426 



ARBORICULTURE 



Where our Forests are Going. 



In the United States alone some 4,- 

 000,000 feet of pine lumber are used ev- 

 ery year for matches, or the equivalent 

 of the product of 400 acres of g:ood vir- 

 gin forest. About 620,000,000 crossties 

 are now laid on American railroads and 

 90,000,000 new ties are required anniuil- 

 ly for renewals. The amount of timber 

 used every year for ties alone is equiva- 

 lent to 3,000.000.000 feet of lumber. 

 There are now standing nearly 7,500,000 

 telegraph poles. The average life of a 

 telegraph pole is about ten years, so that 

 nearly 750,000 new poles are required 

 every year for renewals. Those figures 

 do not include telephone poles and the 

 poles required on new railroad lines. The 

 total annual consumption of timber for 

 ties and poles is equivalent to the 

 amount of timber grown on 100,000 

 acres of good virgin forest. For making 

 shoe pegs the amount of wood used in a 

 single year is equal to the product of 

 fully 3,000 acres of good second growth 

 hai-dwood land. Lasts and boot trees re- 

 quire at least 500,000 cords more. JNIost 

 new.spaper and packing paper is made 

 from wood. Although this inlustry has 

 been developed only within the last for- 

 ty years, yet the amount of wood con 

 sumed for paper during that time ha^ 

 been enormous. The total annual eon- 

 sumption of wood for paper pulp is 

 eqViivalent to over 800,000,000 board 

 feet of timber, for which it would be 

 necessary, were the trees all growing to- 

 gether, to cut some 80,000 acres of prime 

 woods. — Chriatia n Work. 



Here is material for a sermon. Match- 

 es, a necessity; crossties, es.sential tn 

 modern commerce; telegraph poles, ro- 



(|uii'('(l 1() iii.iiiitain communication be- 

 tween a thou.sand cities. We doubt if 

 shoe pegs are sti" used to the extent re 

 quiring three thousand acres of timber 

 annually, since the sewing machine, 

 with flax and cotton thread have become 

 so common in shoe manufacture. Un- 

 doubtedly a far less quantity of wood 

 pulp col lid be used with benetit to man- 

 kind. The great daily newspapers have 

 reached the limit of expansion ; if but 

 half their present size it would be a pub- 

 lic benefaction. Yet, our saying so is 

 not b'y any means reducing the acreage 

 cleared for wood pulp. 



How can all these conditions be im- 

 ])i"oved? 



The only remedy that is practical is 

 to plant more trees, and plant them 

 abundantly. Yes, and systematically. 

 This continent has ample land better 

 suited for growing timber than for agri- 

 cultural cropping. In a natural wood 

 trees grow slowly ; the excessive number 

 of trees starve each other and prevent 

 rapid development. A century is re- 

 quired for nature to produce a forest. 

 Many thousands of weaker trees must be 

 sniothei'ed out by stronger growths be- 

 fore the latter can secure their needed 

 nourislnnent. On this account system- 

 atic planting and thorough cultivation 

 will secure a better forest in thirty years 

 than can be jiroduced by nature in a 

 hundred. Contractors procure ties by 

 cutting scant growth timber on a thou- 

 sand hills and hauling them over miles 

 of i-oughest roads to the railway. It re- 

 • luires many square miles of native tim- 

 ber to feed the maw of our great rail- 

 wavs, vet a much smaller area of land 



