^PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 187 



VAST DEMAND FOR TIMBER. 



As the forests are reduced in area and density each year, so the demand in- 

 creases from those portions of the country from which the wood has been re- 

 moved. All the Eastern and Northern States are now calling upon the South and 

 the Pacific Northwest for lumber. This will increase as the South gradually 

 ceases to be productive of wood. 



Africa is demanding vast quantities of timber for her mines and railways. 

 The Cape to Cairo Railway will require thirty million ties and three hundred 

 thousand telegraph poles. Russia even sends to Florida for lumber. Other Euro- 

 pean nations must have lumber from America so long as it can be supplied. Will 

 we make an effort to retain the trade? 



One recent number of ARBORICULTURE was devoted to the subject of the 

 Everglades of Florida. I can only reassert HOW what 1 said in that article : It is 

 the ideal place for the Catalpa sfcciosa, and if it were solidly planted with these 

 trees Florida could supply the entire railway system of the United States with 

 cross-ties forever. 



THE STATE'S REVENUE. 



The farm lands of the Northern States are listed for taxation at from $40 to 

 $60 per acre, and range in value as high as $100. while those of Florida may pos- 

 sibly average $i per acre. The revenue for the States of the North being very 

 greatly in excess of those in the South. Can this be remedied? Can the sandy 

 soils of Florida be made to produce an income for their owners and a revenue for 

 the Commonwealth approximating those of more northern States? Were I an 

 Indian? citizen merely, these questions might be resented as impertinent ; but in 

 my capacity as representative of an international organization, which has a mem- 

 bership in Florida of one hundred of your best citizens, and from the interest 

 which I have shown in your community, they cannot be so considered, especially 

 when 1 assert that both the income for the land owner and the revenue to your 

 government may even exceed that of any locality elsewhere if proper efforts are 

 made to produce what the world demands f;i.r more vehemently than it does cotton, 

 and that is lumber. Lumber of the right kind, from trees which will grow during 

 the ordinary lifetime of a young man, will bring a value to the lands much greater 

 than the highest priced farm lands of North America. 



Labor will have an additional field of industry, capital an additional invest- 

 ment opportunity, manufactures a supply of raw material, while farmers, with 

 better soils and larger crops, may vie with their brothers of the North in the grow- 

 ing of food products. 



Surrounded again with belts of timber and numerous groves and forests, the 

 gardener and fruit grower may take heart and know that the frosts will not de- 

 stroy his vegetables and fruits. While the merchant may rest assured his business 

 will not be suspended on account of crop losses. 



