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4 | With Regards of the Author. yes

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE

MEDIGAL TOPOGRAPHY, METEOROLOGY,

ENDEMICS AND EPIDEMICS,

MADE TO THE

MEDICAL SOCIETY OF THE STATE oF CALIFORNIA

IY Maes

ANNUAL SESSION, HELD AT SAN FRANCISCO, IN APRIL, 1883

By M. M. CHIPMAN, M. D.,

OF SAN FRANCISCO, CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEE,

Forest Preservation and Timber Cultivation.

(Extracted from the Volume of Transactions of the Society.)

fie l(t
—=ajie—

SAN FRANCISCO:
Wintersurn & Co., Printers anp Huecrrotypers, 417 Cray Srresr,
; 1883.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE

ON:

MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY, METEOROLOGY,
ENDEMICS AND EPIDEMICS,

MADE TO THE

MEDICAL SOCIETY OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA,

A EE

ANNUAL SESSION, HELD AT SAN FRANCISCO, IN APRIL, 1883
By M? M. CHIPMAN, M. D.,

OF SAN FRANCISCO, CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEE,

—_—__——

Forest Preservation and Timber Cultivation.

(Extracted from the Volume of Transactions of the Society.)

ams ON ( Sz :
"——<ofle—*

SAN FRANCISCO:
Wintersurn & Co., Printers anp Execrrorypers, 417 Cray Srreet,
1883.

;

pee er On COMMITEE

— MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY, METEOROLOGY,

ENDEMICS, ETC.

Importance of Forest Preservation and Timber
Cultivation.

By M. M. CHIPMAN, M. D., Chairman.

Mr. Presipent anD Members or THE Mepican Society oF THE STATE OF
Cauirornia: After the earth had performed its annual cycle for an incom-
putable period, during the cooling off process, the mighty convulsions of
conflicting elements, the gradual formation of soil upon its surface, the
development of herb and fruit, and of animal life adapted to his uses and
control, then was man created, or, as Mr. Darwin would say, developed,
and given dominion over every living thing that moveth upon the earth;
and the first commandment received from his Creator was: ‘‘ Be fruitful
aud multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it.” And as we examine
through the pages of history, whether among the nations who have been
conversant with the Sacred Law and Record, or of those who were
unacquainted with the Hebraic and Christian systems, we find that the
highest physical development, the farthest advance in civilization, and the
greatest national power have been attained by those branches of the race

—~.who have appeared to be most earnest in carrying out the original injunc-

tion. And of the leading men and great thinkers of all ages, those who

“ have been most venerated and who have earned and received most of the

-

enduring gratitude of their fellow-men, have either been discoverers of
additional resources, or organizers of movements in the same general direc-
tion of accumulation and advancement; and at this period of human
existence no one who claims to be in sympathy with the cultivated humani-
tarian sentiment of the age, even though not venerating its source, will
dissent from the binding force of the vital principles enunciated in the
great fundamental law.

If we institute inquiry as to what this last and highest order of animated
creation has accomplished in compliance with the great trust devolved upon
him, we shall find that a great deal of energy and capacity have been dis-

’ played in certain directions; that his seed has greatly multiplied, and that

his successors have spread over all the inhabitable parts of the continents
and to the isles of the sea; that he has subjugated the animal kingdom and

=

reduced it to his will; and has from the bowels of the earth brought forth
the metals and moulded them to his purposes; has brought under cultiva-
tion a vast area of earth’s surface; and that throughout the whole world we
find the results of his toil, the monuments of his intelligent labor, and the
specimens of his inventive genius and skillful handiwork; in the great cities
of his building; in his massive and beautiful palaces; his immense and
numerous systems of public improvement; and in the ingenious and com-
plicated devices for the elimination of force, the propulsion of conveyances,
and the transmission of intelligence, whereby the whole civilized world is
brought into immediate intereommunication and into close commercial and
social relation and interdependence; and to this we may add the many
appliances for human comfort, the numerous provisions for the maintenance
and care of those who are unable to maintain and care for themselves; a
high development of art; great advancement in the several sciences, and a
comparative general diffusion of education and knowledge. But if we
examine farther into the events of the past, and as to the early and present
condition of this vice-royal domain, we shall find that this high steward has
been in some respects, to our infinite regret, most derelict and culpable, as
the terms of his dominion whilst charging him with the subjugation of the
earth in nowise gave permission to destroy any part thereof; on the con-
trary, the injunction to multiply and replenish as certainly enjoined the
principle of conservation, as the lessening in any degree the earth’s popula-
tion-sustaining resources, would to the same extent defeat the primary
injunction itself, at whatever future period the population might become so
numerous as to require the full measure of its productive capacity. And
yet the comparison of ancient history and geography with the accounts of
modern travelers and scientists, show that the space of the earth’s surface,
embracing Northern Africa, Southern and Eastern Europe in part, and
Western and Central Asia, that vast central region in which the history of
the race had its commencement, and throughout which, in different sections
and regions, alternately existed the most populous and most advanced
nations of their times, the dominating empires of their respective ages,
where were exhibited a display of regal magnificence and splendor unequal-
ed in modern times, has been changed by the occupancy and acts of man
himself, either to utter barrenness, in some regions, or in other parts to
conditions in which the soil is capable of sustaining only a sparse and
impoverished population; that those countries in which the great armies of
the ancient Assyrians and Persians, and of the Crusaders and Tartars, in
later ages, could, without an organized commissariat, secure adequate sup-
plies in long marches, in our times would scarcely afford forage for a single
regiment, the outlines and remains of broken and decayed internal improve-
ments and the ruins of deserted cities being the only visible evidence of the
former fertility, populousness, aud opulence.

The late Hon. George P. Marsh, in his work, ‘“‘ The Earth as Modified
by Human Action,” says:

‘« It appears, then, that the fairest and fruitfulest provinces of the Ro-
man Empire, precisely that portion of terrestrial surface, in short, which
about the commencement of the Christian Era was endowed with the greatest
superiority of soil, climate, and position, which had been carried to the high-
est pitch of physical improvement, and which thus combined the natural and
artificial conditions best fitting it for the habitation and enjoyment of a dense

5

and highly refined and cultivated population, are now completely exhausted
of their fertility, or so diminished in productiveness, as with the exception
of a few favored oases that have escaped the general ruin, to be no longer
capable of affording sustenance to civilized man. If to this realm of desola-
tion we add the now wasted and solitary soils of Persia and the remoter
East, that once fed their millions on milk and honey, we shall see that a ter-
ritory larger than all Europe, the abundance of which sustained, in bygone
centuries, a population scarcely inferior to that of the whole Christian world
of the present day, has been entirely withdrawn from human use, or at best
is thinly inhabited by tribes too few in numbers, too poor in superfluous
products, and too little advanced in culture and the social arts to contribute
anything to the general moral and material interests of the great common-
wealth of man.”

It is sad to contemplate that this immense region, which at the advent
of the human race was the most important, considering climate and produc-
tive resources, of any equal conterminous space on the earth’s surface, can
never be restored to sustain again its myriad population, or to be the theater
of like busy scenes or great events; and it would now appear, in the light of
the present, that the woes and desolation denounced by certain of the He-
brew prophets against the powerful nations of antiquity, were just in ac-
cordance, measure for measure, with their own improvidence and terrestrial
destructiveness. But if we trace this matter still farther we shall ascertain
that this destructive tendency has not been confined within the regions
which were the seat of ancient empire, but that other parts of Asia have also
suffered; that portions of Europe which were comparatively barbarous and
uncultivated at the commencement of the Christian Era, have since been
worn out and materially deteriorated both in soil and climate; that parts of
Africa, beyond the northern countries referred to, have been made poorer
by man’s occupancy, and other parts allowed to become waste from neglect
and lack of protection; and that even both divisions of the continent last
opened to the settlement of the cultivating races have already begun to ex_
hibit, visibly, in certain sections, the deteriorating effects of their presence |

And having gone through and collated the works of the available au-
thors upon this subject, { estimate as the sum of their statements that the to-
tal lessening of the earth’s productive resources, from the advent of man to
the present time, is fully equal to and perhaps may be in excess of one-third
of its original population-sustaining capacity, and that principally through
the wastefulness and incompetence of its human occupants. And were we
to calculate the future of the race by its past history, considering the pres-
ent rate of increase of population, and that the period must soon arrive when
the whole of the earth’s surface will be in possession of a population neces- .
sarily dependent upon agriculture as its source of food: supply, we would
reach the conclusion that the acme of its existence is not far in advance—
when through the decadence and degeneration of the following centuries it
would more rapidly retrograde to a condition equivalent to its prehistoric ex-
istence.

