CALIFORNIA

Hokitika Guardian, 1 May 1926, Page 4

CALIFORNIA

A LUMBER. CAMP.

(By T. J. HenTy)

SAN JOAQUIN AND THE SIERRAS. At four o’clock in the morning tho train was rushing along the seemingly endless plain of the San Joaquin Valiev. This is pronounced “San AVarkoen,’’ and tho ‘tenderfoot” who trusts to the English alphabet finds himself providing amousement for die native sons. The sky Was already bright with the dawn of one of the invariably rainless and radiant mid-summer days of Central California. Past us flashed an unending succession of orchards and vineyards. Fruit trees of many varieties—peach, apricot, nectarine, lemon. orange, olive, swung into and out of view in mideviating illimitable lines, while myriads of grape-vines, each clinging to its individual cruciform support, completed the fleeting picture. Every here mud there were ureas flooded from the vast system of irrigation whose channels reticulate the countryside. Dividing fences were rare. The farm houses were commodious and comfortable looking, devoid of verandahs, but with wide covered porches and gabled upper stories, from which windows projected. Pnihllel with the rail ran a shining strip of road, along which, even before the sun peered above the far flat horizon, motor ears rolled. Some had folded tents and practicable, kitchenettes strapped to their running Initials, for it was the holiday season, and once we caught a vision of tt huge fearsome coach with six wheels—actually six. two in front and four behind on a bogey carriage. This was one of the monsters, which travel in 18 hours lietwecn Los Angeles and San Francisco, a distance .of 180 miles. .At 0.30 we drew up at Madera. Dr Wells. of Sugar Pine Camp, with characteristic Californian hospitality, had driven his ear nearly 70 miles that morning to meet me. Soon I was seated by his side. Our route lay first through flat country, unfenced, sown with barley and oats. This district has not yet been irrigated by the waters which stream from the melting snows or pelting winter rains of tho Sierras. But « ten million, dollar bond-finaneved scheme is on foot, and in a few years cereals will give place to fruit, and land now worth from 30 to 150 dollars an acre will bring several times that amount. THE SQUIRREL PEST. Every few yards frightened ground sqtiirrols scurried across the road—beautiful little animals with long uplifted furry tails. lint they are a curse to the agriculturist, and arc to California what the rabbit is to Australia. Tt is computed that each destroys 50 rents’ worths every year. Bonuses or from four to six cents each scalp are til times given for their destruction. But just as the n ihhit in Australia is a boon to some, so in California the squirrel has its profitable side. I met one professional man who had largely paid his class fees in college by his vacation exploits in killing squirrels. AVe also saw a few rabbits, both of the ordinary and of the small cockle-tail varieties. After a time the Sierra Nevada range, which bad been a vague cloud, look definite shape, and we began to climb its foothills. The 'admirable road of the plain ceased as we dropped the cultivated lands behind. The prospect was no longer of smiling crops, hut of far-stretehing brown-red hillocks in tumultuous array, dotted with clumps of blue scrub, nodulated 'with granite rocks, and criss-crossed liv innumerable ravines. Rapidly we ascended, ‘ami the great pine forests began, the tall straight trees packed closely together, and often hemming the roadway so closely that only short sections" wore visible at one time. The trail became precipitous and crooked, and in this land of motors there was danger of collision at every one of the innumerable sharp turns. AYe stopped a few minutes at Raymond, a primitive .settlement, composed of about a score of unpaintcil wooden shanties. Tt owes its existence to qitirrics which produce splendid white granite. This is in demand all over the AYestern Stales, and the stately buildings of the University of California in Pan Francisco and Be. holey are constructed thereof. Another brief call was at an extensive mid well-arranged snnitoriuin for T. 8.. instituted 'and supported by the combined counties of Merced, AFadera and Stanislaus. Dr Seward, the superintendent, said that there are about 90 patients. The rarified dry air of an altitude of nearly a mile, and the fragrant breezes from the vast pine forests are very beneficial. This locality is part of the great gold-hearing area to which the historic world-rush took place in “forty-nine.” AVc skirled one particularly famous centre, known ! )v the lAippy title of Grub Gulch, and i„ which even yet linger traces of the old days when the gold seekers swarmed around. SUGAR PINE CAMP.

