6 ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 



the products of our forests during the same year make it $1,058,650,859, 

 or fifteen times that of gold and silver. 



Another comparison is very significant. If we add to the gold and 

 silver products that of all other minerals, including such prominent 

 ones as iron, copper, lead, zinc, coal, lime, natural gas, petroleum, salt, 

 slate, building stones, and the twenty-five or more remaining, which 

 are less important, we shall have for the value of all our mineral prod- 

 ucts obtained during the year 1894, $553,352,996, or only about one-half 

 the value of our forest products. 



Again, we may make a comparison in a different direction and with 

 no less striking results. The statistical report of the Department of 

 Agriculture gives the value of our cereal crops for the year 1894 as 

 follows : 



Wheat $225,902,025 



Com 554,719,162 



Oats 214,816,920 



Rye 13,395,476 



Barley 27, 134, 127 



Buckwheat 7, 040, 238 



Total 1,043,007,948 



or less by $15,000,000 than our one forest crop. 



Is it not worth our while, therefore, to perpetuate if possible such 

 a crop, and to guard against anything which threatens to diminish it? 

 Ought we not, by every means within our control, to see that the 

 source of this most valuable supply is not lessened in its capability of 

 yielding such a preeminently valuable contribution to our welfare and 

 comfort? 



The need of tree planting, looked at in the wide view, results from 

 the fact that we have been and are depleting our forest area at an 

 unreasonable rate. The spread of population into the great treeless 

 plains beyond the Mississippi has made a largely increased demand 

 for lumber, and in response to that demand we have been for years 

 consuming our forests at a rate far beyond the supply furnished by 

 their annual growth. The best estimates make the annual consump- 

 tion of our forests, for fuel and lumber chiefly, 25,000,000,000 cubic 

 feet. To furnish this amount would require the produce of the annual 

 growth of 1,200,000,000 acres of woodland, whereas our total forest 

 area is less than 500,000,000 acres, which is no more than we need as 

 a permanent stock of woodland for the country. It will be seen, then, 

 that more than half of our annual consumption is a draft by so much 

 upon our forest capital, when we should be only drawing from the 

 forests the amount of their annual growth, or the interest of that capi- 

 tal. How long would it take a millionaire to become a bankrupt if he 

 should be annually trenching upon his money capital at a like rate? 



Few persons realize the enormous and often wasteful that is, un- 

 necessary consumption of our forests. That consumption amounts 