It is supposed that the torrid and temperate regions of primeval earth
were mostly wooded, and that the clearing of the land to make room for
more needed products was one of the first tasks of subjugation ; but subse-
quently, as human settlements increased and extended, forest fires grew in
- frequency, and with the devastations of war and the uses for building and

> 6

fuel of large cities, and from other causes, to a great extent, carelessness,
wantonness, and a lack of forethought, the earth has been so far stripped of
its timber growth as to not only cause scarcity in many parts for building
and other domestic uses, but with even much more serious result, it has been
demonstrated that the excessive forest destruction has been the chief factor
in effecting the great detrimental changes in climate and productiveness to
which the earth has been subjected.

Charles P. Daly, L.L.D., President of the American Geographical So-
ciety, in his annual address before that society for the year 1880, made the
following statement :

‘* The extreme dryness and consequent lack of moisture for the fertiliza-
tion of the fields in parts of India and China, hitherto fruitful and thickly
populated, is attributed tothe wanton destruction of the forests on the hill-
sides, the observations made by Mr. Hilliard, in 1879, in a visit to the
famine-stricken province of Shan Si, in China, being confirmatory of that
view.”

The Tartar province of Great Bucharia, only fifty years ago, was a very
beautiful, fertile, and productive country, but since that time it has been
stripped of its forests by injudicious clearing and by fire, during the ravages
of a civil war, and the consequences are that the water-coursesare dried up,
the irrigating canals are empty, and the moving sands of the neighboring
deserts being no longer restrained by the barriers of forest are every day
gaining upon it, and the prospect is, will finish by transforming that whole
country into a desert as desolate and solitary as those from which the sands
are now drifting.

The Russians, in the conquest of the Caucassus, destroyed some of the
forests, which served as protection to the contending Circassians, and in so
doing changed those districts into a desert.

Spain, which three centuries and a half ago was the richest and one of
the most powerful nations of Kurope, owes much of her decadence to the
loss of productiveness of her soil, and the consequent impoverishment of
her people from the excessive denudation of her territory.

In France, extensive tracts of country, which a thousand years ago con-
sisted of alternate woodland and fertile meadow and farming lands, have. by
being stripped bare, become barren and incapable of sustaining but a small
proportion of their former population ; and Italy has large tracts of the
same character, and from the same cause ; and several other countries of
Europe are also known to have sustained similar loss in a greater or less
proportion, and probably there is not a country in that geographic division,
which has not suffered more or less deteriorating effects from this same
cause.

Great damage has been sustained in Switzerland, in France, and in
Italy, in the mountain districts and on the level lands adjacent, on account
of the washing and abrasion of the sloping lands, the soil, rocks, and gravel
being carried down to cover and ruin the valleys, because of the clearing off
from about the sources of the streams.

In the Italian provinces of Parma and Lombardy, where formerly the
crops were pretty well assured, the clearing of the Appenines has material-

7

ly changed the summer climate, the sirocco prevailing of late years to the
great injury of the harvests and vineyards, and some seasons completely
ruining the crops.

In some parts of Italy, of France, and Swizerland, the Spring season
has been rendered much more backward and more subject to late frosts by
the felling of forests which had previously sheltered from the cold winds,
which now stunt the vegetation and materially lessen the certainty and suc-
cess of some kinds of crops; and in other European countries, in some parts
of the United States, and in other parts of the world, similar results have
been observed.

In South Africa, great changes have taken place in the meteorologic
conditions within a comparatively recent period, on account of excessive
clearing, the country having become much more subject to drought than
formerly, and on the other hand, to sudden and disastrous inundations.

Mauritius, which was formerly a very productive island, and exported
considerable amounts of sugar, and was noted for the salubrity of its climate,
has been nearly ruined as to its productiveness, and its climate changed so
that it has become a hotbed of malaria, because of the destruction of its
forests. The Island of Ceylon, and several of the important West India
Islands, have been greatly damaged in the same manner; in fact; these in-
stances of injurious effect might be continued almost indefinitely.

Among the results of excessive clearing are the great general meteoro- |
logic changes which have adversely affected a vast proportion of the earth’s
surface, thereby increasing the prevalence of disease and cutting short the
duration of human life by the greater accumulation of heat over extensively
denuded surfaces, and the increased force and velocity of the wind and sud-
den changes of temperature resulting therefrom, the increase in frequency
and in extent and violence of cyclones and tornadoes being sequences and
effects of the same disturbing cause. And it is now pretty generally un-
derstood that the destruction of the forests, especially over the mountain-
ous and hilly regions, where the streams have their sources, is the cause of
the growing tendency to increased river flooding in the several respects of fre-
quency, more rapid rising, greater volumne and force of current, as well as
in extent of inundation, with proportionate increased disaster to the coun-
tries and communities involvel; the increased prevalence and increased
extent of malarious and other diseases, caused by the greater area of land
submerged, as consequences which follow later, not being usually included
in estimates of damages in such cases. While the scope of this paper will
admit of but a small number of the illustrative accounts, and but little of
the detail in description and circumstances, yet the investigations are suffic-
ient to prove that the excessive and very general denudation, has been the
principal cause of the great physical decadence and injurious meteorologic
changes which have been sustained.

When rain falls into a forest, the descent is broken by the limbs and fol-
iage of the trees, and the fallen leaves and other forest litter covering the
ground farther protects it from the packing effect of a heavy rainfall, and at
the same time restrains the water from flowing off, and the permeable vege-
table mold, formed of the decayed leaves and twigs serves as a sponge to
hold it upon the firmer soil beneath until it is gradually absorbed, and the
roots of the trees conduct it on down into the subsoil. And sometimes the

8

roots themselves will penetrate through subsoil so compact as to be nearly
impervious to water, and lead it below into more porous strata. And thus
is the water stored during seasons of superabundance, to break out in
springs at points of lower elevation, where the stratum it rests upon, reaches
the surface, or to be raised again as required, through the roots and bodies
of the trees, and exhaled by the leaves, to perform its office in equalizing ~
the moisture and temperature of the atmosphere.

On the other hand, the open field is exposed to the full force of the ele-
ments, and by the beating of the heavy storms, followed by the rapid evap-
oration from direct exposure to sun and wind, the soil becomes baked and
hardened, and when the rain falls there is a tendency to gather into pools
and puddles on the surface, or it runs off, carrying the finest particles of
soil with it, and on sloping lands channel-ways form, by which the water is
the more rapidly conducted to the streams; and although plowing makes
the ground permeable to the depth which the plow reaches, yet wherever
there is grade sufficient to establish a current, it also favors the washing
away of the soil.

To illustrate effects, under different conditions, we will take as an example
two converging water-sheds, embracing a large area of country which is
traversed by streams having their sources in the surrounding high lands,
and emptying into a larger stream, the common outlet. In case of a heavy
rainfall, in the natural wooded condition, the greater part of the water is
retained and absorbed, and what is not thus disposed of sipes away so grad-
ually, and carries so little of earthy substance with it, that it but slightly dis-
colors the streams into which it runs, and does not fill the channels beyond
their carrying capacity, and the level country along their banks presents no
appearance, by abraded surface, deposits of sand and gravel, or by other
violence to nature, to indicate the actions of previous floods, and as dry
weather sets in, the forest trees draw from their ample stores the moisture
which gives them life and clothes them with verdure, until the close of the
season. But let the same country be completely stripped of all its timber
growth, and the water of each succeeding rainfall finds its way into the
river channels with increased rapidity, as the soil of the naked land grows
each year more and more impermeable, and as the channel-ways become
more completely cut out, and the dark flood, as it sweeps over the valley
farms and submerges the bordering towns, bears on its bosom to the sea and
deposits on the fields, in the streets, and in the buildings on its course, and
in the channels of the rivers, preparatory for the more extended flood to
follow, that which, over the country from which it has been gathered, rep-
resented millions in life-sustaining food, in successive crops of grain, of
vegetables and of fruits, and during the ensuing summer the streams and
springs become dried up and the soil fails to furnish moisture to the grow-
ing crops, which dwarf and shrivel because that which was given in due
season has run to waste. And this is the commencement of annually de-
creasing harvests, until the starving inhabitants commence to migrate to
other countries in quest of food, and through the increasing sterility, in the
course of time, the whole region becomes an uninhabitable desert.

This is but a pen picture of what has already taken place over an im-
mense area of the earth, either according to the full representation or in degree,
and is simply the inevitable result of the violation of Nature’s immutable
laws. It is true that a large proportion of land is required for the produc-

: 9

tion of breadstuffs, fruits, vegetables, and pasturage; but the shelter and
equalizing influence of forests are equally important, and in countries where
the wind currents and meteorologic conditions are such as tend to a scant
and uncertain supply of rain, the maintenance of a certain proportion of
woodland is a prime necessity, in order to insure the fruitfulness of the
cultivated lands, and to obviate the gradual dessication and deterioration
which are sure to follow excessive clearing.

