190 1, 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION-. 



1^1 



that in lumber, but shows that the output 

 of shingles is holding up much better than 

 that of lumber. It is about the same as that 

 of 1S95 and 500,000,000 larger than that of 

 1S96. The territory west of the Chicago 

 district produced 969,000,000 shingles in 

 1900, the Chicago district 917,000,000 

 and the eastern part of the field 514,000,- 

 000. 



"The statistics of hemlock production 



and then sell to the companies. In some 

 places the wood is already becoming 

 scarce, and if this policy is continued it 

 will not be many years" before the fuel 

 within convenient reach of the river will 

 be gone. In some places wood is so 

 plentiful that this will do no harm, but in 

 other places it is scarce; and when we 

 consider the importance of the timber to 



A FOREST FIRE ON THE YUKON RIVER, ALASKA. 



the miners and the settlers, it appears to 

 will be a surprise to everyone and will me that something should be done to reeu- 

 fully explain the reason for the 

 adverse market conditions during- 

 most of last year. The output 

 for 1900 was 1,166,284,000 feet, 

 against 868,410,000 feet in 1S99 

 an increase of 297,874,000 feet. 

 The stock on hand, however, in- 

 creased in still greater proportion. 

 There was reported on hand De- 

 cember 1, 1S99, 287,920,000 feet; 

 while December 1, 1900, the stock 

 was 622,3 l 2 iOOO feet an increase 

 of 334,392,000 feet. But the pro- 

 ducers have already heeded the 

 warning, and the log input of 

 this winter and the hemlock lum- 

 ber product of the year will be 



heavily decreased, and probably by next late the use of the timber and perhaps the 



American Forestry Association will be the 

 proper agency through which this matter 

 could be called to the attention of the 

 authorities. 



" Piled on the river bank at convenient 

 places the wood costs the steamboat com- 

 panies from $5.00 to $10.00 a cord, ac- 

 cording" to its scarcitv, and some of the 

 larger steamers use a hundred cords every 

 twenty- four hours. It takes about si\ days 

 to make the trip from Dawson to St. 

 Michaels, and about twelve days to make 

 the trip from St. Michaels "to Dawson 

 against the current. Now with some 

 fifteen or perhaps more steamers on the 

 river an approximate estimate of the 

 amount of fuel consumed by the steam- 

 boats can be arrived at. I was told that 

 an average fuel bill of one of the larger 

 steamers was about $500 a da\ . 



" Fuel, of course, is essential to steamers 



fall the balance will be 

 American Lzimberman. 



restored." 



& 



Destruction of 

 Forests along 

 the Yukon. 



A letter was recently 



received from a well 



known member of the 



American Forestry As- 

 sociation, now in Alaska, in which the 

 destruction of forests along the Yukon is 

 alluded to : 



" There is great need for some action 

 on the part of the Government by which 

 the use of timber in the interior can be put 

 under regulation and reduced to a system. 

 I took a trip down the Yukon River last 

 summer and somewhat to my astonish- 

 ment I saw that the steamboat companies 

 obtained fuel anywhere along the route 

 wherever it could be found, without let or 

 hindrance. The companies either hired 



men to cut the wood, or more generally I which ply on the river, and I would in 

 believe, wood choppers cut and pile it on no way intimate that the companies 

 the bank of the river on their own account, be prohibited the use of native timber 



