crowd the seedlings out, even when germination takes place. In some places of the forest a ray of sunlight never penetrates. The crown of the Redwood is, nevertheless, almost as thin and open as that of the Larch, and in a mixed stand the Redwood's branches die off more rapidly than those of its companions, and the crown bends eagerly to those places where the light enters the forest canopy; yet the young trees, suckers from mature roots, grow under shade that would kill...