TIMBER FORESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

Northland Age, Volume 3, Issue 21, 2 January 1907, Page 5

TIMBER FORESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

Except ‘to the expert! the statement that. 372 million teet of wood hr'aaaually cut in California conveys little deflnrfp meaning. But that measurement is equivalent to the clearance, every year, of 8,000 acres of trees betwfcefa 200 and 800 feet In height and proporttonaMly thick. The Industry Involves not only some very wonderful engineering, but it was a comparatively small business until the modern engineer took it in hand. The wood comes 'from a gigantic species of Hr, restricted almost exclusively to the Coast Banges north of San Francisco, where the trees appear te appreciate the Pacific gales and fogs, amidst which they flourish in primeval forests of wide extent. Most likely they have remained as they are at present from an epoch long prior to the presence of man upon earth : under other conditions they would have been included in a coal seam long ago, the progenitors of the existing trees have probably served as food for the gigantic extinct animal forms which we only know as fossils. Redwood timber is much less used in England than in the United States where the demand for it is so large that the CaUifornian State Government has had to make regulations to protect the forests from undue destruction. In particular the groves of so-called "mammoths” have been

preserved. These consist of groups of specimens towering up to 400ft—--40 feet higher than St. Paul’s—differing slightly in scientific classification from the ordinary redwood trees, and resembling exactly the Wellingtonia. Those monster groves cannot now be touched in California, but the engineer has abundant scope otherwise, for there is estimated to be in the State almost half a million acres of small redwood timber, still, however, so huge that its upper branches attain an average height equal to that of the Monument in London, and almost as thick at the base. To handle these masses is almost beyond the power of man, unless that is supplemented by specially designed mechanical appliances. The actual felling is still accomplished by manual labour, though electricity has been suggested, and tested, with a view to supersede it ; whilst the stumps, if removed at afll, must be blown up with blasting powder or dynamite. But when the giant crashes down into the undergrowth, man, standing alone, has done almost his best, or worst. The great trunk may be sliced into sections by cross-cut saws, but even the thinnest of these is too bulky, for convenient transport. r In the early days of the industry they were moved upon .skids by oxen or horses, but the engineer improved upon that. Near the central factory where the timber was to be cut up he set down a powerful steam winch, from which a wire rope, sometimes several miles Jong, was led into the j forest. Then, when a giant fell, the cable was tied to it, the winch was set going, and, at an appropriately funereal pace, the dead monster was dragged to the spot where it was to be reduced by the steel mill to planks and lumber. This, however, entailed much disHiembermfeirt and "'destruction, and lately a railway system has been in- ; troduced. A line, or lines, is laid from the factory to the point near where the trees are being felled. Then when these come down, a train of low, raft-like trucks, without sides, is run alongside each huge trunk. The truifts are cut into lengths to suit the trucks ; each length is loaded into a truck—which may carry anything up to forty tons—and an engine, fired by the sawdust and ; small wood, drags the great fir a- ; way in a string of disjointed verteL brae, resembling some monstrous serpent. The trucks discharge their loads ’ automatically by tilting them down an inclined plane, above which the l railway terminates, into a pond t where the timber remains until required by the sawmill. ’ , Redwood is applied by the Ameri- ■ cans to innumerable purposes. One of . the millionaire Astors had a dining table made from the section of a i gigantic trunk and Denver City is supplied with water, to the extent of over eight million gallons daily, f through a pipe made of redwood - staves. It is said to leak less than * one of metal, and the saving by its i construction is estimated at over one t million dollars as compared with iron piping, whilst it Is expected to last 3 longer and to involve less expence for i up-keep.—" Weekly Telegraph/'-