Timber

Abraham and his children planted groves in which to worship. Upon the re-occupation of the soil by the Hebrews, they cut them down because pagans worshipped there. The denuda tion constantly going on, the once fertile Canaan, land of graves and meadows, flowing with milk aid honey, became an arid waste. The vast deserts of the earth, from the fossil woods occa sionally found therein, were probably once fer tile regions. The valley of the Nile, once famous for its forests, at length became useful for culti vation only by means of irrigation; later, through the planting of some millions of forests trees by the Pachas of Egypt, this country has again been visited by rain. The modern civilized man will leave deserts in his path much sooner than did the ancients, because his wants are more multi farious, and because lie has the means of much quicker and more sure destruction of the forests. What lie leaves, is more surely destroyed by deso lating fires driven by tornadoes occasioned by meteorological changes which certainly follow this destruction. These changes are already beginning to show themselves in California in one direction, just as surely in Utah in another direction; in California by increasing drought through denudation, and in Utah, as in Egypt, .by an increasing rainfall through replanting The vast treeless plains of the far West were once clothed with timber, at least portions of them, else why the dry beds of rivers which have again become living streams by settlement and the protection of timber; an illustration of which may be found at Denver, Colorado. Look at modern Persia, prostrate with gaunt famine and without possibility of help, since the regions adjacent are desert and uninhabited, except by marauding barbarians; these tracts must be traversed by primitive pack-mule or camel trains, consuming their loads ere they could reach these famishing and dying wretches. What has lately befallen Persia, may be the fate of regions now abounding in agricultural and horticultural wealth, in succeeding generations, if the progress of destruction in our forests, and the denudation of our natural grasses is allowed to go on without replacement.. Let us look for a moment at the destruction gding on in a single section of our country, the lumber region of Michigan and Wisconsin, bounding upon lakes Michigan and Superior; for in the limit of this paper I can but touch upon facts. To write up the subject fairly would require a large volume. The records are many of them already written, and the curious in such matters have but to read to find them. According to the report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 1870, there are 10,000,000 acres of land in Wisconsin and the upper peninsula of Michigan, north of the forty fourth degree of north latitude, which, previous to the settlement of that portion of these states, were covered with forest growths, valuable for timber and fuel. Since that time at least one half of this growth has been cut off, and the timber brought into market and sold ; and 1,000,000 acres of hard wood timber has been felled and burned upon the land by the settlers, while their farms. About 4,000,000 acres remain undisturbed. From the mills in that territory, there have been annually shipped 750,000,000feet of lumber. To the ports of Lake Michigan, in 1869, there was brought the enor mous quantity of 1,250,000,000 feet of lumber, and with that shipped east through the Straits of Mackinaw, the grand total of lumber annu ally sent from the forests of northern Wisconsin, and the upper peninsula of Michigan, is 1,750,000,000 feet. Does any one apprehend the immensity of these figures? e may arrive at it by synthesis. Suppose a machine, capable of making and counting one hundred strokes per minute, were to run night and day without stop ping, it would count 52,596,000 in one year; con sequently to count this number it must work uninterruptedly for nearly thirty four• years or, more exactly, thirty-three years, three months, twenty days, twenty-one minutes, and nearly five seconds. The average yield of pine timber in this region is usually estimated by practical lum bermen, at 300,000 feet per forty acres. Some place it higher. Reckoning 330,000 feet, it will be seen to require a little more than 200,000 acres for the annual timber supply. Add to this quantity 100,000 acres for railroad ties, telegraph posts, hewn timber, and shingles, determined by actual amount received in the Chicago market, and 30,000 acres for the amount cut and burned in clearing the land, and we have 330,000 acres denuded annually. At this rate of consumption, all the valuable timber remaining on these tracts, (at the time this estimate was made, 1869,) would be consumed in twelve years. The destruction of these forests by a great conflagration has been estimated to be equal to a ten year's supply of timber, all of which will be a total loss, except in so far as the lumbermen may be able to immediately work up the charred remains. This ten years' supply would amount to 10,750,000,000 feet, worth, at twenty dollars per thousand, $215,000,000. Add to this the destruction of personal property, and the sum will approximate $250,000,000; and thus we have destroyed, in one short month, including the losses in Chicago, over $500,000,000 as one of the items of loss, aggravated by climatic changes incident to the artificial denudation of our forests and our natural grasses. The remedial means that are being used to increase our timber are principally in the prairie regions. It is estimated that there have been annually sent out from the districts just ranged by fire, 100,000,000 trees; also 50,000,000 of nursery-grown forest trees are annually shipped—one firm alone, in Illinois, furnishing 10,000,000 to 15,000,000 a year, the balance being made up by the other nurserymen throughout the West. Besides this there is some stock annually imported from Europe, but in the aggregate this is not .appreciable, and owing to the losses sustained thereon, these importations are growing less each year. There fore, we have in round numbers, 150,000,000 of trees planted each year, which at 1,000 trees per acre; would give 150,000 acres per year, not half enough planted in all the prairie States, to replenish the waste in two small districts. In a money point of view, it will therefore be seen that there is no more profitable occupation that can be followed, for the next fifty years at least, than the raising of timber for sale. If we ever arrive at a practical solution of this question, it must be because it will enrich the pocket. Looked