iiUCALYPTtJS TREES. 73 



two years of the recent civil war in North America, 

 twenty - eight thousand Walnut - trees were felled to 

 supply one single European factory with the material 

 for gun-stocks, demanded for this fratricidal war. Is 

 it not right to reflect timely on the vast extensions of 

 railroads, manufactures, mines, ship - building, dwell- 

 ings, and so forth, and then to ask, Where is the 

 wood -supply to come from ? The requirements in 

 this direction must necessarily rise with the increase 

 of the population and the augmented refinements of 

 civilization, yet the area of supply we see constantly 

 decreasing. The loss on wheat crops during four of 

 the more recent years in the State of Michigan alone, 

 for want of shelter against cutting winds, was esti- 

 mated at £5,000,000, and this is regarded as the mere 

 sequence of the removal of the forests, and not trace- 

 able to exhaustive cultVire. Cereal crops and vines 

 were destroyed in many parts of South Europe, also 

 through the complete want of shelter. 



" More bleak to view the hills at length recede. 

 And less luxuriant, smoother vales extend; 

 Immense horizon-hounded plains succeed — 

 Far as the eye discerns, without an end." 



Bteon. 



The Commissioner of the Land Office of the Unit- 

 ed States (Report for 1868) considers the Live Oak 

 (Quercus virens) — ■one of the best for ship-building — ■ 

 nearly exterminated for all practical purposes, at least 

 as far as native forests are concerned ; while the Wal- 

 nut timber of North America, so much prized for cabi- 

 net-work, has well-nigh shared the same fate. The 

 transit of Walnut - wood from Missouri to New York 

 renders it already nearly as expensive as Mahogany, 

 whereas the latter has become likewise in West India 



