HARDWOOD RECORD 



19 



SUilMAKV 



The siuuuuiiv of all forest products exported from the 

 >?tates to the various provinces and colonies of Africa in 191 

 f ollons : 



Longleaf pine timbers 



Longleaf lumber 



Furniture 



Doors, sash, and blinds 



White pine iumber 



Kir lumber 



Miscellaneous yellow pine 



Yellow poplar ■- , 



Wheelbarrows and handcarts 



Staves 



Miscellaneous manufactures 



Carriages 



Woodenware 



Wagons 



House trimmings 



Oak lumber 



Scantling 



Miscellaneous lumber '. 



Spruce lumber 



Pulp 



Empty barrels * 



Round logs 



Box shocks 



Gum lumber 



Headings 



Barrel shocks 



Shingles ,■ ■ ■ ■ 



All other manufactures 



United 

 3 is as 



439,956 



389,314 



244,797 



177,671 



136,167 



80,880 



69,967 



67,526 



62,633 



59,S.')6 



47,985 



41,012 



35,334 



30.511 



30,105 



24,769 



22,793 



11,977 



10,576 



9,209 



8,037 



4,400 



4,107 



4,078 



2,500 



1,426 



1,168 



182,255 



Total $2,201,009 



Tradk with Africa 



Portions of Africa have held important places in the world's 

 trade since the earliest history, but the- trade of the world was very 

 small in remote times. The Africans always had something to sell 

 and were always willing to buy. The Egyptians had grain for 

 barter while surrounding peoples were starving. The same corner 

 of Africa was carrying on a lumber business with Syria a thousand 

 years before Solomon sought cedar and fir in Lebanon for his temple. 

 '"arthagenian ships were trading with every known country at a time 

 when the site of Home was a sheep pasture, and skin-clad Britishers 

 were clubbing wild hogs in the wilderness where Loudon now stands. 



Africa is still open for business with the world. It -still has 

 articles for sale, but trading is now on a larger scale than wlien the 

 Somalians went on long trading trips to swap an ox horn of musk 

 for an ox born of salt, or when Egyptian ships spent four months in 

 procuring a cargo of ten thousand feet of cedar logs and conveying 

 them two hundred miles. 



Africa now sells cotton, sugar, rubber, tobacco, coffee, wool, cattle, 

 goats, skins, grain, logs, gold and diamonds. These include the 

 cheapest and most costly commodities in the woild, and they go to 

 all parts -of the civilized trading world. There is no scarcity of 

 commodities to exchange for our forest products. The continent of 

 Africa is 16,000 miles in circumference, and almost every port is a 

 prospective center for the purchase of our lumber or of articles made 

 wholly or in part of American wood. Development is very rapid in 

 many parts of Africa and lumber is one. of the things which will be 

 needed in large amounts, and much of it must come from distant 

 countries. 



-^1 National Forest Fires in 1914 -^x" 



The season of 1914, according to the officials of Ihe Forest Service, 

 carried greater danger from fire to the national forests than any 

 year since the establishment of the national forests. To meet this 

 emergency and to prevent great loss of public property the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture was obliged to exceed the amount appropriated 

 for fire protection and incur a deficiency of $349,243. The condi- 

 tions of drouth and other factors of forest fire hazard were said to 

 be worse than in 1910, when the disastrous Idaho fires occurred. 



"Weather bureau reports show that in most of the Eocky mountain 

 and Pacific coast region last winter 's sno'ns were much below the 

 normal, and as a result there was an early spring and an early dry- 

 ing out of the forests. In western Montana and northern Idaho 

 there were forest fires in considerable numbers by the end of May 

 and they continued until October. In California, where there is 

 normally a very long -season of drouth, the fire season started in 

 some portions five weeks earlier than usual, and in the southern 

 part of the state the fire danger was still great at the end of 

 November. A long dry season, sustained periods of high tempera- 

 ture, recurring hard and steady winds, and in certain places unusually 

 hot, dry nights rendered the forests exceedingly inflammable and the 

 problem of fire prevention unusually diflScult. 



More Than Six Thousand Fires 



The total number of fires during the season of 1914 which threat- 

 ened -the national forests and which had to be handled by the pro- 

 tective organization of the Forest Service were 6,112, or about 1,000 

 more Ihan occurred in 1910. This number represents the fires re- 

 ported up to December 1. At that time reports indicated that there 

 was still a dangerous condition in southern California and in certain 

 portions of the national forests of the east. "~ The service says that 

 the total for the year will be increased by fires in these regions dur- 

 ing December. 



The most serious conditions are reported from western Montana 

 and northern Idaho and on the Pacific slope. The weather condi- 

 tions in the central and southern Rocky mountain regions were more 

 nearly normal. As a consequence only fifteen per cent of the total 



number of all national forest fires occured in these regions and they 

 were handled without difficulty and with very small loss of property. 



Of the entire 6,112 fires which threatened the national forests, 

 eighty-one per cent were extinguished by the protective organization 

 before they had covered ten acres. The percentage of fires that 

 burned over more than ten acres was smaller than in any previous 

 year. 



While detailed reports have not yet been received appraising the 

 exact loss to the government through the forest fires, a preliminary 

 estimate shows that the loss of merchantable timber will probably 

 not exceed .$400,000. In 1910 the corresponding estimate of loss 

 was nearly $15,000,000, but later estimates materially reduced the 

 amount. Through the work of the protective force the fires this 

 year were largely confined to old burns and to less heavily timbered 

 acreas. The loss to the government through the destruction of young 

 trees which had sprung up in these openings is larger than the actual 

 loss to green timber, though it is always a difficult matter to estimate 

 the loss resulting when a fire runs through an extensive region abound- 

 ing in young growth. 



Region op Greatest Danger 



In Montana and Idaho alone it is said that the value of specific 

 bodies of timber which were threatened by the approximately 2,000 

 fires which started and were put out, aggregated the enormous sum 

 of over $59,000,000. It was in this section that the largest amount of 

 money had to be spent to prevent a recurrence of the great disaster 

 of 1910. In Oregon an<3 Washington the 1,200 fires which were 

 handled by the department threatened upwards of $24,000,000 worth 

 of timber, and these figures, according to the department experts, do 

 not include the value of non-merchantable timber and young growth 

 on about 5,000,000 acres of land, and several million dollars' worth 

 of lanch and other private property which lay in the path of the 

 threatening conflagrations. Figures are not yet gathered of the 

 precise amount of damage threatened by fires in California and other 

 national forest states, though they are expected to add large amounts 

 to the total value of the property threatened and saved. 



