IN THE REDWOODS, CALIFORNIA: LOGGING.
Our Land and Country1892
The preservation of the grand and lofty trees known as redwoods,
in the National Park, and likewise in the North Kaweah and South
Kaweah, California, has been secured by statute, but the greater
portion of these magnificent monarchs of the forest seems likely
to fall before the axe and other implements of destruction, in
the interests of mill-owners and loggers; and as their reproduction,
unlike that of ordinary forest growths, is not a thing to be looked
for, their towering and august presence will soon be a thing of
the past, and their giant forms without successors. For economic
reasons, it is urged, this business is in the range of legitimate
service to man. The wood is light and close-grained, much resembling
red cedar in appearance, splits with remarkable facility, is particularly
durable, and is used for building purposes, cabinet-work, and
almost every variety of general woodwork; forming, in fact, the
principal staple of the California lumber trade. The appearance
of a grove of these trees, in the process of utilization, is said
to exhibit an indiscriminate slaughter not called for on any grounds
of business necessity,age, size, beauty, and grandeur being
disregarded,some of fifteen, others of twenty, and even
those of thirty feet diameter being alike felled to the ground;
the largest trunks, that is, such as are too bulky to be handled
conveniently with the saw, are shattered with blasting-powder.
But notwithstanding the immense labor required in handling these
trees, the market value of the lumber is said to be no greater
than that of the sugar-pines which are so abundant, and of which
large quantities have heretofore been cut and forwarded to the
new settlements.
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