Fully one-half our vast population is lodged in wooden houses ; and barns 

 and country out-houses of all descriptions are almost universally of the same 

 material. 



The consumption of wood in the United States as fuel for domestic purposes, 

 for charcoal, for brick and lime-kilns, for breweries and distilleries, for steam-boats, 

 and many other uses, defies computation, and is vastly greater than is employed in 

 Europe for the same ends. For instance, in rural Switzerland, cold as is the 

 winter climate, the whole supply of wood foi domestic fires, dairies, breweries, 

 distilleries, brick and lime-kilns, fences, furniture, tools, and even house-building 

 and small smitheries, exclusive of the small quantity derived from the trimmings 

 of fruit trees, grape vines, and hedges, and from decayed fences and buildings, 

 does not exceed two hundred and thirty cubic feet or less than two cords a year, 

 per household. The annual consumption of firewood by single families in France 

 has been estimated at from two and a half to ten Paris cords of 134 cubic 

 feet. 



The report of the Commissioners on the Forests of Wisconsin, 1867, allows three 

 cords of wood to each person for household fires alone. Taking families at an aver- 

 age of five persons, we have eight times the amount consumed by an equal number 

 of persons in Switzerland for this and all other purposes to which this material is 

 ordinarily applicable. It has been estimated that in the cold climate of Sweden, 

 144 solid, or 200 loose cubic feet of pine or fir are required per head of the popu- 

 lation. The consumption in Norway is about the same. 



Evergreen trees are thoughtlessly destroyed in immense numbers for the pur- 

 pose of decoration and on festive occasions. Thrifty young groves of ever- 

 green of considerable extent have been completely destroyed in this reckless 

 way. 



France employs 1,500,000 cubic feet of oak per year for brandy and wine 

 casks, which is about half her annual consumption of that material ; and it is not a 

 wholly insignificant fact that, according to Rentzsch, the quantity of wood used 

 in parts of Germany for small carvings and for children's toys is so large that 

 the export of such objects from the town of Sonneberg alone amounted in 1858, 

 to 60.000 centner, or three thousand tons weio-ht. 



* a 



In an article in the Revue des Eaux et Forets for November, 1868, it is 

 stated that 200,000 dozens of drums for boys were manufactured per month 

 in Paris ; this is equivalent to 28,800,000 per year, for which 56,000,000 drum- 

 sticks are required. The consumption of matches in France is given at 

 7,200,000,000. 



EFFECTS OF FOREST FIRES. 



Only trees fit for industrial uses fall before the lumberman's axe, but 

 the fire destroys, almost indiscriminately, every age and every species of tree. 

 While, then, without fatal injury to the younger growths, the native forest will 

 bear several "cuttings over" in a generation for the increasing value of lumber 

 brings into use, every four or five years, a quality of timber which had been before 

 rejected as unmarketable a fire may render the declivity of a mountain 

 unproductive for a century. 



Aside from the destruction of the trees and the laying bare of the soil> 

 and consequently the free admission of sun, rain, and air to the ground, the 

 fire of itself exerts an important influence on its texture and condition. It 

 cracks and sometimes even pulverizes the rocks and stones upon and near the 

 surface; it consumes a portion of the half decayed vegetable mould which 



