IMPORTANCE OF A SUPPLY OF WOOD. 77 



to increase, and to-day there is probably more wood used 

 in making boxes of various kinds than there was in the 

 construction of buildings of all kinds in this country 

 three-quarters of a century ago. Furthermore, no kind 

 or quality of timber appears to escape the unsatiate de- 

 mand of the artisan of the pei-iod, and he not only finds 

 ready uses for the large and small, the hardest, toughest, 

 and most durable, but also for the soft and spongy, the 

 latter being preferred for grinding up into wood-pulp for 

 making paper. 



Not a year passes during which scores of new devices 

 and inventions of new articles of manufacture, are not 

 brought forward, that are made in part or wholly of 

 wood, and while singly they may not call for a great 

 quantity, they do in the aggregate use up an enormous 

 amount. 



The invention of a pleasing toy for children has fre- 

 quently caused the demolishing of hundreds of acres of 

 forests, to supply the manufacture with wood used in its 

 construction. It is idle to talk of our natural forests 

 furnishing a supply of wood for the future use of our 

 people, even with the most careful management and 

 economy in preventing waste, there must soon come a 

 time of great scarcity of all kinds of wood. With an 

 increase in population, there must necessarily follow a 

 corresponding increased demand, because experience has 

 shown, that whenever any other material has been sub- 

 stituted for wood, it merely releases a certain amount, 

 and allows it to seek other channels or markets. No 

 matter in what direction we turn, the fact meets us, that 

 the best and most valuable forests of the United States 

 are rapidly disappearing, and the sooner we commence 

 as a nation to economize in the use of wood of all kinds, 

 and preserve the forests now existing, as well as com- 

 mence planting new ones, the better it will be for the 

 present as well as future generation. 



