66 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



try. They are offering every possible inducement to secure men and means 

 from an'y part of the world to come and hew down their forests and carry 

 away the proceeds. The difficulty seems to lie in the low valuation placed 

 upon the timber. This, in the nature of things, will continue until we are 

 compelled to resort to timber culture, as they have in Europe, for our sup- 

 ply." 



Prof. B. E. Fernow, chief of the forestry division, says: "That it is now 

 time to consider the question of future supplies may now be inferred from 

 the following rough estimate, the only kind possible with our present sta- 

 tistical knowledge: "We use in the United States, according to estimates 

 based upon census and other figures, over 22,000,000,000 cubic feet of wood 

 annually. Of this enormous amount (about 350 cubic feet per capita) over 

 4,000,000,000 cubic feet of the best timber are made into lumber (between 

 30,000,000,000 and 40,000,000,000 feet board measure); railroad construction 

 requires about 500,000,000 cubic feet; and fencing takes an equal amount; 

 but by far the largest consumption is for firewood. An uncertain amount 

 is burned up every year in forest fires, which rage over the western mount- 

 ain country especially, and which swell the total consumption, probably, 

 to beyond 25,000,000,000 cubic feet annually. During the last three decades 

 an increase of about thirty per cent in consumption for each decade is in- 

 dicated. The area covered with wood growth is less than 500,000,000 

 acres. If all the land area not known to be treeless or in farms were under 

 forest, the acreage would not exceed 850,000,000,000 acres, but the lower 

 figure is probably more nearly correct." 



DEMAND FOR SPRUCE. 



To supply the raw material for the 1,250 tons of ground wood puip, 

 chemical pulp and sulphide pulp, now used in the United States, requires 

 about 2,200 cords of spruce each day. Every twelve months 100,000 acres 

 of forest is cleared of its mature spruce, or of such as can be converted 

 into pulp. Nearly 1,700,000 feet of spruce logs are used up for this pur- 

 pose every 24 hours, or upwards of 500,000,000 feet per annum. For a safe 

 estimate, not less than 15 per cent should be added to this consumption at 

 each year of its repeated manufacture, to furnish a supply adequate to the 

 demand. 



INCREASE OF THE BUSINESS. 



During the last ten years the business has increased 500 per cent. Five 

 years ago the ground product was estimated at $3 2,375,000. Its uses are 

 constantly augmenting. It continues to be the great staple of paper 

 manufacture. Already it is transformed into wheels, horseshoes, water- 

 pipes, pails, tubs, flower-pots, domestic utensils and furniture of every 

 description, carriage bodies, building ornamentations, protective armor to 

 torpedo rams, bullets for rifle use, boots and shoes, bed-clothes, apparel for 

 the body, food products, alcohol, and even human teeth, and how many 