Although the early history of the European nations exhibits a great deal
of vandalism, and of wastefulness as to the natural resources'of their
respective countries, and even in later centuries a lack of wisdom and fore-
thought to take steps to avert very serious consequences, yet after having
already suffered occasional want and scarcity of food supply, and having
been confronted by the grave problem for the: immediate future, they find
enforced upon their attention that which has been ignored until quite
recently in the past, and which may be stated as follows: How to use the
earth without abusing it; or, more perspicuously, how to make a living off
the lands in our possession, without impairing their productive capacity, or
deteriorating the climatic conditions, in our own day, or for those who are
to hold the title deeds after us? And we may hope that the energy of the

__ Caucasian race, and the greater enlightenment of modern civilization may,
- with some degree of success, be able to cope with the situation.

Forest preservation and forest restoration have been receiving a great
deal of attention in some of the countries of Europe, during the last quarter
of a century, and most European countries have enacted eftective laws for
\ forest protection, and much greater advancement has been made in forestry,
‘in several of those countries, than in the United States. And the fact that

forests are there largely held by the respective general and municipal gov-
ernments, gives opportunity of carrying out measures of forest restoration
with less impediment than could be done with conditions of ownership
which prevail in this country, although in France and in some other
European countries, the governments assume control of private forests, to
limit the extent of cutting, and to enforce replanting in forest trees whenever
it is thought the public interests require it.

The French Government has done a great deal in the way of ‘reboise-
ment, or the restoration of woodlands on denuded tops and slopes of moun-
tains, to arrest the erosion by torrents, which was ruining the lands of the
valleys, with rock, gravel and other debris which was being carried down
over them. The law of reboisement was passed in 1860, which enables the
government agents to take possession of private lands wherever so situated
that it is necessary they should be included in the plans of restoration, and
in sixteen years from the commencement on the Alps, on the Cevennes, and
on the Pyrenees, 63,168 acres had been successfully replanted at an enor-
mous cost, but the whole expense was less than the damage which might
have been produced by a single flood.

The Governments of Italy and Switzerland are following the example of
France in measures of reboisement.

The Prussian Government, with otner steps for the advancement of
forestry, has passed laws to encourage the formation of forest companies
where the situation is such that tree planting and cultivation can be carried

10

on to better advantage by association than by individual effort, and
municipal governments are also encouraged to engage in the work of
restoration.

The maritime nations of Europe have given much attention to the
reclamation of the sand dunes, and to arresting the movement of the drifting
sands of their sea coasts on to the arable lands adjoining and toward the
interior. The first recorded efforts in this direction were commenced in
Denmark and in France about one hundred years ago, and have been con-
tinued since, in France, on a more extensive scale than by any other nation.

The engineer Bremontier, after having devised methods of restraining
and fixing the sands, undertook, under the patronage of the French Govern-
ment, the planting of maritime pines, which he carried out with great suc-
cess. The Department of Gascony had one hundred miles of sea coast cov-
ered with sand dunes, extending from four to eighteen miles in breadth,
back from the beach, and some of the dunes were hundreds of feet in
height. Under Bremontier’s superintendency all this region was covered
with forest growth, and since his time, the work has been continued by the
French Government, and at the present time over the whole line of the
French Atlantic Coast, one hundred thousand acres of forests, valuable for
their productions of turpentine, resin and timber, have been added to the
national resources, and a still greater quantity of valuable agricultural land
has been rescued thereby from the certain destruction with which it was
threatened by the advancing sand hills. And adding to this the beneficial
effect upon the climate to the interior by this broad belt of pine timber as a
protection from the ocean winds, it will be seen that the results achieved
are of very great importance.

George B. Emerson, in a report on the trees and shrubs growing in the
forests of Massachusetts, states: that in 1872 he visited the region saved by
Bremontier, and that, in the midst of the recovered region, he stopped a day
or two ata beautiful town where a hundred thousand persons from Paris
and other cities of France, attracted by the genial climate and health giving
atmosphere of the pine forests, had passed the Winter. He also states that
he saw in many places deciduous trees, oaks, ashes, beeches and others,
growing luxuriantly under the protection of the pines.

Schools of forestry have been established in several countries of Europe,
and in Germany special plans of training have been adopted, including the
acquisition of practical experience by devoting a certain time to manual la-
bor in tree planting and timber cultivation under the direction of skilled in-
structors, and graduates of these institutions are eligible to government ap-
pointments or to enter the employment, as superintendents, of other parties.
There are nine schools of this description in the German Empire. There
are several countries in Europe, also, where stations are kept up by the gov-
ernments for making meteorologic observations to ascertain the comparative
conditions of atmosphere, rainfall, etc., as between forest-covered situations
and the open fields.

In the United States, forestry is an industry of recent introduction.
Congress has passed laws intended to encourage tree planting on the public
lands, but without extensive results as yet. But the able and very efficient
Chief of the Forestry Division of the Department of Agriculture, has col-

be

lected and made public through his several reports a vast amount of useful
information which, with his many valuable suggestions, is directing atten-
tion to the greatimportance of the subject, and is operating as a stimulus in
the development of this neglected branch of agriculture. About one-half of
the several States of the Union have passed laws to protect and encourage
tree planting along the highways, some of them granting a certain amount
of exemption from taxation therefor, and a small number have provided cash
' bounties for successful timber cultivation. The State of California gives
one dollar for each thrifty tree planted along a highway, after four years
growth. But the association of individuals for the promotion of forestry
has apparently effected more than has been accomplished, directly, by State
or Federal legislation.

In Minnesota, a State Forestry Association has been formed for the
encouragement and promotion of forest culture, by the collection and diffu-
sion of information on that subject, to secure the general observance of
arbor day throughout the State, and to promote the ultimate redemption of
the treeless regions of Minnesota. ‘This Association gives premiums for the
encouragement of tree planting, in which it has been aided by legislative
appropriation.

The Iowa State Horticultural Society began, in 1872, to offer premiums
to encourage tree planting, and it has printed annually, for gratuitous distri-
bution among planters, a pamphlet containing directions for procuring,
storing and planting of seeds, cuttings and plants, with hints on best species
and varieties, modes of culture, etc., for artificial forests and shelter belts in

that State. This Society has also received State aid.

In the State of Ohio, in January last, a socicty was formed to be known
as the Ohio State Forestry Association, the object being to encourage the
protection and planting of forest and ornamental trees, and to promote
forest culture—the seat of the Society and place of business to be at Cincin-
nati, with provisions for branches in the different counties of the State; the
Presidents of such branches to be ex-officio members of the State Asso-
ciation.

The first national association for the promotion of forestry was formed
in 1875, as the American Forestry Association, of which Dr, John A.
Warder, of Ohio, was elected President.

Among the guests invited by the Government to participate in the cen-
tennial anniversary of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, in the
fall of 1831, were seven Prussian army officers bearing the name of Von
Steuben, and representing the family of General Steuben of the American
Revolution. One of these officers was, at the time, Superintendent of
Prussian Crown lands. ‘This gentleman, in the course ofa journey through
the country, had noticed the waste and neglect in the matter of American
woodlands, and, when at Cincinnati, took occasion to mention the urgent need
of measures for their conservation and renewal. Thisis believed to have been
the first incident in the movement which led to a call for a Forestry Conven-
tion at Cincinnati, to be held on the 25th of April, 1882, and the following
four days. Many citizens of Cincinnati were active in making preparations
for the Convention, and funds were raised to defray the expenses. An im-
mense number of invitations were sent out to all parts of the United States

12

and Canada. Governor Foster, of Ohio, appointed the 27th day of April as
‘“¢ Arbor Day,’ and Eden Park, in Cincinnati, was designated as a place for
planting a great number of memorial trees in honor of distinguished persons
living and deceased. The Convention was largely attended, and its exer-
cises were conducted with harmony and enthusiasm, and the results
eminently satisfactory—the most important being the organization of a
permanent association to be known as the American Forestry Congress.

An adjourned meeting of the American Forestry Congress was held in
Montreal in August, 1882, at which time delegates were present from the
American Forestry Association, and this last-named Association then became
merged in and united with the other movement.

The annual meeting of the Forestry Congress for 1883 is to be held at
St. Paul, Minnesota, in August.

