soned gray, red and sugar gum timbers are moderately durable and should give longer service than blue gum. Sugar gum is probably the best eucalypt for tie production.

Mine Timbers. Blue and sugar gum have been used with success in timbering mines near Escondido. The gum timber has been found superior to any other obtainable there. Few of the timbers have decayed, although the mines are flooded during a part of each year. Difference in value of the two species has not yet become apparent, but it is probable the sugar gum will prove superior, as it excels blue gum in both strength and durability.

Wharf Piling. The problem of maintaining wharves has become an important one on the Pacific coast. Not only are the best pile timbers very expensive, but they will not resist the attacks of the teredo and limnoria and have to be replaced continually.

Both the teredo and limnoria are troublesome all along the Pacific coast, being carried from port to port by the shipping. The teredo attacks the piling at the ground line, under water, and burrows chambers through the wood. When the piling is unprotected, this source of injury is generally negligible, for the timbers are more speedily eaten off at the water line by the limnoria. The limnoria have no natural enemies in American waters to decimate their numbers, hence they are constantly increasing and becoming more troublesome. Their attacks are particularly severe in the warm waters of the southern ports and in sheltered harbors.

In an attempt to maintain durable wharves, experiments have been made with costly iron and cement piles, but the lower cost and greater ease of setting keeps the wooden pile in favor. Various expensive treating and sheathing experiments have been tried, but preservative processes have failed so far to check the borers. Limnoria will not attack wood which is coated with sand. This fact has been taken advantage of to defeat them by applying a rough cement wash to the exposed surface of the piles. This coating not being elastic, however, fails to prevent the limnoria from entering at season checks and continuing their work under the cement covering. Pile timbers are generally creosoted or oiled, and often wrapped and battened, to increase their period of service, but limnorias attack even creosoted wood. When untreated, piles are generally set unpeeled, as the borers do not work while the bark remains.

Aside from its use for fuel, gum timber has been most extensively used for piling. After extended trial the blue gum pile has been determined the best in use on the Pacific coast. Whenever it can be obtained, contractors and wharf managers discriminate in its favor.

It is attacked and ultimately destroyed by borers, notwithstanding contrary statements. Its superiority seems to lie in its extreme hardness, for when gum and softwood piles are used together in a wharf, the borers concentrate their attack on the softer piles. Experienced

users discriminate in favor of piles from old, slow-grown trees cut during the winter and seasoned thoroughly.

Eucalyptus piles in general use are from 30 to 35 feet long and from 12 to 24 inches in diameter. Such piles bring from $5 to $15 apiece on the stump.

Gum piling was first used in the wharf at Santa Barbara. Its use in some other wharves was accidental, but since its successful trial it has been used in the wharves at Crescent City, Oakland, Port Harford. Gaviota, Santa Barbara, Serena, Summerland, Avalon, Oceanside and San Diego. On account of its superior service it is used in the wharf at Crescent City despite the local supply of redwood timber.

Dimension Material. No valuable hardwood timber is native to California or the Pacific coast. Demands for it have been supplied by importation from Eastern centers of production at high prices and high freight rates. Eucalyptus has been widely used for saw-timber in Australia, but in California its commonness has prejudiced users against it. Added to this is the fact that very little dimension material has been produced, practically all the plantations having been cut for fuel. At present it can hardly be found in the market.

Pioneer manufacturers, operating planing mills in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Jose, have persevered for twenty years in utilizing it as ordinary hardwood stock. Difficulty has been encountered in the introduction of a new material, however, so their business has remained small. They have overcome local prejudice to some extent by guaranteeing their product. Severe and extended trial has proven that it possesses superior qualities of strength, hardness and flexibility. Seasoned blue gum timber has been substituted in San Francisco for orders of maple, hickory, and "ironwood" without the knowledge but to the entire satisfaction of the purchaser.

No fixed stumpage price for Eucalyptus timber prevails. It is bought either by the single tree or at the market price of cordwood. Large trees which contain 4 to 6 cords, or will cut 1,500 to 3,000 feet B. M., are bought for from $12 to $25 per tree. The total cost of stumpage, logging, manufacturing and seasoning is about $20, hence it is apparent that manufacturers can readily undersell Eastern hardwoods. Gum timber has been sold at from $100 to $125 per M, and retails for 12 cents per foot for finished and 10 cents for rough timber.

QUALITIES OF EUCALYPTUS WOOD.

