1885.] AMERICAN THOUGHT AND ACTION. 427 



than twelve months, unless some equally cheap and durable substi- 

 tute is found to take its place. (_)ther woods can only be used 

 for the cheapest skates. Dogwood, apple, pepperidge, laurel, and 

 lignum vitffi liave been tried by almost every roller maker, and all 

 liave been rejected. The lignum vitte alone is hard enough, but it 

 will not stand the strain of the small axle. Metal wheels with a 

 I'ubber surface are made, but nothing has yet been found which in 

 all respects is as good for the purpose as boxwood. 



THE FORESTEY CENSUS. 



A writer in the Philadelphia Press summarizes the results con- 

 tained in tlie concluding volume of this national undertaking : — 



" Our forest wealtli must be enormous to supply this immense 

 annual yield, but how long it can endure this great and steadily- 

 increasing drain is a question of vital moment. In regions lying 

 along the coasts of both oceans, where the climatic conditions are 

 most favourable to timber growth, the cutting of trees wliich have 

 reached their prime entails no less, and, if judiciously worked, 

 permanent and productive forests could be maintained with profit 

 in regions better adapted to their growth than to agriculture. 

 When the prosperity of the State of Maine — founded on her once 

 iininterrupted forests of spruce and jjine — was threatened by waste- 

 ful cutting and burning, the forward-looking people of that State 

 realized the danger, and a vigorous public sentiment soon operated 

 to protect the scattered remnants of her jirimeval woods, and now 

 the forests which were once held to be practically exliausted yield 

 a large annual product. The example of Maine proves that 

 original forests can be preserved and new ones established when 

 the entire community realizes that they are essential to material 

 prosperity. Eut the forests which are sensibly and economically 

 managed are discouragingly few. The wliite pine, our most impor- 

 tant timber tree, has already practically disappeared from New 

 York and New England, and little merchantable timber of this 

 kind can now be found in I'ennsylvania, where the pineries once 

 seemed inexhaustible. The maps in this volume show that the 

 forests of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota which now furnish 

 the bulk of wliite pine produced, are dangerously near to exhaus- 

 tion. The best walnut, ash, cherry, and wliitewood have already 

 been culled from the hardwood forests of the Mississippi Valley. 

 At the present rate of consumption the redwood forest of Cali- 

 fornia will soon lose its commercial importance, and the extermi- 

 nation of the forests of the interior Pacific region seems inevitable. 



The wasteful tuipentine industry in tlie forests of southern 



