Slimmer Meeting. ' 87 



the bark and knots have been removed which is ground into pulp and 

 then pressed into paper. Nearly all books are now made of wood pulp. 

 The demand of the future will increase rapidly. 



Our two hundred thousand miles of American railways have and 

 will continue to make a heavy draw upon our forests. It requires six 

 hundred million cross-ties to lay them once, and ninety millions per 

 annum to maintain them, to say nothing- of new lines to be built. 



Pole Lines. — The vast number of telegraph and telephone lines, from 

 the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the lakes on the north to the Gulf 

 on the south are rapidly exhausting the cream of our young forest 

 growth. The ever increasing demand (usually at advanced prices) for 

 all kinds of lumber, cross-ties, piling, bridge timber, posts, pulp and 

 fuel, should be sufficient proof to convince every doubting Thomas in 

 Missouri of the commercial value of our forests and our cultivated 

 groves, and stimulate every land owneV in the State to a greater effort 

 in this line of work. 



What can zve do to save our forests f — Nothing, simply nothing! 

 The hungry jaws of commerce must be fed and our beautiful forests of 

 Missouri are going, and will continue to fade away. While this is true, 

 we have the consolation of knowing that it is within our power to re- 

 forest all the land we wish to with the most valuable varieties of timber. 

 Will we do it, and will it pay? These are vital and important questions 

 that every land owner must settle for himself. We have before us a 

 report of the Yaggy tract of five hundred acres of planted forest near 

 Hutchison, Kansas, that has been under cultivation for twelve years. In 

 that time they report that they have sold thirty thousand dollars worth 

 of fence posts, which have been secured by thinning out, and leaving the 

 larger trees which are now reported worth thirty thousand dollars. This 

 will serve to give an idea of the immense profit in forestration. 



A large majority of the two hundred and fifty thousand farms in 

 Missouri contain some rough spot, possibly some nook or corner incon- 

 venient to cultivate, some hillside, or stony spot of little value to culti- 

 vate, that might be planted to valuable varieties of timber. If all of 

 our farmers would go to work and plant from one to twenty acres, owing 

 to size of farm and suitability of land, with black walnut, black locust, 

 catalpa, etc., and then care for them a few years, they would soon be- 

 come a thing of beauty, a source of pleasure, comfort and profit to their 

 occupants. 



In south Missouri we have a large amount of land from which the 

 heavy timber has been cut, much of this land has a good second growth 

 well worthy of the attention of the owners or of those who are seeking 



