106 OF WOOD IN GENERAL 



wholly dependent, even for fuel, upon imported timber, Grenada, 

 Tobago, St. Lucia, and Dominica produce Cedar, Galba {Calo- 

 fh'^llum Cdlaba), Angelin [Andim inirmis), Bullet-wood {Mimusops 

 glohosa), and Bois Riviere or Water-wood {OMmdrrhis cymosa), and 

 have a small export. 



North America, — In the United States and Canada during the 

 last twenty years, timely, if somewhat alarmist, warnings have 

 been put forward against the reckless waste of the timber resources 

 of the continent. Mr. B. E, Fernow, Chief of the Forestry Division 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture, in 1886 expressed 

 the opinion that the reason why the prophecies of a dearth of timber 

 made for more than a century by alarmists in Europe have not been 

 reaHzed is that their clamour has induced more careful husbanding 

 of forest resources. He then estimated the forest area of the 

 United States, exclusive of Alaska, as less than 500 million acres, 

 much of this being only brushwood or thinly stocked with trees. 

 The amount of wood then used he quotes as 20,000 million cubic 

 feet, made up as follows : 



Lximber-marlset and manufacture, . - - - 2,500 millions. 



Railioad construction, 360 ,, 



Charcoal, . - - 250 ,, 



Fences, 500 ,, 



Fuel, 17,500 ,, 



'^ There is also to be added," he writes, ^' an item requiring 

 yearly a considerable amount of wood for a use to which no other 

 civilized nation puts its forests. I refer to the 10,000,000 acres 

 or so of woodland burnt over every year, intentionaUy or umn- 

 tentionally, by which a large amount of timber is killed or made 

 useless ; and, what is worse . . . the capacity of the soil for tree 

 growth is diminished," Reckoning 50 cubic feet as the yearly 

 accretion per acre, the 20,000 million cubic feet consumption here 

 indicated would require an area of not less than 400 million acres 

 to be kept well stocked. 



Some day, no doubt, the development of the coal-fields of the 

 United States will considerably lessen the consumption under the 

 largest of the above-mentioned items, and there is certainly room 

 for economizing in other directions. It is computed, for instance, 

 that, in the CaUfornian Redwood [Sequoia sempervirens) forests, to 

 produce a railroad-tie worth 35 cents, timber to the value of 1-87 

 dollars is wasted. In 1894 there were in the United States 156,497 

 miles of railroad ; there were in 1899 189,294 miles. Reckoning 

 2,640 as the average number of sleepers per mile would make the 

 number used by 1884 413,152,080. The young sound trees employed 

 will not commonly make more than two sleepers each, i.e. not more 



