90 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[June, 



country residences can be thus secured against 

 the baneful influences of malaria. 



A few sunflowers planted about the farm- 

 house might be sufficient to satisfy tlie sesthetic 

 taste of Oscar Wilde, but they would not be 

 numerous enough to ward off malaria. A belt 

 of sunflowers and Jerusalem artichokes is re- 

 quired. Tliough there would be but little 

 variety in these plants alone, there might be 

 interspersed a few plants of pearl millet, 

 golden millet, or some others to please the 

 fancy and relieve the homely monotony of the 

 sunflowers and artichokes. Judging from the 

 display of artificial sunflowers in the shop 

 windows in New York City, one might imag- 

 ine that the sentimental malaria of aisthetical 

 society has been utterly banished, yet the sun- 

 flower aisthetical malaria has spread far and 

 near. The subjects most susceptible are those 

 of a peculiar organization — those who are 

 more sensitive than sensible. 



It is to be lioped that artifical sentiment 

 and artifical sunflowers will not in any way 

 impede the rational employment of natural 

 sunflowers to protect mankind from real ills. 



Even a considerable belt of sunflowers plant- 

 ed on hard ground without cultivation, will 

 make a poor show and prove ineffectual as a 

 prophylactic. In this, as in everything else, 

 a corresponding efibrt must be made to secure 

 an object of great importance. The means 

 must be commensurate with the magnitude 

 of the object sought. To depend upon a few 

 sickly and neglected sunflowers for protection 

 against malaria is a sad, sorry and chilly pros- 

 pect, enough to bring down the vengence of 

 an ague chill upon such a cultivator. Plant, 

 cultivate and harvest a large crop of sunflow- 

 ers, and a large crop of health at the same 

 time. And at your harvest home festivities, 

 bestow a thank-offering upon the Dispenser 

 of all gracious gifts. 



Thousands of valuable lives have been ex- 

 tinguished by the remorseless venom of malaria 

 and if its full powers can be overcome by the 

 simple act of planting trees and sunflowers, 

 God bless the generous hearts that plan, and 

 the benevolent hands that plant these life-pre- 

 serving gifts for man. 



OUR TIMBER LANDS. 

 'Our National Legislature," tritely 



ob- 



serves Bryant, is almost wholly indiflerent to 

 the fate of our forests, and betrays a destitu- 

 tion of statesmen like forecast that is painful. 

 If this was all it would not be so bad ; but, 

 aside from their indifference, the Congress is 

 constantly squandering large bodies of our 

 forest lands on public corporations, who are 

 obtaining them only for proflt, and who will 

 destroy them with more rapacity even than 

 private individuals. Candidly, I believe that 

 very many of our Congressmen do not credit 

 the statements and theories that, by denuding 

 a country of its forests, you can injure its 

 productiveness. Some of them have lived a 

 great many years and as yet have seen no 

 evil effects from the cutting down of forests, 

 nor have they experienced any scarcity of fire- 

 wood at home. Wise men ; to them there is 

 no other land than Spain, and no other age 

 than that in which they live. It is now 

 nearly fifty years since Dr. Drake, of Cincin- 

 nati, proposed to Congress the importance of 

 saving our forests. Failing in this he begged 



the government to at least reserve tracts of 

 woodland around the headwaters of the 

 principal streams as a means of preventing 

 their diminution. The wise doctor was poohed 

 at and thought a little cracked. Well, some 

 of the streams he proposed to save are almost 

 valueless, and in a half century more will be 

 entirely useless for purposes of navigation. 

 Probably the doctor did not anticipate the 

 time would come when these reserves would 

 become important as a source of timber sup- 

 ply ; and if he had proposed such a thing he 

 would have been laughed at outright. It is 

 needless to say that Congress disregarded Dr. 

 Drake's advice, and to-day the children of 

 the very men who poohed at the doctor are 

 suffering for the follies of their fathers. 

 Maine, New York and Pennsylvania are 

 practically ruined as timber States, and their 

 streams are gradually drying up. In tweuty- 

 flve years more the Northwestern States will 

 be as bad, or even worse oflf, for timber than 

 the Eastern States are, and in twenty-five 

 years more the timber famine in the United 

 States will begin. Good, say the Congress- 

 men and timber vandals of to-day, we shall 

 be dead by that time, and why should we care 

 what happens then ? Americans owe more 

 than any other people on earth to the toils, 

 sacrifices and forethought of their forefathers, 

 and it is their duty— every man's duty— to 

 transmit the inheritance they received from 

 them to their descendants unimpaired 

 by waste or neglect. Saj's Bryant, ''the 

 length of time required for the growth of 

 timber from the seed to maturity shows con- 

 clusively that it was never destined in the 

 order of nature for the exclusive use of a 

 single generation." Nor is this all. The man 

 who wantonly destroys that which he cannot 

 reproduce in his lifetime, is not only a coward 

 and a fool, but he commits a flagrant crime 

 against nature and nature's God. I never see 

 a man cutting down a fine tree but I feel like 

 crying out "stop thief!" What is his life as 

 compared to the life of the tree ? If he were 

 to immediately plant another, not in his life- 

 time, in that of his children or his children's 

 children would the tree attain to maturity. 

