THE NATIONAL AND MINNESOTA S FOREST RESERVE, 33 I 



those who manufacture barrels for whisky, wine, oil, alcohol, tur- 

 pentine and other Hquids. All of these seem to demand and re- 

 quire white oak of the finest grade, and the part of the tree which 

 they deem fit for their purpose is its least part. The greater part up 

 to recent years has been thrown aside to rot and breed a very de- 

 structive species of worm, or else has been thrown into heaps and 

 burned. I feel that I am well within the bounds of truth and rea- 

 son when I say that if all the white oak which has been wasted dur- 

 ing the past fifty years could have been sawed and sold at its pres- 

 ent value, it would have been enough to pay for the Panama 

 Canal — or, possibly, pay off the national debt." 



President Elliot, of the Northern Pacific Railroad, emphasized 

 the enormous consumption of timber for cross ties. He stated that 

 it requires the forest product of 500,000 acres annually to supply 

 cross ties alone, and that the entire consumption of timber by the 

 railroads requires the product of 1,000,000 acres per annum. He 

 urged farmers and land companies to plant trees for cross ties. 



One of the most touching addresses was made by Col. Emer- 

 son, of the state of Washington, It almost brought tears to our 

 eyes as he described the wasteful methods of the lumbermen on the 

 Pacific Slope and the fall of those mighty monarchs of the forest. 

 He said : 



"In the home of the fir, the spruce and the cedar, the song of 

 the axe, the saw and the hammer begins with the dawn and rests 

 only with the close of the day. Go where you will the crop of the 

 centuries is being harvested. With each breath a monarch of the 

 forest falls. Engines whistle to engines, as the huge trunks of these 

 noble trees are dragged to the water or to the railroad ; the locomo- 

 tive whistles to the mill as it comes with long trains of the wealth 

 of our forests, and the mill whistles back to the locomotive as its 

 saws sing while they work. Steamers for coastwise and trains for 

 eastern markets whistle back to the mill as they hasten with its 

 product ; the deep loaded ship spreads its sails and the winds waft 

 our lumber to the far corners of the earth. In all ways the harvest 

 goes merrily on, and the song of the axe, the saw and the hammer, 

 are sweet to the ears of our people, for they sing of industry, pros- 

 perity and happy homes. 



"But is there no other note in the song? Do these people ever 

 think of the centuries their crop has been growing? Does it never 

 occur to them they are the trustees of an heritage for future gene- 

 rations, to be guarded, cared for and watched, used from sparingly 

 as necessity requires or price justifies, but not to bcr wantonly wast- 

 ed or destroyed, or disposed of without adequate returns?" 



This gospel from the lips of a lumberman soimded strangely 

 sweet in our ears ! 



Mr. Weyerhauser, of Minnesota, in his address before the 

 congress stated that "observation forces upon us the fact that the 