The timber eucalypts furnish a hardwood possessing qualities similar to those of Eastern hickory and ash. The wood of different species differs in strength and durability, but in general the timber is very strong, heavy and hard, with a close-grain and homogeneous structure.

The specific gravity of the wood of most species is greater than that of water, the dry wood of blue gum averaging over 60 pounds per cubic foot, varying from 50 to 70 pounds, according to the age of the timber. The wood of other species is still heavier. It is very tough, resisting indentation, tension or torsion. This is of advantage, for it

will not crack nor break out under strain at joints or bolt holes. The wood is stiffer and less elastic than Eastern hickory.

The wood of different species ranges in color from white to dark brown. The heart and sapwood of many species is indistinguishable. The heart of blue gum is a little darker than the sapwood, while that of red gum is red or dark brown in color. The grain of blue gum closely resembles that of hickory and ash.

SEASONING.

The difficulties experienced in seasoning Eucalyptus timber have been a great obstacle to its more extensive utilization. It has received an undeserved reputation for warping and checking from many who have used it green or improperly seasoned. It is no more difficult to season than oak, hard maple and many other hardwoods, which are annually cut and seasoned by the million feet in the Eastern States. The success attained by several experienced manufacturers proves that it yields readily to thorough methods.

To insure successful seasoning the trees should be felled between November and March. Sawlogs should be manufactured as soon as possible after cutting, for they check quickly with exposure to sun and winds. When not to be sawn immediately, they should be piled in the shade without peeling. The ends of the logs should be painted to prevent checking.

Ordinarily, sawn lumber should be loose-piled under cover with abundant space for air circulation. The ends of the timbers should be weighted. By this treatment 6 by 8 inch or larger timbers are thoroughly and evenly seasoned without warping or checking, though the wood may shrink considerably during the seasoning process. Inch boards are apt to warp in seasoning, so the lumber is usually sawn into planks. The heartwood is more apt to check than the sapwood.

Air seasoning produces better results than kiln seasoning. Air-dried lumber may be used in a year, but two years' seasoning gives better results and is generally practiced.

USES OF LUMBER.

Vehicle Parts. Blue gum has been extensively used as a substitute for other hardwoods in the manufacture of vehicles. Its strength and elasticity recommend it very highly as a substitute for hickory and ash, which are rapidly becoming scarce. Gum timber is just as durable and nearly as strong as hickory. If kept from contact with the soil, it will not decay under exposure to the weather, and will retain its shape if properly seasoned.

Its usefulness for vehicle parts has been recognized locally for a long time. The ranchers of the Los Angeles and Santa Clara valleys

have used it for poles, shafts, reaches, axles, doubletrees, racks, bolsters, spokes, hubs and felloes and for the wooden parts of plows, harrows and other agricultural implements. Like its first use for piling, Eucalyptus was first employed for vehicle parts by accident.

Recently gum wood was experimentally used for wooden ties on heavy auto trucks. The motors of these vehicles are damaged and bolts are soon cut off by the jar of running on steel rims on city pavements, and expensive sets of rubber tires last but a few months. A wooden tire was devised by bolting seasoned blocks of gum wood, set with the grain vertical, into a patent rim attached to the wheels. The tires have been used successfully for six months without attention or repair, and show few signs of wear. They have been found to break the jar and to take up vibrations as readily as rubber tires.

Insulator Pins. Eucalyptus has practically supplanted black locust wood for insulator pins. This use annually consumes a large part of the manufactured timber product, and in this form alone has Californiagrown gum timber been exported. Large orders for insulator pins have been filled in Canada and the Eastern States. Gum pins are in use in most of the telephone and power transmission lines in this State, and are used exclusively by leading contractors. Sound pins are still in use after fifteen years' service.

Furniture. Seasoned blue and red gum wood has been used to a limited extent for cabinet work and for the manufacture of furniture. Handsome chairs and tables have been made, which are very strong and do not warp, check or loosen at the joints. The wood takes a splendid finish and has been stained to imitate mahogany very closely.

Other Uses. In a few instances unstained panels, showing fine grain, have been used in the interior finishing of houses. The timber has also been manufactured into flooring and used in place of hard maple. It has been used for pulley blocks, belt wheels, saw tables, brakeshoes, for levers of house-moving windlasses, and, indeed, most generally where a durable wood of homegeneous structure is required.

BOTANICAL NAMES.

A list of the botanical names of the species mentioned in this report