THE FORESTS OF WASHINGTON. 



BY MRS. ALICE HOUGHTON. 



This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pine and the 



hemlock. 

 Bearded with moss and in garments green, indistinct in the 



twilight, 



Stand like Druids of old, with voices sad and prophetic, 

 Stand like Harper's hoar, with beards that rest on their 



bosoms. 



Loud from its rocky caverns the deep-voiced neighboring ocean 

 Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the 



forest." Evangeline. 



T ONGFELLOW shows in these lines an intimate 

 L, knowledge of nature that amounts almost to di- 

 vine intuition. His keen appreciation unrolls 

 before us a grand panorama of forests, with tall hem- 

 locks and waving pines, towering like great cathedral 

 spires above the " rocky caverns," their leaf-woven 

 domes nodding and swaying in the breeze, until they 

 seem like human souls pluming for flight to heaven 

 in search of the mysteries of the vast infinite. 



One can fancy the author having been transported 

 to the great Washington forests and to have drawn his 

 inspiration from the wealth of timber that possesses 

 that country. What a wonderful growth of forestry 

 is here nearly 24,000,000 acres of the finest timber in 

 the world. On Puget sound trees grow 275 feet high and 

 average in diameter from twelve to twenty feet. The 

 leading varieties are fir, spruce, cedar, tamarack, pine, 

 alder, maple, ash, larch, cottonwood, yew and oak. 

 There are other varieties but this list comprises about 

 all that are found in large bodies. The best timber 

 does not grow directly along the coast but begins a 

 few miles back and becomes larger in size as it reaches 

 the base of the Cascade mountains, diminishing as it 

 creeps to the summit, increasing again as the descent 

 is made on the eastern slope. 



The timber of Washington is pretty equally divided 

 between the eastern and western portions of the State. 

 The density, however, is largely in favor of Puget 

 sound, owing to a lesser acreage of land. The divis- 

 ional line is the Cascade range of mountains, and from 

 that point to the eastern boundary of the State it is 

 300 miles, while from the Cascades to the west- 

 ern boundary it is only 100 miles. Yellow and 

 red fir, known as the Oregon fir, is in great de- 

 mand for ship timbers and bridging, owing to its 

 strength, flexibility, lightness, tenacity and evenness of 



fiber and nail-holding qualities, and its freedom from 

 knots and defects. The wofld is drawing its supplies 

 of masts and ship spars from there. Some of these 

 woods are especially adapted for sounding boards of 

 pianos, the trees being sufficiently large to cut them 

 all in one piece, and thus avoid splicing. They are 

 used as well for violins, guitars and other musical in- 

 struments, and such instruments are found to be 

 superior, both in quality and tone. Spruce and larch 

 are very large trees and, with the maple and oaks, 

 furnish beautiful stuff for furniture and ornamental 

 work. 



It is estimated that the total number of standing 

 feet is 500,000,000,000 and its valuation amounts to 

 $300,000,000. More than one-half the lumber and 

 shingles cut in Washington is shipped to foreign 

 points and eastern markets. In 1893 ships carried 

 cargoes to thirty different countries, from Australia, 

 in the far South, to England, in the far North. Trans- 

 portation facilities are excellent, water being plenti- 

 ful, while the railroad accommodations are ample and 

 complete. In time shipbuilding is sure to become a 

 great industry in that State. The bark obtained from 

 the hemlock trees is estimated to be from 10 to 15 

 per cent, stronger in tanning properties than the 

 eastern bark sand is better and more desirable in color, 

 and tanneries can be made to pay well. Not less than 

 one-third of the population of Washington are de- 

 pendent for their support upon the saw and shingle 

 mills, sash, door and blind factories and other wood- 

 working establishments. The yearly capacity of those 

 mills amounts to 7,000,000,000 feet. 



It is among the workers in these saw-mills that the 

 farmers find a ready market for great quantities of 

 their agricultural products. With the increase of saw- 

 mills will come an increasing demand for vegetables 

 and fruits. 



Ah! these wonderful forests, with their impenetra- 

 ble depths, rising like " pillared colonnades " above the 

 surrounding country and guarding it with the vigil- 

 ance of an army. They even challenge the sun to 

 reach their mysterious realms. Although he glints and 

 shifts and coquettes with them daily, he rarely obtains 

 more than a passing glimpse of the waving branches 

 high up at the top. 



POWER OF SOILS TO RESIST EROSION BY WATER. 



BY WM. A. BURR, C. E. 



THERE are two classes of matter composing all 

 soils, organic and inorganic, the former composed 

 of decomposed animal and vegetable matter, 

 always in undisturbed soils, found at the surface and 

 known as humus and the latter composed of variable 

 proportions of sand, clay, and soluble salts. 



The organic matter is always lighter than water and 

 will consequently float away when in contact with 

 water and therefore have absolutely no value for 

 structures in contact with water, and as the soluble 

 salts will, as their adjective indicates, dissolve, neither 

 will they have any value. 



We have left then the sand and the clay, both of 

 which being heavier than water, we must look to them 

 alone for value in earthen structures, water weigh- 

 ing, say 62i- pounds per cubic foot, sand weighing 

 101 pounds per cubic foot, and clay weighing 119 

 pounds per cubic foot. 



Now as clay is heavier than sand, consequently the 

 larger the proportion of clay to that of sand the greater 

 will be the power of the soil to resist any hydraulic 

 force, be it pressure due to head or depth, or erosion 

 due to velocity. 



It has been the custom among engineers to use the 



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