30 



Again allowing that a sound stem fifty feet long, and 24 inches in diameter, 

 or four logs 12' feet, may be cut from a tree ; at that rate it will talce 878,436 

 Buch trees to make the lumber landed in Chicago last year, with an increaS' 

 Ing ratio requiring 79,639 trees each year, and .gives 958,095 trees for the 

 lumber of 1867, and 1,037,734 for 1S68. This is for a single point where 

 lumber is received. « 



The same report informs us, that " Canada lumber has only arrived in lim- 

 ited quantities, and of but very ordinary quality, the prices to be realized, 

 after deducting duty, not warranting any extensive shipments." Conse- 

 quently the lumber landed at Chicago, must have been cut in the forests of 

 Wisconsin and Michigan. 



Allowing again that the amount of lumber received at the other lake and 

 river ports in Wisconsin and Michigan and not reshipped to Chicago, together 

 With what has passed out of these, states by the Detroit and Mississippi riv- 

 ets, equals the amount received at Chicago, and then there will be taken 

 fro.Ti the woods of these states 1,532,950,626 feet of lumber, requiring 1,916,- 

 189 trees. Two millions of large pine trees cut from the forests of two 

 States, in a single year, to supply the lumber demand of that year ! 



How long will these forests last ? This to our people is a serious question 

 indeed. Some estimates may be made. Suppose there are now left 7,500 

 square miles in each of these states, which will give 19,200 trees each or 

 thirty trbes to the acre, yielding 24,000 feet of lumber ; then on these 15,000 

 square miles there will be 288,000,000 for cutting. If there Was no increase 

 in the cuttirig, but just 2,000,000 were cut each year, then the forest Would 

 last 144 years. But the increased demand of about 160,000 trees is such 

 that the annual cutting is doubled in less than thirteen years, and therefore 

 the whole amount must be cut in fifty years— -less than one-half the time 

 necessary to produce similar trees. When that time comes, when the fam' 

 ine of lumber is on us, the taxable property of the state will loose a large 

 per centage of its value, and mannfactures of lumber must almost cease with 

 with its use in buildings. And another and severer wind than any that now 

 teaches us, will come to us unrestrained from the north. That will be a sad 

 day for the state. But come it suiely will, unless the peopla shall immedi- 

 ately tak,e steps tO renew their forests. 



THE NECESSITY OF CHEAP MOTIVE POWER. 

 Cheap motive power is not less essential to the happiness and prosperity 

 of a nation, than is cheap bread and cheap houses^ Machinery for manu- 