This American movement was evidently inaugurated from the most
patriotic and philanthropic motives, and the gentlemen who participate in it
are men of learning, character and influence, of different sections of the
United States and of the Canadian dominions; and I regard it as a most
hopeful sign of progress, and anticipate that by enlightening the people in
regard to these matters, and by the influence and example of its members,
the American Forestry Congress will lead in rescuing this country and this
continent from the degree of ruin which has befallen so large a proportion
of the territory of the older countries.

In the States of Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas, forest culture
is making encouraging progress, and on many of the farms, shelter belts and
tracts of timber are becoming a part of the system of agriculture. Two
artificial forests are reported from Kansas, of 500 acres in each.

Timber culture is also receiving attention in Illinois, and, to some ex-
tent, in other States.

Some of the Eastern villages have been finely improved in the matter
of shaded avenues and tree and shrubbery adornment, through the organi-
zation of village improvement associations, and it has been found that better
results are attained by this concerted action than by individual effort.

The United States is lamentably deficient in agricultural schools, and
as to schools of forestry there is but one in America which can be appro-
priately so named. Harvard University, from endowments provided by
the wills of two deceased citizens of Massachusetts—Benjamin Bus-
sey, of Roxbury, and James Arnold, af New Bedford—has a professor-
ship of tree culture, and an aboretum of 137 acres connected with it; but it
is doubtful if this endowed school imparts as thorough practical knowledge
in that department as the training schools of the other continent.

The State of California extends from 32° 32’ to 42° north latitude, being
about 800 miles in length, and 190 miles in average width, with 1,097 miles
of sea coast; and its western border is occupied by a range of mountains
which reach in places quite to the ocean and form a walled line of sea coast,
and at points project promontories beyond the coast line, and at other places
recede enough to leave strips of level land and small valleys between the
foothills and the ocean shore; but the general direction is parallel with the

13

coast. This coast range extends nearly the entire length of the State, and
. its snmmit varies from 2,000 feet to about 6,000 feet, for the highest peaks,
the altitude not being sufficient to retain the snow, as Summer approaches,
which covers it at times during the Winter season; but it serves as a barrier
against the ocean fogs and the excessive force of the sea breeze, greatly
modifying the climate of the interior favorably as to bodily comfort and the
production of semi-tropic vegetation. And asif nature in this formation
had in view the greatest economy of space combined with commercial con-
venience and climatic effect, planted this range in timber growth suited in
part for fuel and other domestic uses, and in considerable extent with a
most magnificent forest tree not found elsewhere, and especially adapted to
its situation, thus increasing the capacity of the range as to its climatic in-
fluence, and furnishing at the same time an accessible supply of excellent
timber and lumber.

It would be desirable, both with reference to the saving of transporta-
tion and as to the meteorologic effect, were the surface of the interior val-
leys alternated with a greater proportion of timber growth; but with the
limited area of forest within the boundaries of the State it is distributed to
the best advantage for the permanent interests of the population, as the re-
serve or remoter forests of the Sierra Nevada cover the snow which falls
copiously during the Winter season in that elevated region, and restrain its
rapid melting and the torrential swelling of the streams and attendant dis-
_astrous consequences which would result were the extensive area of the

upper western slope of the range a bare surface; and the snow thus held to
go off gradually in the shade of the forests serves as a lasting and perma-
nent source of supply to the streams of this region, which water a large pro-
portion of the valley lands of the State, And these forests, and the timber
and brush on the slope lower down, contribute in other important respects
to the preservation of the lands both of mountain and valley, and to the ac-
cumulation of moisture and the conservation of the water supply, as is
proven by meteorlogic observations in similar situations, and by the results
of forest destruction in the mountainous regions of the old world.

C. F. Reed, Esq., at the time President of the State Board of Agricul-
ture, in 1868, estimated that a twentieth part of the State was covered with
heavy timber, and one-eighth, more or less, with trees of some kind; that
within twenty years at least one-third of the whole native supply of acces-
sible timber had been cut off and destroyed, and that judging the future
by the past it would only require about forty years more to exhaust the en-
tire present supply. Dr. Gray and others have corroborated the opinion of
Mr. Reed; but Dr. A. Kellogg, in a brief article included in the last report
of the State Mineralogist, expresses a more hopeful view, saying: ‘‘ It is
evident that the question of timber supply is one about which we need have
little care or anxiety, if only our resources in that direction shall receive
careful husbandry.” But whilst I shall not express an opinion as to which
of these somewhat conflicting views is nearest correct, I think, however,
that Dr. Kellogg has not calculated the full extent of the probable future
market of the Sierra Nevada lumber; as, instead of going no farther east
than the Wahsatch Mountains, as according to the doctor’s calculation, the
eastern lumber resources are so rapidly diminishing that, in my opinion, the
time is not distant when California sugar pine will bear transportation and
find market in localities even to the eastward of the Rocky Mountains.

14

For building purposes, the supply of stone and material for bricks is
apparently inexhaustible, and iron can be utilized in that direction toa
greater extent than it has been hitherto; and as timber and lumber becomes
scarce and high priced, communities economise in their use.

By the adoption of no-fence laws, and by largely substituting iron wire
for lumber, the amount of lumber and timber being used for fencing at the
present time is very small as compared with its use for that purpose thirty
years ago; and other materials have taken the place, and can still further
be made to take the place, of timber and lumber for many purposes without
serious detriment. And itis also reported that compressed straw furnishes
as good a material for lumber as is manufactured from wood.

As to fuel, nature at a period when none of earth’s inhabitants were
sufficiently advanced to require its use, buried of its superabundant pro-
ducts vast stores of fuel to supplement the surface supply in this later period,
as might be needed by its teeming population; and the study and investiga-
tions of chemists and inventors are already opening out an unlimited store
of heat and artificial light which has been long known to exist in one of the
most abundant elements of nature but which has hitherto remained locked
up from our use for those purposes from a lack of knowledge of a method
of obtaining and applying it with economic profit. Through the kindness
of Dr. James Nevins Hyde, of Chicago, I have received a communication
from Henry C. Rew, Esq., a gentleman who is connected with a company
which is now lighting the west division of that city with a kind of gas just
brought into use; and works are being constructed at the Elgin watch
factory to furnish gas for heating purposes by the same company. The gas
used for heating purposes is water gas, which is manufactured by decomposing
steam into its coustituent elements, oxygen and hydrogen, by bringing it into
contact with incandescent carbon. Water gas burns with intense heat, and
Mr. Rew states that there is every reason to believe that it is to become the
fuel of the future, as one ton of coal utilized in manufacturing the water gas
supplies as much heat as four and one-half tons by direct combustion, with
the additional advantage that water gas burns without smoke. The lighting
gas of this company is manufactured by charging the water gas with suffi-
cient petroleum to make it illuminating. An inexpensive process, as this is
claimed to be, which increases the heating power of coal four hundred and
fifty per cent. may certainly be classed among the important and most use-
ful of modern discoveries.

So that, after having studied over the situation and the circumstances
bearing upon these questions, I conclude that although an abundant and
cheap lumber and fuel supply is desirable, yet, with the economy which is
practicable and the substitutes which are abundant as regards the former,
and the modern available means of distributing the great supplies of the
latter, with the multiplication of those resources by the late discoveries, in-
cluding the use and application of electricity, and the facility and certainty
with which it has been demonstrated that the farming communities can pro-.
duce supplies for themselves upon their own homesteads, and that although
wastefulness of any of earth’s supplies of necessaries is not justifiable, yet
that the means of shelter and housing, and lumber for the necessary uses of
the world’s population, and the supply of fuel for the purposes of personal
comfort and domestic uses ; the creation of artificial light wherever required,
and for the production of the great power which keeps up the busy hum

15

of the machinery of the earth’s industries and the world’s commerce, are so
much in excess of the earth’s prospective future food-producing capacity that
there need be no particular concern at this period in that direction ; that
the great terrestrial questions for the future populations, will be the questions
of food and of clothing; and as the accumulation of population favors the
development of disease ; and as the ignorance, improvidence, and wasteful-
ness of the past has greatly deteriorated the earth’s general salubrity and
sanitary condition, questions of combatting disease and of sanitary reform
will also keep pace with those of primal necessity.

Over the greater proportion of the agricultural districts of California
there is a liability of receiving a less amount of rainfall in the winter months
with the excess of evaporation which may follow during the growing season
than is required to mature the crop ; and this being an understood fact, the
conditions are therefore a commendable object of study and observation,
with the purpose of devising means of successfully combatting this, the
greatest natural enemy of our industrial and permanent prosperity. And
considering these circumstances, the proportion of woodland in this State was
too small when it first came into the possession of the American people ;
and we have to regret that instead of watching and preserving the area as we
found it, the denudation has been extended and the limit of woodland still
narrowed down.

