1883.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



243 



Forestry. 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



FOREST FIRES. 



BV PROF. C. S. SARGENT. 

 (Coucluded from page 213.) 



Not a small part of central and southern New 

 England, no longer profitable for agriculture, is 

 now growing up with white pine; and this white 

 pine, if it can only be protected, will, in a few years, 

 it is safe to predict, exceed in value the net profit 

 all the New England farms can produce during 

 the next fifty years. In some parts of New Eng- 

 land this second growth of pine has been growing 

 for a considerable time, and has already given rise 

 to large and profitable industries. The value of 

 logs cut in Massachusetts during the census year, 

 reached nearly two million dollars; at least one- 

 half were second-growth white pine. More than 

 one hundred million feet of second-growth white 

 pine were sawed during the same year in Vermont 

 and New Hampshire, and nearly if not quite as 

 much more in Maine. Tl"^ manufacture of wooden 

 ware, an important and growing Massachusetts in- 

 dustry depending upon this second-growth pine, 

 has made Winchendon, Worcester county, the great 

 center of this business in the United States, if not 

 in the world. These young forests of pine are al- 

 ready, then, of great value to New England; at no 

 very distant day they must become one of the most 

 important factors in its prosperity. The problem 

 growing out of the actual condition of the coun- 

 try's supply of white pine, and the eftects which 

 any serious diminution of this supply must have 

 upon our prosperity as a nation, need not be con- 

 sidered here at any great length. 



The entire supply of white pine growing in the 

 United States and ready for the axe does not to- 

 day greatly, if at all, exceed eighty billion feet, and 

 this estimate includes small and inferior trees, 

 which a few years ago would not have been con- 

 sidered at all in making such an estimate. 



The annual production of white pine lumber is 

 not now far from ten billion feet, and the demand 

 is constantly and rapidly increasing. The publi- 

 cation of these facts a few months ago has greatly 

 increased, and in some cases more than doubled, 

 the value of pine lands in parts of the country ; and 

 it does not require any particular powers of fore- 



sight to be able to predict that the price of white 

 pine must advance to still higher figures. Enough 

 is now known of our forests to permit the positive 

 statement that no great unexplored body of this pine 

 remains; and that, with the exception of the narrow 

 redwood belt of the California coast, no North Ame- 

 rican forest can yield in quantity any substitute for 

 white pine, the most generally valuable and most 

 generally used of American lumber. Under these 

 circumstances, the growing pine of New England 

 will soon become an important element in the coun- 

 try's supply. In no other section is there so much 

 young pine growing ; and if we cannot compete 

 with the West or the South in the production of 

 cereals and wheat, we have at least in our favor soil 

 and climate better suited to grow pine than any 

 other part of the country. New England cannot 

 allow this opportunity for increased prosperity to 

 be lost. The demand for white pine is rapidly in- 

 creasing; the extent of the supply is at last known; 

 no available substitute exists to any great extent; 

 we possess already a considerable quantity of 

 young pine, and greater natural advantages than 

 other parts of the country for growing a much 

 larger amount. A market is assured for all 

 that can be produced, and we may look forward 

 with certainty to obtaining prices for pine which 

 promise, if we can judge the future by the past, to 

 make the value of the land covered with thrifty 

 growing pine much greater than that which can 

 ever be obtained for the best agricultural land in 

 the State. 



The single danger which threatens property of • 

 this nature is^he one, real or imaginary, of de- 

 struction by forest fires. If this danger, and the 

 dread of it, could be removed, or at least greatly 

 reduced, an investment in young pine growing in 

 New England would promise to capital, in the long 

 run, larger returns than could be derived from al- 

 most any other legitimate business enterprise; but 

 so long as this dread of fire exists capital will natu- 

 ally content itself with smaller and more certain 

 returns. If under these circumstances it is desira- 

 ble to foster and develop the growth of New Eng- 

 land forests, better legislation than now exists for 

 their protection must be secured; and then the 

 public mind must be educated to the importance 

 of forest protection, that the enforcement of such 



