14 FOEEST CCIiTUBE AND 



understood that a tree or a forest planted is an invest- 

 ment of capital, increasing annually in value as it 

 grows, like money at interest, and worth at any time 

 what it has cost, including the expense of planting 

 and the interest which this money would have earned 

 at the given date. The great masses of our rural 

 population and land-owners should be inspired with 

 correct ideas as to the importance of planting and 

 preserving trees, and taught the profits that may be de- 

 rived from planting waste spots with timber, where 

 nothing else would grow to advantage. They should 

 learn the increased value of farms which have the 

 roadsides lined with avenues of trees, and should un- 

 derstand the worth of the shelter which belts of tim- 

 ber afford to fields, and the general increase of wealth 

 and beauty which the country would realize from the 

 united and well-directed efforts of the owners of land 

 in thus enriching and beautifying their estates. 



The demand for lumber increases in the United 

 States at the rate of twenty -five per cent, per annum. 

 The decrease of forests is at the rate of 7,000,000 acres 

 annually. Few people have any idea of the immense 

 value of the wood which is used for purposes gen- 

 erally considered unimportant. The fences of the 

 United States are now valued at $1,800,000,000, and 

 it costs, annually, $98,000,000 to keep them in repair. 

 By far the greatest proportion of these are wood. The 

 railroads of the United States uso 150,000,000 of ties 

 annually. 



There are establishments manufacturing articles of 

 wood alone, numbering 118,684, employing 7,440,000 

 persons, and using wood valued at $554,000,000 an- 

 nually. 