The early miners accomplished a proportion of the extensive destruction .
on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada. Without restraint of law, except
of their own making, their temptations were great, and they were so wrapped
up in the pursuit of the coveted gold that they were unmindful of other
considerations. But the other causes of destruction are in part still continued
down to the present time, and these should be looked after and arrested, espe-
cially that of careless and reckless fire-setting, which is reponsible for much
of the destruction, with nothing whatever to show in return for the loss.

On the Coast Range there has also been a marked diminution of the
timber area, both of the wooded lands which were looked to for fuel supply

and of the redwood forests; and the’ destruction from fire there has also
been immense.

S. P. Pharis, who has been engaged with the industries of the redwood
forests of San Mateo County for thirty years, mostly in shingle manufac-
turing, and as a proprietor of considerable tracts of timber lands, has fur-
nished the foilowing statement:

‘We have fires in the timber nearly every year, more or less. The
most destructive forest fire in San Mateo County occurred in November,
1880. The destruction of sawing timber and other property by that fire
caused a direct loss of fifty thousand dollars, and I estimate that the dam-
age done by stopping the growth of pine, redwood and tanbark oak, and by
killing the second growth of different kinds of wood that in a few years would
have been of great value, to have been as much more—making the total loss
one hundred thousand dollars. There was a very destructive fire in the
forests of Santa Cruz County the same year. The last forest fire in San
Mateo County occurred in the Fall of 1882. I have worked in the redwoods
of this county for the last thirty years, and I think I can say that the bulk
of timber destroyed by fire would equal that which has been made use of,

16

although not of as much value, yet as much as one-third of it was good saw- —
ing timber, And from what I have heard and know the same estimate
might be applied to the timber of Santa Cruz County.”

So much of forest fires in San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties alone,
the timbered area of which forms but a small part of the forests of the Coast
Range.

Our present State laws for the prevention of forest fires are nearly in-
operative, for the reason that there are not officers or men employed to see
to their enforcement; and it is quite apparent that our forests will not re-
ceive the protection commensurate with the interests involved until an effi-
cient system of mounted patrol during the dry season is adopted, which
might be done by the passage of a law granting authority to organize dis-
tricts in which to elect officers empowered to employ suitable men to see to
the enforcement of the regulations regarding the building or. lighting of
fires in forests, with power to make arrests should it become necessary, to
extinguish fires, and to call out assistance in case of its being required.

In a paper presented to the California Academy of Sciences by Dr. Henry
N. Bolander, in October, 1875, occurs the following:

** Another beneficial feature of the sequoia sempervirens is the great
power it possesses in condensing fogs and mists. A heavy fog is always turned
into rain, wetting the soil and supplying the springs with water during the
dry season. Springs in and near the redwoods are never in want of a good
supply of water, and crops on the Coast Range are not liable tofail. Itis my
firm conviction, if the redwoods are destroyed—and they necessarily will be if
not protected by a wise action of our Government—California will become a
desert in the true sense of the word. In their safety depends the future
well being of the State. They are our safe guard. It remains to be seen
whether we shall be benefited by the horrible experience such countries as
Asia Minor, Greece, Spain and France have made by having barbarously
destroyed their woods and forests. But with us it is even of a more serious ©
nature. Wise Governments would be able to replace them in those coun-
tries, but no power on earth can restore the woods of California when com-
pletely destroyed.”

And yet the warnings of Dr, Bolander, Dr. Asa Gray, and otherlearned
and competent men who have investigated this subject, have not received
attention to produce any effective results. It would, indeed, have been of
inestimable advantage to the permanent welfare of the State had our Gov-
ernment have profited by the experience of the nations of the old world and
have applied the present enlightened course of forest management of cer-
tain European nations herein referred to in that connection to the preser-
vation of the limited timber tracts of this State. The forests of both moun-
tain ranges should have been surveyed off and their boundaries conspicu-
ously defined, and then turned over to the State Government, with certain
restrictions, to be kept as perpetual timber preserves, the timber to be cut
only in accordance with certain legally established rules; to leave uninjured
all trees under certain dimensions, and on payment to the State of taxes to be
applied to defraying the expense of the surveillance, the maintenance of a for-
est police, and the work of tree planting in any localities within those boun-
daries which were bare of timber; with a reserve to the Government of tim-_
ber for Government uses, and, in acknowledgment of its joint suzerainty, the

Ly

privilege of levying a light duty on all lumber exported. Such an arrange-
ment, with laws regulating the use of the preserves as stock range, and only
on payment of State tax therefor, and prohibiting such use when or in such
manner as might prove detrimental to the timber growth, would have
insured a lasting supply of forest products to the people of this State, and
what is of much more importance, would have been an effective guard
against detrimental changes and irregularities in the water supply and in
the meteorologic conditions which the destruction of the forests would entail.
But that opportunity has been lost, as nearly all the timber lands within
the State have already passed into the ownership of private parties or of
corporate companies.

At its last session, the Legislature of the State of New York passed an
Act providing for a State park, to be known as the Adirondack Park, to be
constituted of the country around the headwaters of the Hudson, and also
including a large region drained by the Black, Indian, Oswegatchie, Grass,
Racket, St. Regis, Salmon and Ausable Rivers. The principle object of
this Act isthe purpose of preserving the forests in order to the maintenance
of the waters of those streams for the supply of canals and for hydraulic
power. The State owns only a part of the lands within the boundaries of
the proposed park, but by withholding lands from sale for arrears of taxes,
and by acquiring otherwise, as favorable opportunities may offer, the inten-
tion is to add to the State’s holdings as fast as practicable.

In Wisconsin there is a project on foot of forming a State park of the
country including the headwaters of the Chippewa and other rivers. And
in Minnesota, of preserving in that way the forests of the headwaters of the
Mississippi. And as in California the destruction of the forests would
involve the destruction of every other important interest, and as the entire
population is therefore jointly and severally concerned in their preservation,
by the desire which all should possess for the welfare and assured means of
subsistence of their children and their posterity, and for the future pros-
perity and greatness of the State, the forests of the State should be brought
within the security of State control, and not left to the chances of individual
interests and individual caprice. A survey should be made and lines estab-
lished on both sides of the western or timbered Coast Range, defining the
forest limits, and a line established on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada,
leaving the forest belts to the eastward, and the State line might serve in’°
part as the eastern boundary; and within those limits the State should
acquire the lands as opportunities should occur, by forfeit for non-payment of
taxes, by purchase whenever offered at low figures; and probably the United
States Government would cede to the State for such purpose whatever
tracts might not have been disposed of, and individuals might donate tracts,
after having stripped off the valuable timber, which in time, if protected,
would grow up in timber again, and replanting might be resorted to where
necessary. And as the State continues whilst the lives of individuals termi-
nate, it could afford lo wait for such opportunities, until in the course of a
generation or two it would have acquired all the territory within those
boundaries as Public Forest Reservations.

Having spent a good deal of time in traveliug about, and in sojourning
at different points in this State in studying the geographic and climatic con-
ditions, I will now make some suggestions as to what might be done to in-

18

crease its agricultural resources, to favorably modify its climate and to im-
prove its scenery.

The great interior valley of the State is about four hundred miles in
length and nearly fifty miles in average breadth, and being almost destitute
of timber the wind sweeps down over it from the north without any effective
check, and at times of low temperature, when in full force, produces discom-
fort to animal life and retards the growth of vegetation; and its dessicating
effect upon the soil and crops during the Spring and first of the Summer
montks is frequently the cause of great damage and sometimes of complete
crop failure. And when the crop has arrived at maturity, its force is such
as to interfere with the labor of harvesting, and not unfrequently produces
great waste by threshing out the ripened standing grain.

The following paragraph, taken from the Colusa Suz of June 12, 1880,
is anillustration of the damage which may be done by the north wind at the
approach of harvest time:

** We will not get over half as much for our wheat as we would have
gotten if all things had continued as favorable as they were three weeks ago.
That was the best prospect we ever saw, and the county would have aver-
aged twenty-five bushels to the acre. There are, at the lowest calculation,
300,000 acres in wheat, which, at tweuty-five bushels, would give us 7,500,-
000 bushels. We shall be highly delighted if we gather as much as 4,000,-
000 bushels even of the shrunken wheat, which we shall have to put on the
market at a reduced price. We placed the loss last week at $1,000,000, or
over, but the difference to Colusa County between the full crop which we
expected and what we will be likely to get will be, even at the low price we
anticipate, between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000. And the wind is still blow-
ing. The ripe grain is being threshed out, and that which is still green,
shriveled up. Tehama, Yolo, Sutter, Solano, most of Butte, and the San
Joaquin Valley, are in precisely the same condition. The wheat crop of the
entire State will be cut short nearly one-half in value by the continued
north winds.”

