10 PRIZ3 ESSAY. 



Many cities and towns are now obliged to depend upon places more 

 than 1000 miles distant for their supply of timber. 



Few seem to be aware to what an extent we are dependent upon 

 the supply of wood and timber for the comforts and even necessities 

 of civilized life. There is hardly a trade or manufacture but requires 

 its use. Bernard Palissy says, " I have divers times thought to set 

 down in writing the arts which shall perish when there shall be no 

 oiore wood ; bat when I had written down a great number, I did per- 

 eeive that there could be no end of my writing, and having diligently 

 'Considered, I found there was not any which could be followed without 

 iwood." The houses we live in, the furniture we employ, the imple- 

 ments with which we work, the vehicles in which we ride, the fuel we 

 burn ; all of these are fast consaming our forests. Already 4,000,- 

 000 acres are annually disappearing to supply these various demands, 

 while the vast extension of our railroad system, the great increase of 

 manufactures and the mechanical arts are yearly augmenting the 

 demand. It is estimated that the single item of repairing the timbers 

 ■^Qf existing railroads, requires the expenditure of $30,000,000 annually. 

 More than $100,000,000 worth of sawed timber is consumed yearly, 

 ^hile for fuel $75,000,000 worth is burned every year, without men- 

 'tioning the vast quantities used for various other purposes. While 

 this enormous demand is constantly increasing, our supply is decreas- 

 ing, and it needs not the eye of the prophet to behold in the near 

 fature an exhausted supply and a denuded country, unless the people 

 arouse themselves for the protection of this most important crop. 



Trees were not made merely to furnish us fuel and timber, fruit and 

 -sliade, but for the influences they have upon the soil, crops and cli- 

 mate. There is in the study of Vegetable Physiology a broad field 

 f@r investigation, through the intricate labyrinths of which, the diligent 

 student of science may wander, ever finding something new to excite 

 liis thirst for knowledge. From the lowest shrub to the giant Sequoia, 

 :^here are influences at work upon the soil beneath, and the air above 

 s'jLS, tho silent workings of which we seldom notice. One of the hard- 

 '^st things for our people to learn is the climatic value of trees, yet 

 History and Science teach us that they are most intimately connected 

 with the climate of all countries. The influence which the forests exert 

 on the humidity of the earth and air, on temperature and precipitation 

 is immense. Spread out between the sky and earth, they prevent the 

 Tays of the sun from reaching the ground, and evaporating too rapidly 

 1;he water which falls. The humus, or vegetable mould formed by the 

 trorests is capable of absorbing almost twice its own weight of water, 

 ^jhus they act as a sponge, and retaining a large part of the rainfall, 

 rallow it to pass off gradually into the brooks and rivers which water the 

 surrounding country. It is also observed by eminent investigators, 

 that a greater amount of rain falls in wooded than in cleared districts ; 

 -as the lightning rod abstracts the electric fluid from the stormy sky, so 

 -the forest attracts to itself the rain from the clouds. They also 

 '?^BSure the permanence and regularity of natural springs, and the 

 w^iteroourses fed by them. 



