142 



THE FORESTER. 



June, 



sown down with Ceradella, a low-grow- 

 ing Spanish plant belonging to the pea 

 family ( K Legu?7iinosce), and similar in habit 

 to the common vetch ( Vicia sativa) . 

 Ceradella is a very close grower and seems 

 to thrive on all soils and to keep fresh and 

 green in the worst droughts consequently 

 it is eminently fitted for the prevention of 

 the spread of ground fires. Such roads 

 planted with Ceradella serve to check in- 

 tra-stand fires before they obtain great 

 headway, and in case a fire has got be- 

 yond control they give the fire fighters 

 a point from which contra-fires can be 

 started. 



Such is the complete system of firelines 

 in use in the district and by means of them 

 a stand very exposed to danger from fire 

 has escaped all large fires for a long period 

 of years. The railroad bears a large part 

 of the expense of the formation of the pri- 

 mary fire line as well as its entire cost of 

 maintenance : the secondary belt and the 

 fire roads are paid for by the Department 

 of Forestry. 



For many of the details contained in the 

 foregoing I have to thank Herr Forstmeis- 

 ter Dr. Kienitz, who has charge of the 

 district and who very kindly accompanied 

 me through his interesting Revier. 



I 



OUR WANING FORESTS. 



DR. W. SCHLICH, the well-known 

 forest expert, in a recent address 

 before the London Society of Arts 

 predicted a positive timber famine in the 

 near future unless systematic measures for 

 increasing the world's supply be speedily 

 adopted. He pointed out that the use of 

 wood, in spite of its replacement by coal 

 as fuel and by steel in construction, was 

 steadily increasing. The per capita con- 

 sumption in the four chief countries of 

 Europe is now fourteen cubic feet each 

 year, and in a few years will probably reach 

 twenty cubic feet. For this increase the use 

 of wood in paper making seems chiefly re- 

 sponsible. The steady rise in prices, es- 

 pecially of coniferous woods, in spite of 

 much cheaper transportation, shows that 

 the world's supplies are rapidly diminish- 



ing. 



Only five out of eighteen European 

 countries export more timber than they 

 import. Scandinavia and Russia are the 

 principal exporters. The limit of pro- 

 duction in the former seems to have been 

 reached. Russia still has large forests, 

 but domestic demands are rapidly increas- 

 ing, and an exportable surplus can not 

 long be depended upon. 



The North American supplies are vis- 

 ibly declining. China has no timber to 

 spare, and that country, when developed 

 on modern lines, will be an importer 



rather than an exporter. There remain 

 the rest of Asia, South America, and 

 Africa as sources of supply. But these 

 do not furnish any considerable amount of 

 the coniferous woods, which are most in 

 demand. Dr. Schlich therefore concluded 

 that the danger of a deficient supply of 

 coniferous wood was practically at hand, 

 and that deficiency of all kinds would 

 soon occur unless remedial measures were 

 adopted. 



The remedy is easy, although time is 

 required for its application. It is, as Dr. 

 Schlich pointed out, to cultivate timber 

 upon waste land, just as other crops are cul- 

 tivated upon more fertile soil. In Great 

 Britain alone there are 25,000,000 acres 

 of such lands. One-quarter of this area, 

 Dr. Schlich asserted, would make the 

 country independent of foreign supplies 

 of timber. The same remedy would re- 

 store the declining timber industry of the 

 United States. 



That this remedy will have to be 

 adopted soon is evident, for natural growth 

 can no longer keep pace with demand. 

 The country that first engages in syste- 

 matic timber cultivation on a large scale 

 will do much to assure its own perpetuity 

 as a nation. That Spain's political and 

 industrial decline dates from the practical 

 wiping out of her forests is a fact from 

 which it is easy to draw the lesson. 