It is entirely within the means of human agency to effect a great change
in regard to this disagreeable and very unprofitable feature of the climate of
that valley. Could belts of timber of forty rods in breadth be extended
across the valley, with intervals of seven-eighths of a mile between for cul-
tivation, it would produce very beneficial results. On account of the in-
creased porosity and absorptive capacity which the soil would soon acquire
through the permeating and lifting effect of the network of roots, and other
favoring circumstances whioh are present when land is covered with timber
erowth, so much greater proportion of the. rain-fall would ‘be retained and
stored in these forest-covered strips as to give them to some extent the char-
ter of reservoirs, which, being protected from sun, and wind, would serve
throughout the season by the exhalations of the leaves of the trees to im-
part a-degree of moisture to the atmosphere. And as the dessicating effect
of the wind is in proportion to its lack of moisture and its velocity, this, ad-
ded to the forcible, resistance of the system of cross belts, and the increase
of rainfall which might reasonably be .anticipated, would so favor the pro-
duction of full crops and of harvesting without waste, as to add immensely
to the profit of grain and hay raising; and under those conditions other kinds ~
of farming, such as the production of sorghum, tomatoes, melons, etc., could

19

be added. And as the leeward during the prevalence of the objectionable
winds would be on the sunny side of the timber, under the shelter of the
protecting woodland, the orange, the lime, the nectarine, and other semi-
tropic fruits would flourish where now their culture is impracticable.

The general effects which would be produced by forest planting in the
Sacramento Valley are quite obvious, but as to the increase of the rainfall
I will add further: An increased rainfall by the restoration of the forests, or
by additions to the forest area, has been noted in several countries. Ob-
servations made in France by A. Matthieu, Professor of Natural History in
the Forest School at Nancy ; by Marshal Vaillant, at the Government For-

‘ests at Fontainbleau and near Versailles; by M. Fautrat, in the forests of
Hallette and Ermenonville; and observations also at Asschaffenburg, in Ba-
varia, and at stations in other countries in Kurope—corresponding observa-
tions being made in the open fields near each forest—have established the
fact that more rain falls over forests than over open fields; and it is well
known that moisture of the earth attracts the clouds of vapor, and that
wherever the moister air exists, there the condensation will take place most
rapidly. If acurrent of air charged with sufficient vapor under favoring
circumstances to culminate in a shower, is wafted over an expanse of naked
sun-scorched earth, as it comes in contact with the heated atmosphere the
vapor becomes rarified and expanded and passes off into infinity ; but, on
the other hand, if a cloud of vapor is carried over a forest, the lower tem-
perature and the moisture of the atmosphere resting over it favors condensa-
tion, and precipitation takes place, and the forest itself not only receives
additional moisture but open country in the immediate neighborhood partici-
pates in the benefit. And then, in the case of a general rain in the Sacra-
mento Valley, the wind blows up from the southward, and as timber belts
would obstruct the north winds, so they would also retard the rain-bearing
currents from the reverse direction, and by the longer time in passing
enforce a greater amount of preciptation in the valley, leaving less vapor
to pass on to the mountains beyond, where'the annual rainfall is so abun-
dant that some degree of diminution would produce no injury.

The effect of a limited forest area, surrounded by a great expanse of
open country, on the amount of rainfallis not appreciable ; but the propor-
tion which I have proposed would undoubtedly produce a decided influence in
that particular as well as in the other respects mentioned, with the additional
advantages which would follow by the modification of the extreme summer
heat, protection from the cold winter winds, and the purification from all
_ miasmatic effluvia ; which increased salubrity would be in itself an improve-
ment that. would add much to the desirability of that section for residence.
And the thorough and successful cultivation in timber in that or in greater
proportion, would not only greatly increase the general prosperity, but
would more than double the value of the properties, and with the arrest of
the progressive destruction from another source, would couvert our great
valley into one of the finest regions of the earth.

There are other valleys in this State which would be benefited by giving
more attention to forest tree planting. Wind-breaks would be of great
advantage throughout the Santa Clara Valley, or in any part of it, for the
protection to the orcharding and other farming interests, as well as by add-
ing to the beauty of the landscape and the salubrity of the climate; and
timber culture would be remunerative for the purpose of fuel where the

20

supply is as remote and the price as high as it isin most parts of that
valley. -

The Pajaro and Salinas Valleys would both be improved by the intro-
duction of timber cultivation. Timber belts across the Santa Clara Valley
of Ventura County would redeem it from its scourge of hot winds which
rush down from the Mojave Desert, scorching up its vegeattion. In fact,
nearly all parts of the State which are adapted to agriculture wouid be
benefited by a resort to artificial timber growth to a greater extent than now
prevails.

To line the sides of the highways with trees is an improvement to the
farms through which they pass, and a benefit to the roads and to the public;
and trees set out ona line at such distances as to form posts to which
boards, poles or barbed wire can be attached, have been found to answer an
excellent purpose;

The waste places of all farms should be set out in timber trees, and
there is a great deal of land in this State which is too poor to cultivate with
profit in cereals or other farm products, which would prove fairly remuner-
ative if planted in forest, especially in localities where lumber is dear and
fuel is scarce, and the soil would improve under a crop of deciduous trees.

Forest cultivation requires an investment which does not yield immedi-
ate returns; but if the trees are set out as thick as they should be, after
three years’ growth the superabundant trees will make fuel, and poles for
fencing and other purposes, and from that on the forest will need but little
attention, whilst the thinning out necessary to make room for the increased
erowth of the timber yields a constant harvest which will last for a long
period; and the other benefits of the forest are always present. —

I have pointed out what might be done, and what would result greatly
to the advantage of the State, and yet I hardly anticipate soon seeing as
general a movement in that direction as I have herein indicated and as
would inure to the benefit of the people themselves immediately concerned;
but if the more enterprising will take the initiative, I think that others
would soon follow their example, and the subject is specially commended to
the attention of gentlemen who are in possession of large tracts and of
abundant means.

The only statements which I have obtained of the cost of raising, and
of pecuniary results of forest culture in this State, are certainly encourag-
ing. The following result, by General Stratton of Alameda County, was
taken from an article by Robert C. EH. Stearns, Ph. D., of Berkeley, which
appeared in the January number of the American Journal of Forestry:

‘*General Stratton planted forty-five acres in eucalyptus in 1868.
Recently twenty acres of this artificial forest have been cleared to make
room for an orchard, and after charging every item of cost, and a yearly
rental of five dollars per acre, the net profits, as shown by the owner, are
$3,866 on the twenty acres in eleven years.”

In May, 1882, I took a look at the fine eucalyptus grove of George A.
Nadeau, located seven miles south of Los Angeles City, which consists of
nintey-seven acres in eucalyptus, being the largest artificial forest in the
State. The seeds were sown in nursery in December, 1875, and about six

21

months afterwards—that is, in May and June, 1876—the young trees were
set out, and at the time I examined them, six years after the replanting,
the largest trees were twelve inches in diameter, and the average from eight
to nine inches, and from sixty to seventy-five feet in hight. Recently Mr.
Nadeau has sent me the following definite statement of expenses, aud the
present value of the timber: a

Cost of trees at the time of setting out, $7.50 per acre; labor of replant-
ing, $5 per acre; expense of after cultivation, $5 per acre; rental of land at
$3 per acre per annum amounts to-$21 per acre for the seven years; total
cost per acre for the seven years’ growth, $38.50. The estimated average
amount of wood on the land is thirty-five cords per acre, which is worth in
that locality $3 per cord, in the tree, giving $105 per acre as the present
value of the timber. Or the total cost of the body of timber, $3,734.50, and
the present value, $10,185; net profit, $6,450.50.

In a locality where fuel is of less value, there would be less profit in
the production of wood; but with that growth, the cultivation would still
be remunerative where wood is not worth more that half what it is in that
part of Los Angeles County.

In the upper part of San Joaquin Valley, tree planting of any kind has
been attended with very little success except in connection with irrigation;
but by this artificial method of wetting the soil, large tracts of that valley
which formerly presented a desert-like appearance have been changed into
productive farms, on which are raised fine crops of ‘alfalfa, corn, sorghum,
and various kinds of vegetables; and a large proportion of those irrigated
lands are being covered with vineyards and orchards, the success of vine and
fruit-tree growth and the production of fruits having been very gratifying.
And to add to the future prospect of this section of light rainfall, it has been
ascertained that when the land has been once saturated it requires but a
small amount of water, comparatively, afterwards to keep it sufficiently
moist, thus leaving a surplus from the lands first brought under irrigation to
be carried on to new lands; and the area of irrigated and moist lands is con-
stantly being extended thereby from year to year.

