

THE FORESTER. 



August, 



An Interesting Discovery. 



Gen. E. Bouton, of this city, in boring 

 a well on his ranch at Bixby Station, on 

 the Terminal Road, this week, at a depth 

 of 500 feet encountered the trunk of a 

 tree of which the drill brought to the 

 surface several pieces. The wood is 

 charred, and shows the grain of the 

 Cypress tree, and is in perfect preserva- 

 tion. What force this find gives to the 

 preacher's cry, "There is no new thing 

 under the sun! " There were forest fires 

 on this part of the coast so long ago that 

 the limit of recorded time is infinitely 

 small in comparison to it. It is possible 

 that this find will be interesting to stu- 

 dents of coast flora. The drill also 

 brought up Oak and tule leaves in a very 

 good state of preservation and exactly 

 like those growing to-day Los Angeles 

 (Cat.) Tunes. 



Spruce Pulp for Newspapers. 



The utilization of Spruce pulp for 

 making the ordinary paper on which 

 newspapers are printed is the subject of a 

 carefully-compiled table, says the Boston 

 Transcript, which shows the enormous 

 consumption of this product. A cord of 

 Spruce wood is equal to 615 feet board 

 measure, and this quantity of raw ma- 

 terial will make half a ton of sulphite 

 pulp, or one ton of ground wood pulp. 



Newspaper stock is made up with 

 twenty per cent of sulphite pulp and 

 eighty per cent of ground wood pulp. 

 The best known Spruce land, virgin 

 growth, possesses a stand of about 7,000 

 feet to the acre, taking the best as a 

 basis. Twenty-two acres of this best 

 Spruce land will therefore contain 154,- 

 000 feet of timber. An average gang of 

 loggers will cut this in about eight days. 

 This entire quantity of wood turned in 

 at any one of the large mills will be con- 

 verted in a single day into about 250 

 tons of such pulp as goes to make up 

 newspaper stock. This pulp will make 

 about an equal weight of paper, which 

 will supply a single large metropolitan 

 newspaper just two days. 



Preservation of Philippine Forests. 



There are many rare woods in the 

 Philippines, which may be made a source 

 of great wealth to this country if prop- 

 erly protected. If speculators are al- 

 lowed to have their own sweet will in 

 the jungles, however, the same thing 

 will happen which has happened in some 

 of the richest timber districts of this 

 country the land will be reduced to an 

 arid and cheerless desert, for there is 

 nothing more dismal than a tract of land 

 which has been denuded of trees by the 

 greed of men who care only for imme- 

 diate returns. 



The British Government established 

 in India a forest department, whose 

 officers are scattered all over the country. 

 Their duty is to see that the young trees 

 are not destroyed by predatory animals, 

 to prevent and extinguish fires in the dry 

 season, to study the district to which 

 they may be assigned and set out new 

 trees which may suit the climate and 

 conditions, and generally to look after 

 the section of jungle under their 

 charge. 



Something like this may be necessary 

 in the Philippines, to say nothing of 

 there being some need for it in certain 

 parts of the United States. The reck- 

 lessness with which Americans have de- 

 stroyed their own wealth is equaled only 

 by the speed with which they replace it. 

 We cut down our forests and ruin our 

 climate, and then invent systems of irri- 

 gation to do what nature did without our 

 help. We destroy all the shade trees 

 within miles of a new town, and then 

 contrive unnumbered devices to keep the 

 houses cool by artificial means. We ruin 

 our health by an unnatural and feverish 

 way of living, and then pay immense 

 sums to marvelously skillful physicians 

 who have made a study of nervous dis- 

 eases. When we learn to preserve our 

 inherited wealth as well as to acquire 

 new riches, we shall be the greatest peo- 

 ple on the face of the earth. Editorial, 

 Washington Times. 