at from an msthetic standpoint, it meets our most pleasant approbation. As a sanitary measure, it is of great value. , That it ameliorates and modifies climates, there is no longer a ques tion: and the money value of timber plantations to the planter is also so well assured by experi ments, both in this country and in Europe, that there need be no longer hesitation on this score. The only questions remaining are how to work so as to secure the greatest area of plantations, where to plant, and how to plant. The first can only be accomplished by concert of action among the agricultural classes. The second question, where to plant, may be answered—upon knolls, on the steepest hill sides, above rocky bluffs, along the margins of regular and irregular streams, the dry beds of former streams, sloughs, and other low places, occupying each site with timber appropriate to its situation. Plant in rows if practicable—and there are compara tively but few places in the West where it is not so—upon thoroughly prepared land, so thickly as to soon shade the soil, and give good cultiva tion from three to six years, according to the variety of timber planted. One more question occurs here, and that is as to how much to plant. It is estimated in Europe that at least one-fifth of the area of a country should be covered with trees, to insure the best results in general tillage. This would give forty acres for each farm of two hundred acres. A large area for many farmers to look at, but let them remember there is money in it, and with modern appliances for cultivation after the planting is once done, it simply means so many acres less of eorn. If this area were planted it would not be twenty years before each farm would have its system of springs and rivulets, and from ,having one of the worst watered, we should have one of the fairest climates, the best watered, and most beautiful country that the sun ever shone upon. Nature has bestowed here a region lacking only trees to make it a paradise. It is filling up with the human energy, and intelligence, and skilled labor of the nations of the earth. Absolute free dom, both civil and religious, is the prerogative of all, under the law. We have only to heed the lessons that nature and events are constantly teaching us, to become not only oue of the most prosperous and happy, but also the greatest and most far-sighted people upon the face of the earth. The prosperity of nations rests upon their agricultural resources, and one of the pillars of that agriculture is wealth of timber. And no nation can continue permanently great without it. It devolves upon this generation to lay the foundation of the prosperity of succeed ing ones. Nature clothed the earth with timber and grasses, and in the fact that it takes genera tions to produce the monarchs of the forest, is the lesson that man may not with impunity destroy these without replaeementl They have been destroyed heretofore, the destruction is still going on, but at what a terrible price! and how fearful the lesson to the destroyers in every era! Let those who are curious read its history in every land. If we expect assistance from the general government I fear we are bound to be disappointed. Unlike some European ones, which we are sometimes pleased to term despotic, ours being subject to periodical change, the politicians have no time to look at the future; present perquisites absorb the thoughts of too many; it is only a far-seeing few who take heed to the hereafter. The State governments of

Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa, have done something;. they should do more by assisting individuals and corporations, (by every means in their power) upon whom must devolve the task of clothing these vast plains with forest growths. Parents desire to leave their children prosperous and happy, and what better heritage can a father leave his child, next to a good name, than a well kept farm, sheltered by pleasant groves, within whose cool recesses are born living springs that issuing forth 'gratefully slake the thirst of flocks and herds, and trickling to the valley form the rivulet, which, swollen along its way by other brooks from other homestead groves, turns in its laughing course hundreds of mills busy with their wealth of productive industry. This is no improbable picture, but is simply a view of the certain results of conformity to Nature's laws of cause and effect; and we know from history as well, that such tree-planting as I have here ree comended will surely produce the blessings enumerated. The opposite of this picture we are already beginning to see in the drying up of streams once used for turning mills, in the accu mulative force of, and constantly increasing 'destruction from tornadoes, extreme heat and • drought of our already tropical summers, folloWed by the cold winds of arctic winters, \ alternated with torrehts of rain or fearful storms, of snow. The children of those barbarous nations which followed the civilization that des troyed the ancient forests, retained the traditions relating thereto. As succeeding civilization advan eed, these traditions were woven into fables, incorporated into their religions, and gods and goddesses made the avengers of the sacrilege. Shall the destruction of the great forests of the western continent again depopulate nations? We think not. The printing press has given wings to science, and science has already shown the means of recuperation but not until that recup eration may also afford the means of wealth. We have spoken of the attention which some of the European governments are paying to the pro tection of timber. With them the industries are of paramount importance. England the greatest manufacturing nation on the face of the earth, is beginning to be alarmed at the exhaust ion of her coal-fields, which is expected to take place any time between the years 2300 and 3000, as her facilities for deep mining may be more or less increased. The total denudation of our great forests may be fixed at a much nearer date by estimating the constantly increasing demand upon our timber, far exceeding both the natural and artificial growths, and yet we are not giving the heed to the subject that its importance demands I do not hesitate to say that if this denudation is allowed to go on without adequate replanting, this generation will see the almost total destruction of our more valuable and soft-wood trees. Believing our forest wealth practically inexhaustible we have gone on per fecting wonderful machinery, marvelous in its perfection for the working of wood, For this, industry is one of the paramount