1900. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



57 



Importance of Forest Tree Growing. 



Excerpts From a Paper Read at the Thirty=Third Annual Meeting of the Kansas 

 State Horticultural Society An Evidence of Increasing Public Interest. 



A summary view of the condition of 

 our native forests, the rapidity with which 

 they are disappearing, and the vast extent 

 of our woodworking industry, attracts im- 

 mediate attention to the financial side of 

 forest tree growing. Yet we concede 

 that it will be a rather difficult matter to 

 fully convince gray-haired veterans of 

 the forest that the logs they started rolling 

 upon the typical log-heap are to-day roll- 

 ing upon the lumberman's saw-mill at the 

 rate of 500 per minute, and that he can 

 see over 5000 feet of valuable lumber 

 dropping from the mill at every pulsation 

 of the heart; an annual cut of 50,000,000,- 

 ooo feet. Every year nearly 10,000,000 

 acres of these once despised forests are 

 being denuded of every available timber 

 tree. 



The query at ojice arises in the mind of 

 those unfamiliar with the lumber trade, 

 " What becomes of this vast amount of 

 lumber?" A partial answer to this ques- 

 tion can be found by simply casting the 

 eye around us. Houses, barns and rail- 

 roads are the leading consumers. We 

 learn that there are over 250,000,000 rail- 

 road ties in use in the United States, which 

 if placed end to end, would span the 

 earth fifteen times at the equator. And 

 as the average life of a tie is only about 

 six years, it requires over 40,000,000 an- 

 nually to keep the roads in proper repair. 

 Fourteen million were used the past year 

 on new railroads. The car- and depot- 

 building will doubtless consume more lum- 

 ber than the track. Taking all these de- 

 mands in connection, including the tele- 

 graph poles, we can safely say that the 

 railroads are responsible for the cutting 

 off of at least 500,000 acres annually. 



Without going into the details of various 

 lumber industries, we will call attention to 

 one new industry which is to-day making 

 great inroads into our native forests, and 



is increasing every year ; we refer to the 

 manufacture of wood-pulp, which has 

 300 mills in active operation, consuming 

 over $20,000,000 worth of native lumber 

 annually, denuding millions of acres of 

 our virgin forests. The manufacture of 

 this commodity is opening up a new and 

 extensive field of industry. When we 

 pick up a newspaper we do not realize 

 perhaps that it is printed upon tree chips. 



Besides the newspaper men and book 

 makers, the car-wheel maker, the water- 

 pipe maker, the bath-tub maker, and many 

 other similar industries have largely dis- 

 carded the mineral kingdom, and are now 

 using wood to procure a lighter and more 

 convenient material for their handiwork. 

 For the United States navy stately oaks are 

 being felled for conversion into cellulose to 

 be applied to vessels as armor protection. 

 Our fine chairs and couches are upholstered 

 with wooden leather, and to "cap the 

 climax" of progressive enterprise, we see 

 the lady of fashion sweeping the drawing- 

 room floor with a silk train chopped from 

 an old Pine tree. 



Thus we see, instead of a diminution in 

 tree-cutting, that these new industries are 

 opening new commercial channels which 

 encourage the woodman's ax to greater ac- 

 tivity, and consequently the timber famine 

 which has been predicted in the dim dis- 

 tant future, draws nearer and nearer ; in 

 fact, according to the most accurate in- 

 formation obtainable from the Division of 

 Forestry at Washington, we will begin to 

 realize the scarcity of timber within the 

 next ten years, and before thirty years 

 have rolled by all the available lumber- 

 timber between the Atlantic Ocean and 

 the Rocky Mountains will be cut off. It 

 will be then, and not until then, that we 

 will be able to comprehend what is meant 

 by a " timber famine." 



J 



But the scarcity of lumber will be an 



