FORESTRY. 367 



Could these figures be given, all would be astonished that an}' tim- 

 ber remains standing within our territorial limits east of the Rocky 

 Mountains. Maine has been literallj' stripped of her magnificent 

 endowment of pine, for which she has received comparativelj' noth- 

 ing, and the work of clearing up remnants of her once boundless 

 groves still goes on to supplj- a weak demand in Europe for wood 

 pulp, staves and other small items of forest products. All along 

 the Atlantic coast down to the Carolinas, the same condition exists? 

 while the Gulf States and Michigan are exerting every possible 

 effort to find a market for all their reall}' fine woods in Europe. 

 Michigan has furnished many hundreds of millions of pine deals, 

 the best grade of pine timber, to Europe, and the denudation is still 

 going on in that state as well as in northern Wisconsin to satisfy this 

 demand. To such an extent has this gone on that Michigan has al- 

 ready been forced to resort to Canada for a supply of logs to keep 

 her mills going, and they have received the privilege of securing 

 this suppl}^ dutj' free. The time cannot be far distant when north- 

 ern Wisconsin mills will be forced to the same course from the same 

 cause. Canada for years has been drawing a supply of timber from 

 Minnesota which approximates 200,000,000 feet per year, which they 

 are permitted to cut and export without dut}', most of which finds 

 consumption in the Northwest territory. If the price realized for 

 this exported tiinber was such as to justif}' the sacrifice of our last 

 timber resources, it might be excusable, but it is disposed of in com- 

 petition with that produced bj^ cheap labor in northern Europe and 

 other portions of the world, so that the cost of its preparation, de- 

 ducted from its selling price, robs the timber of its standing value 

 and hastens the approach of a timber famine in this country. The 

 export of timber from Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, 

 Louisiana and Texas, as well as the more valuable woods of the in- 

 terior states, maj' be characterized as the most suicidal commerce 

 in which a nation ever indulged. What can or ought to be done bj- 

 the nation, state or 3-our association to arrest this destruction are 

 matters which call for the exercise of the greatest wisdom, and it is 

 of such importance as to justify any and all possible efforts. 



Coming down to the question of trying to secure aid from either 

 state or nation in any way to establish a system of forest raising, I 

 am free to confess the obstacle, at least, seems to be insurmountable. 

 The experiment tried, a few^ years ago, of giving away prairie land 

 free to those who would cultivate trees on a small portion of it, 

 proved such a failure that it will never be repeated; and, looking 

 further into the subject, it would be follj^ to expect countj^ and town 

 aid for the purpose or, still further, to ask individuals to contribute 

 to stocking somebody else's land with trees by contribution of anj' 

 sort. Practicallj', we have nothing left but to urge upon the owners 

 of land the propriety or necessity of setting apart a portion of his 

 land for the purpose, and sj^stematically engaging in raising trees. 

 If one fort}' out of each one hundred and sixty acres were devoted to 

 this purpose, in the course of fifteen or twenty years some return 

 would begin, and, carefull}' husbanded, a perpetual supply of fuel 

 would be found in ever}' part. The influence which such a system 



