THE FARM OF THE FIRST MINISTER. 33 



tants left houseless. Houses, fences, crops, timber, all were 

 burned ; and many people perished, being unable to escape the 

 rapid march of the flames and smoke. Not less than two thous- 

 and square miles of country, wholly or partially timbered, were 

 completely burned over in Michigan during this disastrous year. 

 The Lower Peninsula contains forty-four thousand square miles. 

 If we estimate about one half, or twenty thousand square miles 

 as timbered, it would require but ten such fires as that of 187 1 to 

 sweep the state clean. 



tjt 7[£ •tJp vfc t£ t(c tfc 



" The extent and magnificence of the forest growth of the 

 United States at the beginning of our existence as a nation 

 surpassed that of any land of equal extent on the globe. In 

 the number of species and the size of its trees, both deciduous 

 and evergreen, it exceeded by five times that of Europe. Such 

 a forest spread almost unbroken from the Atlantic to the Mis- 

 sissippi. An equally dense forest, mostly conifers, and many 

 of a size before unknown, occupied the Pacific slope ; while 

 between stretched an almost treeless region comprising nearly 

 half the territory of the United States. What a treasury of 

 wealth belonged to the new nation in its woodlands if properly 

 husbanded ! But to its first possessors these were an incum- 

 brance, to be got rid of as speedily as possible, in order that 

 place might be made for another source of national wealth — 

 agriculture. 



" Since that early period how great has been the change ! 

 The forest area, which seemed to its first possessors so vast, 

 and such an obstacle to civilized progress, has in a single century 

 almost disappeared. 



kt Computations have been made, from time to time, by com- 

 petent persons, including our efficient forestry chief, Prof. Fer- 

 now, of the number of cubic feet of wood of all kinds annually 

 used by our people for all purposes. Into these I do not pro- 

 pose to enter. It must suffice to say that the total annual con- 

 sumption has been variously estimated at from four to eight 

 million acres of woodland. Forest fires are responsible for 

 ten million acres more, or nearly double all other causes 

 combined. 

 3 



