350 TEXTBOOK OF BOTANY 



coupled with the fact that the disappearance of the forests 

 has been followed in many localities by serious floods which 

 have caused great damage to property, at the same time 

 carrying sand and gravel from the head waters of streams 

 and depositing it upon the good farms of the lowlands. The 

 damage caused in this latter way is estimated at more than 

 $2 ,000,000 a year in the state of Wisconsin alone. 



364. Improvement of Methods. — The use of lumber per 

 capita is much greater in the United States than in any other 

 country of the world, being more than twenty times that re- 

 ported for England and more than six times that in Germany. 

 The methods of lumbering used in the New World, although 

 much improved in recent years, are still much less economical 

 than European methods. The proportion of waste in these 

 operations in France and Germany is about four or five per 

 cent, but throughout the United States and Canada over 

 sixty per cent of the timber is wasted. 



Although the better mills are making use of a large part of 

 the materials obtained from trees, many are still as wasteful 

 as ever. Each year, however, means of handling the refuse 

 are being introduced, and although the European record 

 may never be equaled under American conditions, millions of 

 dollars worth of timber products that are now wasted annually 

 will be saved. Closer cutting in the forest, saving the 

 branches and tops of trees for pulp wood or for distillation, 

 greater care in handhng the logs as they pass through the mUl, 

 and a variety of other means are being used to reduce the 

 waste. State, national, and provincial foresters are teach- 

 ing the protection of the standing timber against the ravages 

 of insects and disease ; laws are being passed to protect the 

 forests from destructive fires, as well as to encourage the re- 

 planting of cutover areas. These are some of the methods 

 by which it is hoped that our timber supply may be con- 

 served. 



Many lumber companies have lately taken another impor- 



