10 



The bark of certain trees, notably the hemlock, and the oaks among 

 our native species, contain the chemical compounds known as tannic acids, 

 which serve for the manufacture of leather. 



Thus 1,500,000 cords of tan bark, worth about $10,000,000, which are 

 used annually in the U. S., entailed formerly a sacrifice of nearly 1,000 feet 

 of lumber per cord of bark ; of this now probably the larger part is saved. 



The naval store industry, concerned in extracting from the living 

 trees of certain kinds of pine, especially the Southern long leaf pine, and 

 from other species, the resinous contents, and by distillation obtaining tur- 

 pentine, resin of various kinds, and tar, is indebted to the forest to the 

 extent of about $20,000,000 per year in the United States. 



A similar industry is the tapping of the maple for sugar, which is pe- 

 culiar to the United States and Canada, producing with over 50,000,000 

 pounds of sugar, and 3,000,000 gallons of syrup, values to the extent of 

 $6,000,000 annually. 



Finally, by distillation of the wood itself and condensing of the gas- 

 eous products, considerable amounts of wood alcohol, wood vinegar, and 

 acetates, creosote, and other tar oils useful in the arts, are derived, adding 

 another $3,000,000 or more to the annual revenue furnished by the forest 

 resource in the United States. 



While the value of the raw forest products consumed every year in 

 the United States at places of consumption, roughly shaped for further 

 use, may be placed at $600,000,000 ! this is enhanced by their further 

 manufacture to over $1,200,000,000, thus making the result of the forest 

 industries second only to those of agriculture, the value of whose products 

 reached in the census year (18UO) nearly $2,500,000,000 while the total 

 production of metals which could in any way replace wood gold and sil- 

 ver and iron included reached only $270,000,000, and the entire mining 

 industry (quarries and every kind of mineral or earthy product included) 

 but little over $600,000,000. 



As civilization advances so does the use of wood increase, and during 

 the last 40 years this increase has been most remarkable. Great Britain, 

 having hardly any wood lands of her own, stands first as an importer of 

 wood, importing last year wood to the value of $125,000,000 (20 per cent 

 more than her pig iron product). During the last 40 years the amount of 

 wood used in that country has been increased 200 per cent, while her popu- 

 lation only increased 42 per cent. France in the last 70 years, with an in- 

 crease of population of 20 per cent., has increased her consumption of wood 

 700 per cent. Germany is, next to Great Britain, the greatest importer of 

 wood, increasing its imports by 400 per cent, in the last 40 years, or 3^ 

 per cent, per annum. These remarkable increases are doubtless due in 

 part to increased manufactures of wood for exportation, but the all-around 

 increase is consequent upon the demands of advancing civilization. 



