[Illustration: FIG. 30.--Redwood Forest, California.]
The redwood resembles the cedar in habit, general appearance, character of its wood, and colour of bark and leaves. It flourishes best in moist localities, and attains a great size, surpassing in height and diameter of stem even the giant firs of Washington, and is only exceeded on this continent by its cousin, the great sequoia (_Sequoia gigantea_) of the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, in south-central California. It frequently attains a height of 300 or more feet, with a diameter at the base of 15 or 16, and in certain exceptional instances of over 20 feet. It rarely branches low, but almost invariably has a straight, fluted stem, perfectly symmetrical, rising with a slight taper for about 200 feet to the first limb. The foliage is dull green in colour, fine, and drooping. It is a most beautiful tree both in form and colour, and is markedly gregarious in habit. As stated by Henry Gannett, it forms the densest forest known if the comparison is made on the basis of the amount of merchantable lumber growing on a given unit of area. For example, the yellow-pine forests of the Southern Atlantic and Gulf States contain on an average about 5,000 feet, board measure (square feet of boards an inch thick), of timber per acre, and in the moderately dense portion of the white-pine forests of the Great Lakes region the average is about the same. In each of these regions, famed for their lumber, a tract containing 10,000 feet of lumber per acre would be considered as heavily forested. In the redwood forests of California, however, 50,000 feet of lumber per acre is not rare over extensive areas, while for special tracts containing many square miles this estimate may safely be doubled. Upon 96,443 acres in Humboldt County, California, the average amount of lumber contained in the trees still standing is 84,000 feet per acre. The returns of lumber companies during a continuous period of ten years from tracts which have been cleared show a return of 75,000 to 100,000 feet per acre, but even this is not the maximum. A certain tract of several square miles actually yielded 150,000 feet per acre; and there is on record a yield of 1,431,530 feet from a single acre. One tree is said to have furnished 66,500 feet of lumber, and another, 15 feet in diameter at the base, contained 100,000 feet. Another tree, still standing, measures 22 feet in diameter, and it is estimated will yield 200,000 square feet of boards an inch thick.