FOKEST PEESEEVATION AND NATIONAL PEOSPEEITY. 15 



pies of scientific forestry do for these industries in a practical, busi- 

 nesslike way, which will place no hardship upon the manufacturers, 

 but which will still preserve the timber for their use ? 411 are greatly 

 interested in this question and are looking to this congress to furnish 

 at least some advance toward a solution of it. 



JOHN A. McCANN, 

 Editor National Coopers' Journal. 



* * -* yyr e cooperage people have for years gone at the destruction 

 of at least two of the noblest specimens of the American forest — the 

 white oak and the American elm — and followed them so relentlessly 

 that the ends of both are well in sight, unless the American Forestry 

 Association or the Bureau of Forestry will stay the hand of the stave 

 man, do something to repair his wastefulness, or satisfy his rapacity 

 with other woods. 



* * * One of my contemporaries says that "it is the traditional 

 policy of consumers of lumber and timber to ignore the possibility 

 of the exhaustion of the timber supply, and invariably the}^ fail to 

 realize the fact until it has already taken place." That suggestion 

 fits my cooperage friends exactly. Twenty-five years ago elm and 

 oak were as abundant in the Northern States as gum and oak are in 

 the Southern States now; and while that condition exists the cam- 

 paign looking to conservation of the supply should be entered upon 

 vigorously and determinedly, while the campaign for the reforesta- 

 tion of the denuded lands of the North should also be organized and 

 pressed with earnestness. 



* * * Necessity has compelled us to see that beech, maple, and birch 

 will take the place of elm and basswood for slack-cooperage work; 

 and we are also learning that gum will make the best of barrels when 

 handled properly. And I presume there are other timbers growing 

 in our forests that need only intelligent handling to become equally 

 available. Whatsoever the American Forestry Association or the 

 Bureau of Forestry can do to demonstrate this, to prevent waste and 

 destruction by fire and insects, and to renew supplies, will be work 

 well done. 



ENORMOUS CONSUMPTION OF TIMBER BY THE RAILROADS. 



HOWABD ELLIOTT, 



President Northern Pacific Eailway. 



* * * To have good tracks the railroads must have some form of 

 support under the rails, and the present practice is a wooden tie. In 

 this item alone, based upon the actual requirements for a period of 

 years by one large system, it is estimated that the total annual con- 



