October 16, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



513 



growers, manufacturers and otters had an 

 opportunity of discussing questions relating 

 to the industry at an international congress, 

 to which delegates were sent by many con- 

 tinental countries. Borneo, Mexico and other 

 rubber-producing countries took part in the 

 enterprise. 



The National Conservation Commission has 

 caused the first comprehensive attempt at a 

 census of the standing timber in the United 

 States ever undertaken. The Forest Service 

 has for several years been eager to take such a 

 census, and the Bureau of the Census has 

 expressed its willingness to cooperate, but 

 funds have never been available. The con- 

 servation commission, however, needs the in- 

 formation to help complete its inventory of the 

 country's natural resources, which it will in- 

 clude in its report to the president, and since 

 that report is to be submitted on the first of 

 next year, it needs the information at once. 

 Large portions of the forests of the country, 

 including practically all the national forests, 

 have been estimated at various times, but these 

 figures have never been brought together and 

 no organized effort has ever been made to 

 gather them into one total, nor to supply the 

 deficiencies where hitherto no estimates have 

 been made. As a result, the guesses as to the 

 amount of standing timber in the United 

 States, range from 822,682 million to 2,000 

 billion board feet. In the opinion of the 

 Forest Service, the most carefully prepared 

 estimates yet made are those by Henry Gan- 

 nett, published by the Twelfth Census in 1900. 

 These placed the total stumpage at 1,390 bil- 

 lion board feet. Mr. Gannett has been chosen 

 by the president to compile the information 

 gathered for the commission, and with his 

 previous acquaintance with the subject of for- 

 estry, he is at work now enlarging the knowl- 

 edge of forest areas at present available. The 

 importance of this census lies largely in the 

 fact that it will give an accurate basis for 

 computing how long our timber supplies will 

 last. Through the cooperation of the Forest 

 Service and the Census Bureau the country's 

 annual consumption of wood is known with 

 tolerable accuracy, although even here there 

 are some discrepancies, because a large amount 



of wood is used for posts, fuel and domestic 

 purposes, for which no satisfactory data have 

 yet been collected. But the consensus of 

 opinion is that the present annual consump- 

 tion is about 100 billion board feet, or some- 

 thing more than that. One leading authority 

 has placed it as high as 150 billion board feet. 

 Assuming a stumpage of 1,400 billion feet, an 

 annual use of 100 billion feet, and neglecting 

 growth in the calculation, the exhaustion of 

 our timber supply is indicated in fourteen 

 years. Assuming the same use and stand, 

 with an annual growth of 40 billion feet, we 

 have a supply for twenty-three years. As- 

 suming an annual use of 150 billion feet, the 

 first supposition becomes nine years, and the 

 second thirteen years. Assuming a stand of 

 2,000 billion feet, a use of 100 billion feet, and 

 neglecting growth, we have twenty years' sup- 

 ply. Assuming the same conditions, with an 

 annual growth of 40 billion feet, we have 

 thirty-three years' supply. With an annual 

 use of 150 billion feet, these estimates become, 

 respectively, thirteen and eighteen years. 



Accidents in the coal mines of the United 

 States in 1907 resulted in death to 3,125 men 

 and injury to 5,316 more — an increase of 

 1,033 in the number of deaths and 516 in the 

 number of injuries over the record for 1906. 

 This record marks the year, in all other re- 

 spects the most prosperous, as one of the 

 worst in the history of the coal-mining in- 

 dustry of the country. Even the above 

 figures, however, fail to represent the full 

 extent of the disasters, for any statistical 

 statement that attempts to cover coal-mining 

 accidents for the entire United States is neces- 

 sarily somewhat incomplete. The U. S. Geo- 

 logical Survey, by which the figures for the 

 country are published, does not collect the in- 

 formation directly, but obtains it through the 

 courtesy of state or territory mine inspectors 

 or other officials who compile data concern- 

 ing accidents and their causes and effects. A 

 number of the coal-producing states have no 

 officials charged with these duties, and one or 

 two of the state officials failed to reply to- 

 the inquiries sent out by the survey. In 1906 

 returns were received from 21 states and ter- 



