8 ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 



maw, the growth of two or three centuries having been swept away in 

 a few years. 



Figures are impotent to give one a full apprehension of the work of 

 forest destruction that is wrought by these and other mining compa- 

 nies and the lumbering establishments which help them to their sup- 

 plies. One needs to see with his own eyes the work as it is going on 

 and the track of desolation which it leaves, to have an adequate notion 

 of the destruction thus accomplished. One company, miscalled a devel- 

 opment company, which is one of the agencies through which the Ana- 

 conda secures its supplies, has a daily capacity of 120,000 feet of 

 timber. 



It is to be considered also that not only the consumption of the 

 forests incidental to mining operations but that resulting from ordi- 

 nary lumbering is marked by great wastefulness. We throw away 

 often more material than we use. A great portion of the substance of 

 the trees cut in the forests is left there to decay or to be consumed by 

 the flames. It is estimated that on the average not more than three- 

 eighths of what we cut in the forests is utilized, five-eighths of the mate- 

 rial being wasted. In the great redwood forests of the Pacific Coast 

 such is the wasteful method of operation, it is said, that in procuring a 

 railroad tie worth 35 cents, $1.87 worth of the substance of the tree is 

 wasted. In Europe it is estimated that seven-eighths of the forest 

 material is made use of and the waste is only one-eighth. 



A conspicuous case of wastefulness is worth noting in this connection, 

 not only as an instance of wastefulness, but for the great and direct dam- 

 age resulting from it. To meet the demands of a great mining company 

 on one of the Sierra Nevada ranges a band of men, numbering thousands 

 in all, were sent with their axes into a forest district in that vicinity. It 

 was an extensive region and the forest presented a stand of trees 

 not excelled, perhaps, in quality in all the country. Every condition of 

 climate and soil had been favorable for their growth. They stood thick 

 and stalwart. 



As the quickest and easiest way of getting out the largest trees, 

 which were the ones wanted for the miners' use, the forest was cut 

 clean and leveled with, the ground. Then, the timber having been 

 removed, the remaining trees, spread over miles and miles of the 

 mountain side, were given to the flames. The fire not only consumed 

 the trees, but burned up the soil beneath them the rich leaf mold, 

 which was the accumulation of centuries of tree growth. The very 

 rocks beneath it were so heated by the mighty mass of burning fuel 

 that, in many places, they crumbled to gravel. When the rains came 

 and the snows melted rapidly in springtime having no sheltering 

 foliage of the trees to protect them from the rays of the sun the ashes 

 of the burned trees, and what was left of the soil, together with the 

 rocky gravel, were swept down the mountain side with torrent swift- 

 ness and force, overflowing the banks of the water courses, tearing 



