146 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[May, 



TIMBER STATISTICS. 



BY T. T. SOITIIWICK, KOCHKSTEK, N. Y, 



From a late issue of the Lumberman'' s Gazette^ 

 I compile a few figures and facts showing the 

 immense slaughter taking place in our timber 

 lands. 



The figures cover the operations in only a few 

 localities, and when to them are added a fair 

 estimate of the amount yearly cut in other 

 States, and the very considerable quantity got 

 out in Canada, some idea of the destruction 

 of American forests can be formed. 



I understand the statistics cover pine lumber 

 only, though the amount of lumber yearly cut 

 in the so-called hardwoods, such as Oak, Elm, 

 Hickory, "Walnut, Chestnut, Bass and White- 

 wood, etc., must be millions upon millions of 

 feet. 



As showing for what trifling pay people de- 

 stroy timber, I would mention having seen 

 about a year since, on the banks of a Canada 

 stream, a quantity of Elm logs estimated at 

 twenty million feet, for which farmers re- 

 ceived only two dollars and fifty cents per 

 thousand feet, delivered on the bank of the 

 stream. These figures and facts are not new, 

 but they seem startling and can but make the 

 thoughtful ponder. 



The timber cut in Michigan for 1879 is report- 

 ed as follows : 



Saginaw District, . 736,106,000 feet. 

 Huron Shore, . . . 410,646,000 " 

 Interior Mills, . . . 518,670,000 " 

 Lake Michigan Mills, 1,338,127,000 " 



Total amount cut, 3,003,549,000 " 

 Cut of the Wisconsin and Mississippi "Valley, 

 1879, 1,583,185,000 feet. 



Business of Williamsport, Pa., 1879, 213,120,- 

 000 feet. 

 Recapitulation of above figures for 1879: 

 Michigan, .... 3,003,549,000 feet. 

 West Miss. Valley, 1,583,185,000 " 

 Williamsport, Pa., 213,120,000 " 



4,799,854,000 " 

 The total cut for sixteen years in one of 

 the four Michigan districts, viz, the Saginaw Dis- 

 trict, is 8,360,000,000 feet, or an average of more 

 than 500,000,000 feet per year. 



During the same period 8,700,000,000 feet have 

 been floated down the Muskegon and Tiltaba- 

 wasse rivers of Michigan. 



During ten years Williamsport, Pa., has 

 used 2,340,708,595 feet. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Planting Trees. — As the subject is of 

 national importance, we lay before our readers 

 the following particulars of what a single man 

 has done in this matter of planting. David 

 Landreth's first tree plantings in Virginia were 

 in the Spring of 1872, when 5,000 European 

 Larch, and 1,000 Abies Douglasii were set out. 

 These were followed in autumn by 25,000 Cy- 

 press, Larch, and Yellow Locust. Since then 

 there have been extensive annual plantings of 

 the same varieties with additions of Black and 

 White Walnuts, Pecans, Hickories, Chestnuts, 

 Wild Cherries, White and Green Ash, Tulip- 

 Poplars, Ailanthus, Catalpa, White Pine, Ital- 

 ian and American Sumac. 



Last Spring the number of seedlings planted 

 were as follows : 1,000 Catalpa Japonica, 40,- 

 000 Catalpa speciosa, 150,000 Catalpa syringae- 

 folia, 20,000 Ailanthus, 6,000 Abies Douglasii, 

 10,000 each of White Oak, Hickories and Tulips. 



Experience has shown that some of the va- 

 rieties are unsuited to the location ; such have 

 been destroyed and the land replanted with 

 approved sorts. Those that have most radically 

 failed, are the Larch, Cypress, and Locust. 

 The two first by reason of uncongenial soil ; 

 the latter through insect depredations, in one 

 instance a field of 100,000 trees, ten feet in 

 height being stung to death in a single week. 

 Many other losses have been met with, as by 

 fire, cattle trespass, depredations by rabbits, 

 and want of experience. This latter has now 

 been gained and the work will go forward with 

 fewer drawbacks. The lands upon which these 

 plantings have been made, are the clearings and 

 old corn fields of distinct and widely separated 

 farms, though all in the same county. His suc- 

 cessors intend to plant all their stump lands, to 

 the aggregate of 5,000 acres, as rapidly as the 

 natural forest is cut off". 



Tree Planting in Massachusetts. — We 

 are pleased to learn from the Boston Herald that 

 tree planting in Massachusetts is progressing. 

 " A few farmers in Nantucket and Cape Cod be- 

 gan about thirty years ago raising forests in this 

 manner, and their plantations are now, perhaps, 

 in many respects the most interesting examples 

 of successful arboriculture which can be seen in 

 the L^nited States. They only planted the seeds 

 of one of our native trees, the common pitch 

 pine (Pinus rigida). This is one of the least 