The litigation between the riparian claimants and the colonists is a mat-
ter to be regretted, and the fact, which has been shown by experience, that
trees are more likely to be injured by frost the following Winter, and the
grapes and fruits are not of as good quality when the irrigation is continued
until late in the season, might help to a solution of the difficulty, as the time
of water-scarcity comes after those interests have done with most of their
season’s supply; and if a compromise could be effected by abitration, before
a commission composed of competent disinterested men, and an arrange-
ment entered into by consulting the interests mutually of all the parties con-
cerned, and the matter then so fixed that all thereafter would understand
their respective rights, it would be better than a continuance of the hti-
gation and uncertainy. ‘There are some streams in this valley which have
not been made to do much duty in the way of irrigation as yet, the waters
of which might be made available for that purpose. The Tuolumne, Stanis-
laus and Mokelumue could all be carried in ditches so as to cover large
scopes of country well adapted to irrigation; and although it might not be
profitable to irrigate for the production of the cereals, yet if each farmer
could irrigate a part, perhaps one-tenth of his acreage, so that he might

22

raise trees, fruits, alfalfa and vegetables, it would add greatly to his resour-
ces, increase the value of his land, and be of general utility and advantage;
and at the present low rates of interest I think the additional income which
it would bring to the land holders would be more than the equivalent of the
use of the money required for the necessary improvements. Besides the
advantage of the immediate increased production by irrigation, the arrest of
the water, instead of allowing it to run off to the sea, and distributing it
over the land, there to evaporate, with the protection to the soil by the sur-
face-covering of vegetation, has otherwise a very beneficial effect in its Ben,
eral tendency of decreasing the excessive avidity of the climate of the vicinity.*

I believe there is a great future for the irrigable districts of California,
but irrigation is something of which the American people have very little
practical knowledge, except what has been acquired by the comparatively
brief experience in this State, and the best methods of economizing, and the
most suitable times of applying the water, are proper objects of everyday
thought by the irrigating planter; but the question of the preservation of
the sources of supply being at the foundation of their prosperity should also
be made a subject of study and of watchfulness by every property owner of
the valley.

Irrigation has a tendency to the development of miasma, but I am con-
vinced that with proper management and care there need be very little cause
of apprehension on that account. The surface of the land should be so
levelédl and arranged that the water will not stand in pools to stagnate,
especially near the dwelling, and the ditches should be kept cleaned out so
as to be free from decaying vegetable matter, and care should be taken to
have pure water for drinking, as the use of impure water is a very common
cause of chills and fever. The surface water in the San Joaquin Valley is
generally unwholesome, but by boring to some depth excellent water is
obtained; but in any case where it is necessary to use surface water the ex-
pedient of boiling renders the impurities inert, for which purpose an agate
vessel is preferable. J iltering does not answer the purpose, as the filter is
liable to become foul from putrefying animalcue retained in its meshes.

J. B. Rumford, who has lived on Kern Island for several years, states
that during the first years of their residence there, himself and family suf-
fered with malarial disease, but since having learned how to manage they
are exempt fromit. He attributes much of the sickness in that section to the
use of surface water.

Timber culture, where practicable, possesses all the advantages for the
San Joaquin that it has for the northern division of the great valley, and
forests, judiciously planted with reference to that object, are apparently the
only remedy which can be devised against the disagreeable sandstorms

“Recently a company has been formed consisting of Charles Crocker, Esq., Colonel
Fred. Crocker and C. H. Huffman, Esq., of Merced, entitled the Merced Irrigating Canal
Company, to utilize the waters of the Merced river; and a canal of ample capacity is now
in course of construction, from which lateral branches are to be run to cover a large area of
the lands of that county; and as soon as the improvement has sufficiently advanced, those
gentlemen propose to divide up and offer for sale large tracts of their holding, something
after the plan of the Fresno County colonies. The vigor with which the work is being
posecuted and the abundant means of the company, give assurance that this much needed
improvement so long deiayed in that county will now soon be accomplished.

- 23

which sometimes prevail in parts of the upper valley; and wood-growing
would certainly prove directly remunerative there under favorable circum-
stances.

Dr. W. J. Prather, of Fresno City, has on his farm, a few miles south of
that place, a tract of eleven acres, five years set out in black locust and
Lombardy poplar, which have made a very good growth, this being the
largest cultivated woodland I learned of in that county.

The eucalyptus, in the Upper San Joaquin Valley, has in some places
made a fair growth, whilst in other localities its cultivation has been unsuc-
cessful. This is owing to the peculiarities of soil and to the greater degree
of exposure to frosts in some situations than in others, and in part, prob-
ably, to the difference in cultivation and management; but the experiments
which have been made are enough to show that the species which have been
planted there are not well adapted to that interior climate.

The eucalyptus, first introduced into California by Colonel Warren,
from suggestions of Baron VonMueller, has already proved a valuable acqui-
sition for timber culture, where there has been a proper adaptability of the
species planted to the soils and situations. According to VonMueller there
are one hundred and twenty species of eucalyptus, and they form the prin-
cipal timber growth over the greater part of the Australian continent. Some
of the species attain only the dimensions of shrubbery, and among them are
beautiful flowering shrubs, well adapted to ornamental grounds; and, from
these diminutive species there are gradations in size, up to species which
produce gigantic forest trees, which rival in height the sequoias of Califor-
nia. And these numerous species furnish timber of different characteristics
and qualities and adapted to a variety of purposes; and among the products
of the native eucalyptus forests are potash, oils, tars, acids, dyes and tans.
The different species grow in a great variety of soils, situations and climates,
some kinds thriving in the interior arid districts, where the heat is greater
than in any part of this State; other species, including those which have
been most cultivated in California, are found near the sea coast, and other
varieties again cover the msuntains at different degrees of altitude, up to
the regions of snow and sharp frosts, and with a better knowledge of euca-
lyptography species of that genus could probably be selected which would be
adapted to any cesired locality within the State,

The railroad companies, by planting eucalyptus along the lines of their
roads, have excellent opportunities of acquiring information regarding the
adaptability of the various species. The article by R. C. E. Stearns, Ph. D.,
hereinbefore quoted, contains a statement by J. BR. Scupham, Esq., of the
Central Pacific, from which I take the following: ‘The company have planted
of several varieties of eucalyptus hundreds and thousands of trees along the
right of way and in plantations. About San Francisco Bay all species flour-
ish, if cultivated when young, but most growth is made by #. Globulus, E.
Cornuta and E. Gigantea. In the interior valleys these species will not
_flourish—are not sure even to live save in exceptional places; while the £.
Rostrata and EH. Viminalis seem to do well and bear the frost. A rich soil
compensates H. Globulus for some frost, as is evinced by its flourishing at
Delano and at Chico. In a plantation of one hundred and twenty thousand
trees at Tipton, Tulare County, well-cared for, nearly all the trees of the
first-named group died after struggling along for two years, while the #. Ros-

24

trata and the like thrive, though growing slowly. The eucalyptus now be-
ing set out are selected with proper regard to local climate, soil and situa-
tion, as well as to the quality of their wood.

It is well known that forests purify the atmosphere of miasmata, but
the eucalyptus possesses this useful function in a great degree. Professor
Cichi, of Santa Clara College, is authority, in an article heretofore published,
that Pope Pius, in 1868, gave to an association of Trappist Monks a tract of
land near Rome, which was so excessively malarious as to be uninhabitable,
on condition that they should improve its salubrity. The air was so bad that
during the first four years the monks could not sleep on the place, but re-
tired every evening within the walls of Rome to avoid the nocturnal emana-
tions; yet, despite these precautions, twelve of their number died from ma-
laria. But principally through the planting of large numbers of gum trees,
the air became so changed that they were able to take up their permanent
abode at their abbey, on the land. Subsequently, a law was enacted to ex-
pel certain religious orders, including this association of monks, from the
country, but the Government remitted the sentence in their behalf on condi-
tion that they should set out one hundred thousand gum trees on malarious
land in their neighborhood within the following ten years.

Planting with eucalyptus has been attended with great success in reclaim-
ing malarious districts in Algeria, and attention is being directed to it asa
means of reclaiming malarious provinces in Italy and in other parts of
Southern Europe.

Eucalyptus timber isused largely in ship building in Australia and
Tasmania, and being torredo-proof, is very desirable for piling where im-
mersed in salt water, and for other submarine purposes.

