" THE LEA.VES OF THE TREE Were FOR THE HEALING OF THE NATIONS." 17 

 FOREST DESTROYING COMBINES. 



And this is how, for many years, forests have disappeared in addition 

 to the selectors clearings in America. I quote from Harper's Weekly for 

 July 18th, 1891 : 



"The condition of lumber mills and saw mills in Michigan, Wisconsin and Min- 

 nesota, 1890, has been announced. Only planing mills operated by lumber manu- 

 facturers in connection with lumber mills include only those which manufacture 

 sawed lumber as the principle product, the term " saw-mills" meaning all other 

 mills in which logs or bolts form the principle raw-material, and are manufac- 

 tured into any kind of product other than lumber. The valae of forest products, 

 not manufactured at the mill, in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, 1890, ag- 

 gregates $30,426 194; value of mill products $115,699 004; value of re-manufac- 

 tures $21,112.618 making an aggregate value of products in three States of 

 $167,237.816. The capital invested to produce this value was $270,152 012. Men 

 employed in forests, 95,258; women, 99; children, 10; animals, 32,491. In th 

 mills, the product required the labor of 87.939 men, 646 women, and 653 children. 

 The amount represented in operation of machinery and chemical appliances, 

 1890, was $23.559.334; the expenditure of steam and water power was reported as 

 sufficient to lift 3,500,001 tons one foot in one minute; 1,262,151,180 cubic feet of 

 merchantable timber were removed from natural growth; $7,890.254 were in- 

 vested in vessels and other means of transport, and $99,688.256 were expended for 

 wages. The aggregate increase of product since 1880 is reported to be 29.66 per 

 cent, in quantity and 57.92 per cent, in value." 



In the three States named above there are 9- q 3 establishments operating mills, 

 with a capital invested in timbered land of $85,381.446, the area being 6.818,941 

 acres, with an estimated total product of merchantable timber of 43,133,886,209 

 feet (board measure). The estimated value of standing timber owned by these es- 

 tablishments is $135,612,007. White pine is by far the most important product, 

 the total on timber land is estimated to be 47,304, 557,519 feet. 



TIMBER PRODUCTS The aggregate number of establishments engaged in the 

 " timber product" industry in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota is 574, with a 

 capital of $46 765,405. The product of logs for domestic manufacture, 1890, is 

 shown as 1,392.585,874 feet, that of hard wood and other logs for export being 

 33,115,000 feet." 



When we add to the above an estimate of the annual demolition of tim- 

 ber in Oregon and other States all over the Union, as also in Canada, for 

 general and now for paper making purposes, coupled with wholesale for- 

 est fires caused in nearly every instance from criminal carelessness, we 

 should not very much wonder at the dreadful results now upon us. But 

 for the rapidly increasing atmospheric penalties we would as they do in 

 " treeles Spain," continue to annihilate every health inspiring tree for a 

 temporary selfish gain, and then ineffectually strive to extirpate the 

 many consequent destructive insect plagues which, as "nature's scavengers'* 

 are evolved and thrive in the poisonous atmosphere which our troe killing 

 conduct creates. The Italian poet, " Dante" when penning his " Inferno" 

 early in the 14th century, was evidently permitted to forsee the outcome 

 of our heartless ingratitude towards our revengeless tree friends' in these 

 latter days, when lie wrote the following lines: 



DANTE'S INFERNO. 



"E'er Nessus yet had reached the other bank 



We entered on a forest, where no track 



Of steps had worn away, Not verdant there 

 The foliage, but of dusky hue; not light 

 The boughs and tapering, but with knares deform'd 

 And matted thick: fruits there were none, but thorns 