, l '° first of the Sugar Pino , ;im ' ) " i,s sight of a wooden c-on- , dint carried upon trestles over bills ami across valleys, but so admirably designed that- its slope is always dowii I ,nll - 11 ‘s about four feet wide and I tllroe and a. stream of water ; flows constantly along. Tin's is the wonderful flume which floats the boards cut at. the Sugar Pine mill some Go miles into the town of Madera. It is a marvellous engineering achievement. H has a fall of over 4001) feet, and as the flume is open, the slightest deviation from, a progressive fall would destroy its usefulness. Occasionally we •saw gliding past white pine boards cl.mi lied into sets of five, or six. each I set being connected to other sets so that flexible trains of several floated along in sequence. The flume is patrolled constantly by men with poles, who loosen any “jam” which may occur. Occasionally serious jams take place, and on one occasion the timber piled up so heavily that a stretch of the conduit two miles long was badly damaged. But allowing for every difficulty and the cost of maintenance the saving is immense compared with what road haulage would cost. After traversing the circuitous roads and rising and falling in altitude, we at last reached a narrow canyon well over 40'X) feet above sea-level, -litd along the floor and steep sides of which are arranged the various buildings which constitute Sugar Pine C'amp and mill. The change from the serenity and silence of the far-spreading forests was abrupt. Columns of smoke arose, and the screech of saws, the puffing of engines, the scream of whistles, as well as the bare scarified patches on the mountain sides from which huge trees had been torn, betokened that the hand of modern industry was busy distillling and defacing tho primeval landscape. Soon we ran right into tlie settlement. The floor is for the most part too narrow to allow of more, than one row of buildings, and is further encroached upon by n stream of water along the base of the steeper hillside, and by a railway which conveys logs from the outer camps to the central mill. The whole neighbourhood is the property of the Sugar Pine Company. But everything pertaining to ordinary life is there: Hospital, post-office, a large- store, well-stocked, and containing even an elaborate softdrinks department, dance-picture ball, dormitories for single men, recreation and reading rooms, -in addition, to the mill itself and divers annexes. Arranged 'in tiers along the mountain side.

whero it is less steep, are the dwellings of the married men. These are all of absolutely similar size and style. Each is supplied with water and electric power. No charge is made for rent or water, but in order to prevent wastefulness a small tariff is imposed for the electric current. The single men sleep in the large dormitories before mentioned, and are provided with meals in special refectories for about seven dollars a week. About GOO men are employed. In addition to the main camp there are secondary camps numbered one, two, or three, in order of formation, and which are out in the forests, where the actual “logging” is taking place. The boards travel at about five miles an hour, taking twelve or thirteen hours to perform tile journey. These camps are residential. The workers are provided with small houses, which are set on rollers. Thus, when it is necessary to shift them to another site, they are trundled to tile railway, which is always constructed from the central mill, lifted on trucks, and without damage, transported to wherever they arc wanted.

WHAT WOMEN KIND. LONDON, March 16. Men are treasure seekers women bargain hunters, and each finds adventure in the pursuit. Romance begins in the home, and many's~ sentimental story is attached to a piece of old furniture, a picture, or maybe a humble teapot. That is why women are so enthusiastic over the “Daily Mail’’’ Ideal Home Exhibition at Olympia, Kensington. W. They find it a place of adventure, a place of rare promise, in which the surprise of discovery may lurk round every corner. A woman looks with the searching eye for the practical as well as the beautiful, whereas a man is often content with the appeal of .novelty.

A woman can and docs spend an afternoon at the exhibition, while a man, with the superficial eye and the untrained domestic mind, may think he lias seen everything in a couple of hours.

But just as a treasure-seeker explores eaves and rocks for precious and rare metal, so does a woman explore the great, exhibition at- Olympia for some new discovery or clever invention that will increase her power in the kingdom of the home.

•lust the little thing that means so much: tile kitchen safe that, will not permit the odour of onions to mingle with the flavour of butter, the economic vacuum cleaner that works with the charm of magic, tlie unbreakable vacuum flask, the range that pleases the eye and saves the coal, the cunning contrivances lor space and labour-sav-ing; indeed, a complement of what every woman knows.