 All this he knows, yet he fells it to the earth 

 and does not even plant another to replace it 

 for future generations. Is not this man a 

 vandal ¥ Surely ; and worse, for he is a crimi- 

 nal and his seed shall suffer for his sins. If 

 the trees could talk what a pitiful tale they 

 would tell. How they had for ages drawn 

 moisture from the earth and distributed it 

 through ten thousand leaves into the air to 

 descend again in showers refreshing the earth 

 and watering the -gentle flowers. Even the 

 tiny blades of green grass would cry out : 



"Oh woodman spare the tree, 

 Touch not a single bouffh." 



But they must perish from the earth ; the flat 

 has gone forth and we shall soon be able to 

 say no more 



" Thank God ! for noble trees 1 

 How stately, strong and grand 

 These bannered giants lift their crests 

 O'er all this beauteous land." 



They will be cut down and gone and the shift- 

 ing sands alone will mark where they once 

 stood. The bleakness and barrenness of 

 death will cover the earth, the sun pour down 



his vertical rays and the scorching winds un- 

 checked howl over the sterrile plains. 



I fear you will think I am becoming excited 

 over this subject, and I do warm up a little 

 when speaking or writing of the murder of 

 the beautiful trees which in atrocity is little 

 short of human murder itself. But it is not 

 fine phrases or grand, eloquent expressions we 

 want in this case, but facts, cold arguments 

 to convince the unreasoning and the ignorant. 

 The voracious monster who threatens to de- 

 vour all our young timber in his insatiable 

 maw is the railroad interest of the United 

 States. Last year there were 101,000 miles 

 of railway in this country, and this year we 

 are building 16,000 miles of new railway. All 

 these roads have to be tied with comparatively 

 young timber. I have not at hand an esti- 

 mate of the number of ties used per mile, 

 but the annual consumption is very large. 

 Some j'ears ago to build 71,000 miles of rail- 

 way required 184,60O,0C0 ties. Ties have to 

 be replaced every seven years, and it i.« fair 

 to set down the number of ties required an- 

 nually for future consumption at 160,000,000. 

 As every one Isuows, railroad ties are cut from 

 young timber, the ttees being from eight to 

 twenty inches in diameter, and this demand 

 strikes at the very source of our timber sup- 

 ply- 



It is a fact that the fences of the United 

 States have cost more than the land, and 

 they are to day the most valuable class of 

 property in the United States, except build- 

 ings, railroads and real estate in cities. To 

 keep up the fences requires annually an enor- 

 mous consumption of timber. The 125,000 

 farms in Kentucky require 1.50,000,000 panels 

 of fence to enclose them. The number of rails 

 required is set down at 2,000,000,000 costing, 

 875,000,000. To repair and keep in good or- 

 der the fences in this one state alone, costs 

 annually S10,000,000. Illinois, a comparative- 

 ly new state, has S200,000,000 invested in 

 fences, but it costs her only about $300,000 

 annually for repairs, many of her fences be- 

 ing constructed of wire. The whole value of 

 the fences in the United States, may be set 

 down at $2,000,000,000, and it costs flOO,- 

 000,000 annually to keep them in repair. 



The City of Chicago alone last year em- 

 ployed 17,800 men in handling lumber. There 

 were 500 clerks, 4,000 wood-workers, 2,000 

 sailors, 1,000 men to load and unload the 

 vessels, and 10,000 men to handle and prepare 

 the lumber for market, besides .300 proprie- 

 tors. The luml)er brought to Cliicago in 188 1 

 exceeded 2,000,000,000 feet and would have 

 loaded one train of cars 2,000 miles long. No 

 less than 300 square miles of land were 

 stripped of trees last year to supply the Chi- 

 cago market with lumber. These figures are 

 indeed appalling and may well alarm any one 

 as to the future source of our timber supply. 

 There is no hope of any diminuition in the fu- 

 ture,for Chicago will require more lumber this 

 year than she did last. Tlie demand is ever 

 increasing and the supply ever diminishing. 

 Between the two the end must come soon and 

 the grand old forests disappear. After the 

 Saginaw, Muskegon, Menomonee, Manistee 

 and Ludingtou sources are exhausted the 

 Koeky mountain slope and Washington terito- 

 ry will be stripped of their forests, and then 

 we will have all that is worth taking. Every 



