190] 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



9 1 



ture the tree will become of great value; 

 for the prejudice against western hem- 

 lock is largely due to the idea that it is of 

 the same quality as the hemlock of the 

 East, to which it is really far superior. 

 Any study which may thus result in fur- 

 ther development of the timber supplies 

 of the Pacific Coast is of direct value to 

 the irrigators who are dependent on that 

 region for building material and shingles. 

 With the exception of the woods of 

 California, the forests of Washington are 

 the densest, heaviest and most continuous 

 in the United States; and yet the original 

 growth is fast being cut and burned. Mr. 

 Henry Gannett in his report on the For- 

 ests of the United States estimates that 

 there are in western Washington 9,039 

 square miles covered with merchantable 

 timber. An area of 3,205 square miles 

 has already been logged ; a greater area 

 3,614 square miles of merchantable timber 

 has been burned. Upon the area al- 

 ready logged it is estimated that 36,000,- 

 000,000 feet B. M. have been cut. In 

 other words, out of an area of 15,858 

 square miles formerly covered with mer- 

 chantable timber, in the State of Wash- 

 ington, 22j4 per cent, has been destroyed 

 by fire, 20 per cent, has been cut, and the 

 remainder, 57^ per cent, is still covered 

 with standing timber. In less than a gen- 

 eration more than two- fifths of the timber 



has disappeared, in what is considered the 

 richest merchantable timber region in the 

 world. In the twenty years between 1870 

 and 1890, the capital invested in this State 

 has increased from $1,285,000 to $19,- 

 445,000 and the value of the annual pro- 

 duction from $1,307,000 to $15,068,000. 



For the first four months of the present 

 year the increase in shipments by sea of 

 Red Fir was iS per cent, over the 

 previous year, while the shipments by rail 

 advanced 90 per cent, for a corresponding 

 period. The increased sale in shingles 

 showed a corresponding gain, being 23 

 per cent. One box factory, at Tacoma, 

 received in a single order a requisition for 

 16,000,000 grape baskets, requiring over 

 500,000 feet of spruce. Butter dishes 

 and berry boxes manufactured from Wash- 

 ington woods are ordered in half-million 

 lots, and one factory turns out a quarter 

 of a million of the latter daily. 



The timber resources of Oregon and 

 northern California are rich, the demands 

 on them are also great and increasing. 

 The better the economic conditions in 

 Washington and these States are under- 

 stood, the more clear does it become that 

 the development and prosperity of the 

 Northwest is inseparably connected with 

 the successful completion of irrigation 

 projects, and the economical management 

 of the forests. 



