Something About Redwood

In California is a vast Redwood. forest, more than two thousand. years old. Ifere huge buttressed trunks rise for hundreds of feet to pierce the atmosphere of the Coast Range Mountains. At their feet grow, in wilct profusion, flowers, ferns and mosses of indescribable beauty, while in the earth beneath are huge fallen trunks, monarihs of a by-gone age, sound as the day they were uprootecl by the gales that wafted Columbus from the old world to the new. ' Far back in that pre-glacial era when the sabre-toothed tiger hunted the dinosaur, and strange saurians wallowed. in the ferny jungles of a country very difrerent from the California we know, the Redwood. forests were widely distributed over the northern portion of the earth. Then Spitzbergen had its Redwoods, as did Italy, Greenland. and Alaska, while the entire Pacific Coast,.from Vaneouver south to Santa Barbara,"supported a luxuriant growth of the genus Sequoia. Next the glaciers came down; and after centuries retreated; the dinosaur and the sabre-toothed tiger vanished.

But the Rodwoods lived on !

woods are replacing those of the East, what is to become of our Redwood forests? 'WiIl they continue to live, or will they, too, vanish from the face of the earth?

The U. S. Forest Serviee is authority for the statement that there still stand over ?0 billion feet of virgin Redwood. timber. Of the original one and. one-quarter million acres more than 850,000 acres-or 7-10 of the total-remains intact; as beautiful, as untouched by axe or saw, as unspoiled as on that day, long before the ad.vent of the whites, when Sequoyah (for whom the tree was named) invented. his syllabie alphabet and conducted for the tribe his crude Cherokee newspaper. And the Redwood cut, as compiled and pubIished by U. S. Government sources, averages some 500,00Q,000 feet each year, so that, with this annual cut and with^a stand of 70 billion feet, our virgin Redwood forests'shou 140 years.

Meanwhile, what of the new growth? For new growth follows the cutting of the old; follows it with a rapidity and. surety unknown to anSr other commercially important

In an area restricted, to be sure, from that of theti tree species in the United States. age of the tertiary period, but even so more than one an one-quarter million acres of vigin Redwood forest remai to sway in the breezes whieh wafted Columbus from the world. to the new; one billion feet of good sound Redwood timber was left, after the ice age, to be scorned. (because, they said, it worked too easily!) when the men of forty-nine shipped around the Horn to California.houses of oak, of spruce, and bf pine. But todaS when the various produqts of those same Redwood. forests travel east by boat and by rail to build New England. homes-now, when 'Western lutely unique among all the lumber producing eOnifers of the world. Its common and usual method of perpetuation is by means of sprouts; sprouts which emerge, as is the czlse with,the common willow (ancl with equal profusion), from the stump of the old tree. The vitality of the stumps is phenominal, their life seemingly without end; facts which ex. plain, perhaps, the profusion and the rapid development of that which is today forming our second growth Redwood forests. Professor Willis L. Jepson is authority for the statement that young Redwood often attains a growth of from 4 feet to 6 feet six inches in height in a single year. The Forest Department, University of California has of record. second growth Redwood stands of 30,000 board feet per acre in 33 years, 55,000 feet per acre in 45 years, while one area averages the'enormous total of 137,000 board feet per acre at an age of but 48 years; a second. growth Redwood forest five times as heavy as the average vigin forest of California pine ! Technical foresters assert that natural reproduction and the rapid development of this second growth may be depended upon to replace the virgin timber, provided only that fire be -kept out. And since Redwood grows only in the fog belt and is naturally a fire resistant wood, the forest fire danger is exceedingly slight.

And man-attracted. alike by the great commercial value of the wood and the physical factors which assure the perpetuation of the species -is now actively supplemeniing those natural advantages by applying to his forest properties the principles of scientific silviculture. Just recently the manufacturers of fiftyfive per cent of all the Redwood produced annually (manufacturers who are also owners of sixty-ffve per cent of all the Redwood held by operating companies) have retained techuical foresters and. seculed plans by which their forest resources may be made self-perpetuat-

Redwood

It means much to the dealer to hnow that he can make his Redwood purchases from big, well equipped mills, capable of supplying hil every Redwood need at all timer.

We Prdduce Annually at our Own Plantr approrimately l4OrOOOrOO0 feet of Lumber and Forect Products, Mortly Redwood.

We are able and anxious to serve you.

HAVE YOU A DEFINITE FALL SELLING CAMPAIGN?

ing. Protection from such few flres as may occur is assured. A forest nursrey is established and artificial planting, to enlargb the quantity and improve the quality of second. growth forests, is actively under way. Investigative work is started; closer methods of utilization are being enforced, and as plans develop and are accepted the Redwood region of California should be managed as carefully, as conservatively, and with as mueh certainty of final results as are the national forests under the administration of the foresters of the U. S. Forest Service.

I-,rong before the end of our virgin commercial Redwoods -=well within that l-40 year period ere the last of them shall be cut-iecond. growth Redwood will have replaced the parent forest. Meanwhile, Iarge and representative areas of virgin growth are already set aside and are being pre_ served intact so that posterity may see for itself the beauty and the glory that is -theirs, and theirs alone,

The future of our Redwood forests, for commercial and. for scenic purposes, seems well assured.

California Redwood is one of but few native woods classed by the United States Government as ,,very durable." It does not rot, either within doors or without, above ground or below. It is immune to the attacks of decay-producing fungi and of insects. Redwood is light and can be worked up at a minimum of expense for labor. Its surface offers perfect resistance to the elements, and since it takes and holds paints, stains and varnishes remarkably weII, without warpage-or shrinkags, it has become standard for siding, shingles and exterior trim.

Insurance companies in California, where Redwood lumber is manufactured, are so sure of its fire resistant qualities that they prefer Redwood risks. And the Board of Fire Underwriters publishes a standard basic rate of 80 cents on Redwood lumber in yards as against a rate of $1.50 for other lumbers !

Redwoo{lras become well known as a "specialty" wood, because of its many remarkable qualities. For tanks and silos it is world-famous; for ice cream cabinets, wood.en pipe, brooders, incubators, caskets, cooling to.wers, green houses, etc., it is nationally known. For any wood. uses that demand damp resisting qualities, Redwood is used, for it will not rot, even when exposed. to the worst of damp conditions. fn backwoods districts of California, Redwood. is often used as chimneys for houses, showing how remarkable are its fire resisting qualities. fts immunity from decay makes it an ideal wood for tunnel timbers, foundation work, mudsills, fluming, posts, poles, etc.

Redwood is destined to be one of the best known woods lf the world. To a very considerable degree it is being used for the same purposes as Southern Cypress, as they possess many of the same qualities. The stands of Redwood will last for generations after the last Cypress tree in the South is cut.

SUPERI(IR BRAI{D

how much siding shorter than ten foot lengths has to be used on California bungalows.

_ Is it not a part of the extra service that Jack Dionne has been preaching, to show your custorners the advantage of buying shorts instead of long lengths?

We can ba-ck-you up in that service by furnishing specified amounts of short lengths, the Q_uickness of shipment being in proportion to the percentage of short lumber you- can take.

A kiln dried board has more moisture inside than on the surface.

Oak Flooring made from resawn kilndried lumber has but one DRY surface.

SUPERIOR BRAND Oak Ftooring, all thicknesses, is equally dry on both sides as it is not made from resawn lumber.

Manufactured by