The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 21, 1900, Page 6

THE SUNDAY CALL ——————————C HALL T point out to you the largest tree In the world? It was discov- ered recently by a party of loggers in the coun of Tulare, far up among the headwaters of the Ka- weah River. Its situation is inac- cessible to thé despoiling axman, and it will stand there eternaily, the proudest king of the vegetable kingdom. Vast gla- cler-ribbed peaks surround it, and by its roots foam the ryshing waters of the Alp- ine snows. The tree is over 400 feet in height, and up on its trunk as high as a man can reach it measures 160 feet in cir- cumference. It is a Sequoia gigantea, or one of the Sierra redwoods. There are two species of the redwood and two forests of them in California— hence on the globe. The gigantea lives among the majestic sugar and yellow pines which clothe with their coniferous foliage the steeps of tho Blerra Nevadas, while the sempervirens lgves in the salty fogs which sweep along the north coast of California and upon the west slope of Qalifornia has the oenly Redwoed forests in the whele world the Coast Range. Of these forests, orig- tnally 80,000,000 of acres in extent, but 15,- 080,000 remain in their virgin state after thirty years of cutting. About 500,000 acres a year, therefore, seem to have dis- under the combined aggressions of the woodman's ax and the devouring fire, Of the sempervirens only about 1,400,000 acres now exist, and this, it is estimated, contains not more than 47,000,000,000 feet bt Jumber. Not all of the timber in the above estimate stands in accessible situations. One acre of redwood will cut from 30,00 ve cut as much as 8,000 feet of first-class lumber, and on Russlan River one operator cut 24,000,000 feet from 160 acres of land. This, however, was undoubtedly one of the best quarter-sections in the entire forest. Care must be exercised in the selection of a-proper tree to fell, else, as it has often occurred, when it {s upon the ground, it may be found so defective that it will not make even second-class lum- ber. Certain trees, for unexplained rea- sons, have a creased fashion of growing. Instead of the trunk being a sound, uni- form body, it will be found to have great longitudinal fissures in it, extending near- ly through to the heart. These may num- ber a dozen or more, breaking into the rings with crevasses two or three inches apart, the space being fllled with bark. o thick {s the coating of bark upon the tree that until it 18 cut down this defect, though it may be suspected, is not dis- cernible. These trees are also often rot- ten at the core, which, of course, in- creases their unavailability. So it may occur that one walking over an area from which the woodmen have taken all they CARS For THE [ILL @ ==« Abcut S00.000 agres of these trees seem o Be disappearing Qach bear . desire may find standing trees of large size which, it would seem, would make excellent lumber. And surprise may be expressed that the cutters passed them by. They have all been examined and condemned, however, and condemnation in the forest is to allow a tree to remain standing. It is the work of two men for from six hours to two days to cut down a redwood tree and the cost s from to $12. So mistakes in judging the quality of timber in a standing tres are to be avolded. It is & most interesting sight to bshold one of these forest giants fall. The pro- cess of cutting is effected both through the use of the ax and the saw. All axes are double-faced, through which much time is #aved In sharpening. Sometimes the axes start the cut on both sides of the trunk and at places about opposite each other through the thickness .f the tree. After the chopping has penetrated to a depth of about two feet on -ach side th saw Is then started in the line of the incision and the job completed with that instrument. Generally, however, the di- rection upon which the tree is to fall Is determined and a cut is made in- that side to the Gepth of from one to three feet. Then the choppers pass to the op- posite side and begin sawing at a point several feet higher than the piace of the incision. As the saw moves through the heart of the giant he begins to sag down on the side where the wound Is gaping. In dofpg this he lifts apart the cut and opens the section which the saw is mak- ing, thereby keeping free play for (he saw. This Is alded at times by driving wedges at the place where the saw en- tered. Presently it is apparent that the £0 ~CoTTING LENGTHS § =3 TRE ox TEAM T T I }V section s opening wider and.wider and that the tree is beginning to lean away from the cutters. They continue with their work a moment longer,” then |is heard the cracking of the wood fibers in front of the saw teeth. Another swish of the saw and these increase. They give a report like firing pistols and the rapidity of detonation of a gatling gun. The sounds, getting ever rapid, presea’y merge into a continuous roar. Then, If you are standing near by and the tree is large, you will get the impression (hat everything above is coming to earth; that the whole forest is falling. The great mast starts slowly to topple, cracking and exploding ever louder at its base, until with a fearful momentum it comes sprawling down, cracking and crashing and roaring and hitting the earth with a clump and thump as if & whole broad- side of 13-inch bombs had simultaneously struck a bastion. Prostrate, then, lles the forest glant. A W kind of pitving sense comes over you, as though you had been witness to a tragedy. The prone monster seems to be some vast animal, which, after a stout resistance, had succumbed, and whose body Is now stretched before you for its final spofla- tion. This sense s all the more pro- nounced as you observe the choppers quickly run over the trunk with thelr axes and cut away all the brahches, each limb going ltke a veritable amputation. The great torso which emitted such sound and displayed such motion a moment ago 1s now low and helpless. giving scarcely a whimper as its parts are struck from it Almost before you can recover. yourself the long stalk is bare of llmbs, and then the men begin crosscutting it into logs, or sections, of from twenty-four to thirty feet, as long as It s desired that the boards into which it is to be reduced at the mill shall be. This done, the logs are peeled of their bark, the crowbar being used to pry off the thick Intesumen, which is sometimes a foot in depth, the log be- ing turned with jackscrews, when such s practicable, to get at the under side. This done. the next problem Is c transportatiof. To drag the behemc out of his native abode and get him to pen or place where he can be sliced i thin pleces and made ana utterly beyond ident at in a butcher shop in this is the t aim. The donkey engine, which contai for the winding up of ro into proximity, and a of tackles are arra logs are drawn into line. } which we saw fall had been and Morgan Backus caught with camera the chu-chuing donkey engine dqrta A 7 | 7 { ‘ ,,,4/1,‘, S \ (7= - Vi< r/// 1071/} o valuable species of weoed Gradually Begoming exiing? Measures 160 Feet A Jres in Julare County JIs Over 400 Fest jfigh and in Circumfarences. Largest in the World. when it had braced itseif with a vast process of ropes to draw the logs in posi- tion for a down slope movement. It was then that a bevy of beeves selzed the fore- most log with a big chain and started on a downhill haul, The procession was pre- ceded by a Chinese water bearer yoked to two buckets, who dashed water on the ground over which the logs were to pass A road had been constructed along the mountain side for just this kind of use, and the purpose of this wetting was to make the road slippery so the logs would easily slide. The oxen moved on a slow, quiet gait, and in a minutes y were at the foot of the hill, where a little engine at the head of a long train of trucks was backed upon a track ready to receive the severed remains e fallen Titan. The shrieks and ams of this locomo- tive resoun: the forest is one of the most mass riage ¢ disks, shaggy cost lass od planers, where rapidly t is rer and alr to them. Away they go then to the trucks anda on to o whers on a bit of headl 1 in a bight of the coast there i i a platform with a s, when hoist on saw away sweep men W remained and drear the sun we turned and rolled out we could not ght even come oft to 1 be Picturesque JScanes Among California Redweods.