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Jepson Field Book Transcriptions · Jepson Herbarium
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66_110 Eucalyptus There was a _Blue Gum epidemic_ in planting Eucalyptus globules in the late seventies and early eighties. The Wilson grove, just south of Little Park half a mile, was planted in 1877, says Lee Wilson, whose family moved there in 1876. Our grove was probably planted the same year or maybe 1876. It was a considerable grove by 1880 and sheltered the croquet ground. I never liked the groves. They dry up wells and springs; they are very untidy, sending down a perpetual litter of bark and leaves; they are a fire menace. Frank Williams planted three groves in elbows of the Alamo about 1876. The middle one caught fire in summer in 1931 or 1932 and scattered fire over the Hiatt orchard to the Hawkins ranch about one third mile away or more, causing a |
66_111 Field fire which had to be paid for by the present owners of the Williams ranch. Untidy Eucalyptus is commented on by Charles Darwin in the Naturalists Voyage, p. 417 (Everyman_s Library). During the week of Dec. 5-11, 1932, Monday to Sunday, the temperatures progressively fell lower culminating in the great freeze of Sunday, Dec. 11. I was in Vaca Valley during that week. My Japanese pruners at Little Oak worked in the orchard through the week in spite of the terrible cold. It seemed as if my body, faced by the terrible north wind, had never known such bitter cold, striking through me like daggers. On Feb. 17, 1933, I went again to Little Oak from Berkeley. The Eucalyptus groves at Little Oak and throughout the countryside are white from the great freeze! Some say the trees will die. |
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