444 REPORT OP STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



Thus leavinof only one hundred and ten billion, four hundred and forty-nine 

 million feet distributed over the remaining twenty-six counties, fifteen of 

 which are in the subhumid and dry region east of the Cascade Range. 



It is quite safe to estimate that the total cut of the current year will reach 

 seven hundred million feet, board measure, which, at present prices, will 

 yield a value of $6,510,000. 



The paper mills of the state, at a conservative estimate, are now using 

 between five and six million feet per annum, chiefly western hemlock ( Tsuga 

 heteyophylla), Great Silver fir (Abies grandis), poplar (Pojjulus tremuloides). 

 and Cottonwood (P. t richocarpa) : and it will be safe to say that this amount 

 will be increased rather than diminished as time goes on. 



In considering our forests as a source of fuel supply, we find that one of 

 the transcontinental lines in Oregon uses wood entirely on its trains, while 

 all the steamers in the state are similarly fueled, and these two items, to- 

 gether with the amount used by our cities and tow^s, reaches a total of four 

 hundred thousand to five hundred thousand cords per annum at present, a 

 consumption that will undoubtedly be increased as the resources of the state 

 are developed. Too many, even amongst well-informed people, are inclined 

 to regard our timber supply as inexhaustible, and to look upon our forests as 

 a crop that nature will replenish about as rapidly as it is consumed. The 

 idea is a very erroneous one, and it is but fair to our more intelligent citizens 

 to assume that when they are fully apprised of the imijortance of forest 

 preservation, indifference will become a thing of the past and the subject 

 will receive the attention to which it is entitled. 



One too often hears the statement made by persons presumably capaple of 

 knowing, that '"there is just as much timber in this state now as there was 

 when the first white settlers came here," the theory being that the growth 

 of Douglas spruce is so rapid as to counterbalance the amount of timber used 

 as lumber, the amount used for agricultural purposes, and the amount 

 destroyed by fire each year. This is a serious misconception, and it is the 

 duty of those better infortoed to correct such a fallacious theory as rapidly 

 as possible. 



It is quite true this tree is a very rapid grower, and that in favorable 

 localities — say a soil of basaltic origin, coupled with a humid climate and 

 moderate temperature, conditions that are fairly well supplied in the sec- 

 tion of this state west of the Cascade Range — trees of this species may be 

 found large enough for railroad ties, at forty years old, but usually they 

 would require to be eighty years old or more to be large enough for this 

 purpose ; and, to be suitable for lumber purposes, an age of two hundred to 

 three hundred years is necessary. When we reflect that thousands of the 

 larger trees of this species now standing in this state are more than four 

 hundred years old — a fact that any one may ascertain for himself by count- 

 ing the annual growths on a stump five feet or more in diameter — the fal- 

 lacy of regarding the forest as a crop that can be readily regrown or re- 

 placed, can be fully realized. 



On the other hand, it is almost equally erroneous to regard our forests 

 solely as a park or game preserve. They are one of the resources of our 

 state, and a most important one, as a study of the above figures will show ; 



