Timber Interests of (he Pacific Coast. 69 



As the value of the logs is constantly increasing, and the demand for lum- 

 ber also on the increase and will continue, when railroads to the interior 

 will add new markets to the great foreign demand of the present, the ques- 

 tion naturally arises, how long will it be, with this gi'eat and increasing 

 demand upon the timber resources of Puget's Sound, before the stock of mar- 

 ketable timber will be exhausted ? The vast pine forests of Maine have been 

 shorn of their strength, and whole districts of the finest pine lands of 

 Michigan and other Western States have been entirely cleared of their tim- 

 ber; and, in almost everj^ instance where the pine has been cut, the succeed- 

 ing growth is of deciduous trees. In fact the great lumber men of the States 

 east of the Rocky mountains already have turned their attention to the for- 

 ests of Western Washington, and pronounce them to be the source from 

 whence in the near future the world must derive its supply of fir timber, as 

 well as other coniferous woods. This question has already attracted the at- 

 tention of careful observers, and it has been computed that perhaps a hun- 

 dred years will elapse before the present growth shall have been cleared off 

 b}' the woodman's ax, even allowing the new growth to occur. 



Bold writers assert a belief that the supply of fir in Washington Territory 

 cah never be exhausted. All past history proves to the contrary. Personal 

 observation warrants the assertion that destruction of timber by fire has 

 never been greater anywhere than in Washington, especially along the sound. 

 It is simply fearful— criminal! It is admitted that with the natural peculiar 

 reproductive characteristics of the fir region of this country, if forest fires 

 can be guarded against successfully, generations to come will not live to see 

 the supply exhausted. The new growth springing up spontaneously, where 

 denuded by fire or ax, is wonderful, thicker, seemingly, than the original. 

 But it must be remembered that from half to a whole century is required for 

 this class of timber to reach size, and perhaps as many more years to ripen 

 fit for use. Replanting or reproducing timber is estimated to be in propor- 

 tion of one-thirty-fifth that of destruction. This may be considered applica- 

 ble elsewhere. 



The general govarnmant has done, and is doing all possible in way of en- 

 actments and special agents to protect in various ways the vast timber do- 

 main of the North Pacific slope. 



Mere statutory provisions, either national or local, enacted to protect timber 

 domiin or encourage timber growing in naturally treeless or denuded re- 

 gions, while good as far as they go, and regarded as moves in the right direc- 

 tion, are next to infinitessimal in themselves. Public opinion and interest 

 must be awakened and educated up to a sustaining and enforcing jioint. 

 This is the important desideratum. How, and in what manner this can be 

 most speedily and successfully accomplished, is yet an oi)en question. 



To the observing student, facts have long since been made manifest, that 

 the increased demand for and rapid consumption of the timber of the coun- 

 try, together with the wanton waste and useless destruction of it, is ru.shing 

 us to the vortex of a timber famine. While most writers, even from a non- 



