FORESTS SUPPLYING LUMBER. YX 



One of the most cunningly devised schemes ever invented by 

 the master of mischief to waste the entire timber of a country in 

 one generation, was that to relieve the country people of that State 

 from the burthen of keeping their common clay roads in repair, by 

 chartering companies to build upo.n them plank roads to the extent 

 of thousands of miles. The loss to the State through this means, 

 that will never be restored, is ten thousand fold greater than all 

 resultant advantages. 



In our own country the dwellings of twenty-five millions of 

 people are chiefly made of wood, and in the world there may be six 

 hundred millions who dwell in wooden habitations. When we look 

 at this perishable material, as it enters into the construction of the 

 out-buildings of Americans, and think of its amount, then of the 

 fences of the country, which cost more in material and in labor 

 than all the buildings on farms, added to that of all the villages 

 and cities, and take into the account that all this wood is destined 

 to decay sooner or later, or be burned up, — fix all this in mind, 

 and we have made one point in illustration. The evils of past 

 destruction are now experienced in all our cities and large towns — 

 and the broad country may not be left out of the account — in the 

 great increase of cost of fuel, and in the price of lumber and tim- 

 ber. High rates of fares and freight charges on our lines of travel, 

 result in the main from the increased cost of building steamboats 

 and railroads, and running them. 



Railroads are enormous consumers, of recent introduction. The 

 sixty thousand miles now in use or soon to be completed, demand 

 an almost incalculable amount of wood. With 2,500 ties or 

 sleepers to a mile, these roads require one hundred and fifty 

 millions ; and these ties decay and require renewal in about five 

 years. This vast number causes the destruction of a nearly equal 

 number of incipient timber trees — for they are usually cut when 

 of a size suitable for only one or two sleepers. 



The lumber used in fencing these roads, in building bridges, 

 depots and cars, is quite an item to be added to former consump- 

 tion. Then of the fuel ! It is estimated that the distance run 

 each day by trains on all the roads is 308,000 miles. Each engine 

 with an ordinary train consumes about one and three-fourths cords 

 of wood for every twenty-five miles. This gives a daily consump- 

 tion of wood for this purpose alone of 21,560 cords, or six and 

 one-half million cords annually. Telegraph poles are a recent item 