ones, and actually pays more than one half of our internal revenue. But if as we go on perfecting our machinery we do not also increase our supply of the raw material, this very perfection will event ually bring disaster upon the whole industry. In Prussia, France and Bavaria it is estimated that there are about 10,000,000 acres of state forests. One-half of these belong to Prussia. In this country, as well as in other European ones, there are schools of forestry. At the head of the schools, as in other schools of technology, are placed men eminent for their practical attain ments in these several branches of human knowl edge, and as an item, in one direction, resulting from the schools of forestry we may note, as an important fact, that the annual revenue derived by France from her state forests before the war,was over three dollars per acre, or $8,700,000 per year from 2,700,000 acres, The subject of tree planting may now be considered as one of pare-, mount importance. As affecting us physically, in the present and future it is so, and it is fast becoming so in a money point of view. We have shown from statistics what the average acre of timber will produce in lumber under the destructive means employed in all new countries for manufacture. If multiplied.by the pres ent prices, and the other economics connected with forestry are estimated, even aside from any and all social considerations except money value, it may readily be perceived 'that theplanting of the waste tracts that may always be found upon every farm will pay better in the future than any other crop that can be grown. The Hon. J. M. Edmonds, another writer, in relation to this sub ject of forest waste says: Maine, Michigan, Wis consin, Minnesota, and Florida are the only States east of the Mississippi which now export any appreciable quantity of timber more than they import, and the reserve in these States is being rapidly cut away. The mountain and plateau region, occupying the interior of the continent, has only a moderate supply. No supplies can be drawn from this region for the older States, or even for the great plains; with out exhausting a reserve which is already below the immediate prospective demand. In the Pacific States and Territories there is still an adequate supply, but not beyond the early pros pective wants of their own people. The States bordering the Mississippi on the west have no surplus, and most of them are at this moment importing to meet the demands of even their sparse population. Arizona, New Mexico, Colo rado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Dakota have but a meager supply, not sufficient for a population as dense as now occupies Ohio, Indiana, or Illinois. Only the newly acquired Territory of Alaska remains to be considered. Very little is known of its timber resources, but, in much the largest portion, it is known that its rigorous climate precludes the growth of valuable forests, but it is not too much to presume that the timber in that Territory will be sufficient to meet the demands of the trade now opening with the great populations of China and Japan. Con sidering, then, the present and the prospective forest products in this country in the light of their necessity for domestic purposes,and for the protection of men, animals, fruits, and grain,and of their value in inducing moisture, protecting the soil, and tempering the climate, it is, indeed, important that every section of the country should retain, if it has them, and if does not have them, should immediately engage in their production, at least to the extent of supplying local use and protection. In upper Egypt, the rains, which eighty years ago were abundant, have ceased since the Arabs cut down the trees along the valley of the Nile towards Libia and Arabia. A contrary effect has been produced in lower Egypt, from the extensive planting of trees by the Pacha. In Alexandria and Cairo, where rain was formerly a rarity, it has, since that period, become more frequent. Prof. R C. Kedzie, of the Michigan State Agricultural College, in an address—The Inguence of Forest Trees on Agriculture—delivered not long since before an agricultural society in that State. gave a very earnest warning against the waste ful destruction of forests, citing, at the same time, the well known facts of current history. It is noticeable as a hopeful fact, that prominent agricultural societies, in various sections of the country, have recently been emphatically direct ingpublic attention to this matter. In 1864 the British government founded an improved gen eral system of forest administration for the whole Indian empire, having in view the preser vation and development of state forests. All superior government forests are reserved, and made inalienable, their boundaries marked, and forest rules and penalties defined. Surveys have been made, and are still iu progress, towards establishing data as to the nature and extent of the timber resources. Several thousand maho gany trees have been raised in the Terai. Large tracts have been planted to wood for the pur pose of supplying the railways, which consume immense quantities for fuel. Puget Sound, Washington Territory, is well known as a prin cipal source of the lumber export of the North Pacific coast. Besides amounts consumed within our own territories, many cargoes of lumber are annually shipped from thence to ports in China, the Sandwich Islands, Australia, and South America. The following statement in regard to the resources of Puget Sound is on the authority of Mr. Joseph Cushman, receiver of public moneys at Olympia, situate at the head of the sound: The time is not far distant when nearly all the ship building on the Pacific coast will be done on the shores of Puget Sound. From the Cascade range to the Pacific, comprising about one-half of Washington Territory, the surface is densely covered with the finest forest growth in the world. Some of the trees, straight as an arrow, are four hundred feet in height, and fourteen feet in diameter near the ground. Varieties of the fir predominate, interspersed with spruce, hemlock, tamarack, White cedar, maple, ash, white oak, and, on some of the monhtain slopes, white pine. The yellow fir (Abies Dauglasii) is a tree peculiar to the North Pacific coast from the forty-second parallel to Alaska, and is found only east of the Cascade range, north of the boundary of forty-nine degrees. This is the timber principally used at the saw mills on the Sound, and is both strong and durable; in fact it is the strongest timber on the coast, both in perpendicular pressure and horizontal strain.