588 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Computations have been made, from time to time, by com- 

 petent persons, including our efficient forestry chief, Prof. Fernow, 

 of the number of cubic feet of wood of all kinds annually used by 

 our people for all purposes. Into these I do not propose to enter. 

 It must suffice to say that the total annual consumption has been 

 variously estimated at from four to eight million acres of wood- 

 land. Forest fires are responsible for ten million acres more, or 

 nearly double all other causes combined. 



The United States east of the Mississippi conta,ins about five- 

 hundred million acres. Assuming one half to be timbered land, 

 and that ten million acres cover the actual annual consumption 

 and destruction, our woodlands will practically last only another 

 quarter of a century. 



A peculiar feature about this excessive depletion of our for- 

 ests is the wasteful and improvident manner in which it has been 

 accomplished. Nowhere else has such waste been witnessed. 

 Lands have been so cheaply obtained, and their resources have 

 appeared so boundless, that it seems hardly to have occurred that 

 there could be any limit. Not only have no means been resorted 

 to for renewal of the woodlands, but all who have had to do with 

 the forests whether lumber barons or poor settlers alike have 

 looked to personal gain, with no regard to the future. Especially 

 has this been the case with lumbermen in the pine districts. 

 A noble pine tree is felled ; one, two, or three saw logs are cut 

 off, and the remainder left to litter the woods and to decay. Nor 

 have the unsold Government lands escaped. Universally have 

 these been plundered, as if Uncle Sam had no rights in his forest 

 domain which his family were bound to respect. Nor has it 

 been easy, if possible, to exact justice against plunderers, for 

 juries will seldom convict, and are likely themselves to be parti- 

 ceps criminis. Besides, the law, or at least custom, allows set- 

 tlers to take whatever timber they need for their buildings and 

 fences, and the question is seldom asked where sawmills in a 

 sparse community obtain their supplies. 



Forest fires have accompanied the lumbermen, and it will 

 be observed that the most extensive and disastrous ones have 

 occurred in the pine districts. Nature's records show that before 

 the advent of the white settler fires often swept the prairies and 

 oak openings, and doubtless the peculiar character of these is 

 largely due to this fact. The Indians were hunters, and the 

 needs of the chase were met by the annual burning of the grass, 

 which harbored game while it hindered the chase. Usually the 

 damage to timber thus occasioned was but little, though in the 

 course of years many a fine tree succumbed to repeated attacks. 

 But the Indians never ruthlessly destroyed the woodlands. The 

 white hunter, too, who roamed the woods before they were occu- 



