724 



CONSERVATION 



five or thirty years longer. If production is 

 curtailed and waste stopped, it may last till 

 the end of the century. The most important 

 effects of its disappearance will be the lack 

 of lubricants and the loss of illuminants. Ani- 

 mal and vegetable oils will not begin to sup- 

 ply its place. This being the case, the reck- 

 less exploitation of oil fields and the con- 

 sumption of oil for fuel should be checked. 



In natural gas the waste is enormous; 

 1,000,000,000 cubic feet are estimated to be 

 wasted into the air every twenty-four hours. 

 The gas supply will last about twenty-five 

 y ears _ a bout as long as it has already been 



utilized. 



IRON 



Iron is very abundant in nature, but usu- 

 ally is found "in ores so poor that it cannot 

 be extracted at any reasonable cost. The 

 best ores are being rapidly worked, and it is 

 estimated that within thirty years they will 

 have been exhausted, and that it will 

 be necessary to resort to ores that cannot 

 now be worked at a profit. This, of course, 

 means higher prices unless new and much 

 cheaper processes shall have been invented. 



GOLD, SILVER, ETC. 



Gold, silver and zinc are all so abundant 

 that the supply is likely to last for centuries. 

 Copper is also abundant, but is largely in 

 low-grade ores, which cannot now be profit- 

 ably worked. At increased prices, however, 

 the supply will probably be abundant. For 

 lead, however, the outlook is much less 

 favorable. Its production in the United 

 States is still increasing slightly, but is 

 decreasing elsewhere in the world, and this 

 despite a marked increase in prices. Prob- 

 ably the world's output has already reached 

 a maximum, and will henceforth decline. 



The phosphates, it is estimated, will be 

 exhausted in about twenty-five years, and 

 the farmer will then have to look elsewhere 

 for ferti'izers. 



Fresh supplies of all these materials 

 may, of course, be found, but (except for 

 gold) it seems unlikely that they will be 

 great enough or valuable enough to materi- 

 ally affect the estimates. 



Bulletin 394 can be had, free of charge, 

 from the director, United States Geological 

 Survey, Washington, D. C. 



Utilizing Wa'te 



When the great lumber barons stripped 

 Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan of their 

 pine trees, the land was considered prac- 

 tically valueless and not worth the cost of 

 clearing it of stumps. But now the chemist 

 has come to the rescue and demonstrated 

 that there is wealth in the waste pine stumps. 

 The stumps are therefore being grubbed 

 out, broken up, and placed in retorts, where 

 by disti'lation valuable products are obtained. 

 Tar and turpentine are the direct products, 

 and the charcoal residue is also proving of 



value. From the turpentine comes acetic 

 acid, formaldehyde, creosote, and wood al- 

 cohol, and an endless variety of color dyes. 

 Among the by-products are embalming fluid, 

 shingle stain, sheep dip, metal polish, lacquer, 

 and tree spray. In addition, the cleared land 

 is worth something for cultivation. Omaha 

 (Nebr.) Bee. 



Squirrels Menacing Forests 



The tree squirrel is reported as menacing 

 pine forests in California. His principle food 

 is the pine nut. With the cutting of pine 

 timber the supply of nuts diminishes, the 

 result being an intensified competition by 

 squirrels for food, with the consumption of 

 practically the entire crop of pine nuts. In 

 consequence the stand of pine trees for the 

 future is threatened. The question is aris- 

 ing whether the trees should be protected 

 at the expense of the squirrels or vice versa, 

 or whether some mode may be devised for 

 protecting both. 



Making Engines Spark'proof 



The first inspection by representatives of 

 the public service commission, second dis- 

 trict, of all locomotives to be used within 

 the forest preserve of the Adirondacks dis- 

 closed that forty-three per cent failed to 

 meet the requirements named by the com- 

 mission, owing to defects in the spark ar- 

 resters or ash pans. These were ordered 

 corrected; and, later, three examinations 

 were necessary on two of the roads before 

 the engines were put in satisfactory condi- 

 tion. On the New York and Ottawa, nine 

 out of ten examined were found to be de- 

 fective upon the first inspection, and on the 

 Carthage and Adirondacks, every locomotive 

 proved to be more or less defective. 



On the Mohawk and Malone division of 

 the. New York Central, the general mechan- 

 ical condition of the locomotives was found 

 to be good, practically all the engines hav- 

 ing had general repairs at the West Albany 

 repair shops within four or five months. A 

 result of this thorough work is that prac- 

 tically all of the locomotives on the division 

 are in good operating condition, and re- 

 soonsible mechanical officers of the New 

 York Central have advised that this has re- 

 sulted in a substantial saving of fuel, which 

 has more than offset the increased cost of 

 inspection and experimenting made neces- 

 sary by the proceedings and order resulting 

 from the forest-fire investigation of the 

 commission. 



Additional inspections will be made each 

 month during the summer to ascertain 

 whether the spark arresters and ash pans 

 on the railroads operating in the Adirondacks 

 are maintained in satisfactory condition, and 

 whether the other requirements of the com- 

 mission's orders are being enforced. New 

 York Commercial. 