There are several stretches of seacoast in this State where the methods
of Bremontier might be applied with great advantage, and if the Golden
Gate Park Commissioners had funds furnished to enable them to raise a
continuous sand ridge of a hundred feet in height a few rods back of and
extending parallel with the beach from the Cliff House to the outlet of Lake
Merced, and fix it in its place with trees, shrubs and grasses which would
thrive in that situation, a sheltered park of alternate forest and lawn, with
shrub and flower-bordered lakelets, might be created to the leeward of it,
such as would be the delight and pride of themselves and their fellow
citizens; and if not permitted to continue until the maturity of the improve-
ments, they might take pleasure in contemplating the benefits which would
accrue to the citizens who will arise to follow in their footsteps and occupy
their places.

The ‘‘ Elements of Forestry,” by Franklin B. Hough, Ph. D., Chief of
the Forestry Division of the United States Department of Agriculture, is a
book of 380 pages, and contains a great deal of general information on the
subject of forestry, as well as practical instruction for the planting and care
of forest trees for ornament and profit. This is avery useful work and
should be in the hands of every one who is in any manner interested in
forestry. A. L. Bancroft & Co., will order the book on application, or it
will be sent through the mail, post paid, on receipt of two dollars, by the
publishers, Robert Clark & Co., Cincinnati, Ohio.

25

‘*Vorest Trees of California,” by A. Kellogg, M. D., describes our
native trees.

** Kucalyptus and Forest Trees,’ by Elwood Cooper, Esq., gives the
most complete account of the eucalyptus of any American work.

The American Journal of Forestry, edited by the author of the ‘‘ Ele-
ments of Forestry,” is published monthly by Robert Clark & Co., Cincin-
natti. Price, $3 per annum.

There is no State in the American Union in which as great natural
agricultural resources are to the same extent dependent on the conservation
of the timber growth, and none in which forest culture would produce as
important results, in which there is as much backwardness in that direction
as in this State of California. The reasons for this state of things must be
apparent to those who have given attention to the subject, and it will not
be profitable to occupy space here in discussing them. The thing to be
done by those who are already interested is to devise the best means of en-
lightening the people as to its utility and importance.

The few public spirited gentlemen who have hitherto been engaged in
disseminating information pertaining to forestry are entitled to the respect
and gratitude of their fellow citizens for their laudable efforts, bu. indi-
vidual effort is not equal to the task of doing what is necessary to be done in
this field for the preservation and development of the best interests of the
State, and the old adage, ‘‘ In union there is strength,” was never more
applicable than in matters of this kind; and I believe that those philan-
thropically disposed would be able to render each other mutual aid and to
accomplish much more by coming together and forming a State Forestry
Association after the example of Minnesota and Ohio.

I will close this report with sentiments and language contained ina
letter received at the formation of the Ohio State Forestry Association, from
that well known statesman and philanthropist, Hon. Cassius M. Clay of
Kentucky. After referring to the thoughtless wastefulness of the American
people in the destruction of our native forests, and the results now being
experienced from the excessive denudation, Mr. Clay writes as follows;

‘‘ What we want now is to arouse public notice to the facts, and to
create societies in the several States to act under the patronage and aid of
the States, and all concentrating their experience in the National Bureau of
Forestry, which can unite with foreign societies and governments and make
all knowledge on this subject of world-wide usefulness. For it is not too
much to say that nations have owed their rise and fall to these laws of trse
growth and rainfall, and that our nation cannot live and ignore them.”

26

PERSONAL EXPLANATION,

By permission, M. M. Chipman, M.D., read the following personal
explanation to the State Medical Society, at its annual meeting in April,
1883, and which was then, by a vote of the Society, directed to be printed

in the volume of Transactions:
5

Mr. Present anp Members or THe Mepican Socrery or THE Stare og
Carirornta: I wish, as a personal privilege, to say afew words in regard to
the Report which I made to this Society at its annual meeting for the,
year 1881. . :

Whilst traveling about the upper Sacramento Valley in the Fall of 1880,
for the purpose of acquiring information regarding the topography and
meteorology of that section, being frequently confronted with the deposits,
I became interested in the debris question. I found Mr. James McCona-
haney, telegraph operator at Maryville, to be very intelligent on the subject,
and he was kind enough to act as my guide in examining into some of the
great changes which had been effected by the filling in of the deposits, in
the relative condition of the river channeis, streets, property, ete., at that
city; and then on my invitation and at my expense, the gentleman accom-
panied me to the Smartsville mines, and to him I said that as soon as I could
arrange in San Francisco to be absent for a while, I should return to that part
of the country and give the subject an extended and thorough investigation;
and that was all the understanding I arrived at, or pre-arrangement I made
with any party or parties in the Sacramento Valley. In this city, I said to
the late A. C. Peachy that I was going up the Sacramento Valley to study up
the debris question, to make a report uponit; but he, knowing something of
the extent of the subject, was incredulous as to my being able to accompilsh
what I proposed doing, and exclaimed: ‘‘ My God! you can’t do it!” But I
assured him that I thought I could unless my health failed me; and that was
the full extent of the connection which any other party than myself had
with the matter in this place. In fact, I was quite reticent of my intentions
regarding it, as I was apprehensive that my health might give out, and I
should in consequence fail uf accomplishing my purpose.

Of men of character and intelligence in the Sacramento Valley I re-
quested information of extent of deposits, damages, etc., as affecting their
ownimmediate localities and neighborhoods, but cautioned each one to be
sure tomake no statements but what will bear rigid investigation, for I had
rather make an under estimate than to set down anything in excess of facts; _
and I made personal examinations as far as my time would permit, and in any
case where I had doubts as to information received, I obtained other eyi-
dence, and continued to follow the matter up until I became satisfied that —
I had ascertained the facts. Throughout the whole affair I was acting in

.

27

the fear of no man, nor in the expectatior of reward or favor from any man,
or any party or any class or set of men whatever, and the investigation was
wholly of my own conception, and was entered into without the advice of
or even consultation with any person, and was carried through altogether
on my own responsibility, and was altogether of my own doing, without the
aid or assistance of any party or parties, except in the matter of informa-
tion furnished, in accordance with the statements of the Report itself.

As to my personal expenses of steamboat fares for self and team, and
railroad fares, and hotel and livery billsand other outlays, I was everywhere
charged full price, and I will assure the Society that I made no claims of '
rebate therefrom; and those expenses as well as the subsequent expense of ©
publishing three thousand copies of the Report in pamphlet form, and dis-
tributing through the mails, were all borne by myself.

G. G. Briggs, the viticulturist, after receiving a copy of the Report,
sent me his check for twenty-five dollars, as a contribution towards reim-
bursement of my expenses. I re enclosed the check in a letter in which I
thanked Mr. Briggs for his kind intentions, but stated that I had commenced
with the expectation of doing everything at my own expense, and that I
could then swear that I had not received one dollar for that effort, and as I
preferred to occupy that position, I therefore could not accept the twenty-
five dollars.

The reason of my making this statement is, that a talented and promi-
nent member of this Society testified, on a certain occasion, in a language
which exhibited that he was of the opinion that my Report on the debris
question had been gotten up in collusion with other parties, and for another
purpose than that which is set forth in the Report, and with the assistance,
and even the personal help of another party, or of other parties; and
although the gentleman may have changed his mind in reference to the
matter since that time, yet as I have never learned of his having publicly or
otherwise so stated, and as it would neither be honorable in the individual,
or respectiul as toward this Society, to take advantage of a position con-
ferred by the Society, to make out a Report professing to be intended for
the pubtic benefit, when in fact it was only for the benefit of the individual
himself, or of a certain limited class with whom the individual was in co!lu-
sion and interested, I have therefore taken the liberty of making this state-
ment in correction of any mistaken impressions which might have been en-
tertained in relation thereto.

The life of an individual lasts only a generation, but a State is supposed
to continue for several generations, and we may hope that this State will be
in existence and prospering, a thousand years hence, and the people of the
future are just as much interested in the lands of the State as are those of
the present generation; and when I saw the great amount of destruction
which was being perpetrated, I concluded that they were sadly in need
of a representative, and in lack of abler or more influential representation, I
even assumed to do what I could in the premises myself, and I presumed
that a reliable and truthful representation of the facts would have an in-
fluence in bringing about proper and equitable measures of relief; and as
my labor was performed more in behalf of the future than of the present, I
was quite well satisfied to trust my compensation entirely with the future.
And that was the basis of my caleulation and of my action.

, 28

: The preceding Report, and the explanation regarding my Report to the
. State Medical Society, for 1881, were republished from the volume of Trans-
actions of the Society, in pamphlet form, for more general distribution, in

~ October, 1883.
M. M. Cuateman, M.D.

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