WOOD SUPPLY OF NORTH AMERICA 107 



than 100 to 200 sleepers could be cut from an acre of such, timber- 

 land as prevails in the States, so that the Hnes existing in 1884 had 

 required all available timber from 4131,520 acres. The average 

 " hfe " of a sleeper is seven years, so that 59,021,700 ties, or the 

 product of 590,217 acres, would be requisite to keep the existing 

 lines in repair. The average length of new line built every year was 

 then about 5,000 miles, requiring 13,200,000 ties, or the timber of 

 132,000 acres. If we allow twenty-five years as the time necessary 

 for trees to attain a size suitable for making ties, then it would re- 

 quire the annual growth of 14,755,425 acres to keep good the 

 existing lines, and 3,300,000 to supply the annual demand for new 

 lines, to say nothing of keeping the latter in repair. Not less than 

 18,000,000 acres of woodland need, therefore, to be kept in reserve 

 for the sole maintenance of the permanent way of the railroads of 

 the United States. By 1905 it was estimated that there were 

 620 million cross-ties in use in the United States, so that from 

 90 to 110 miUions would be annually required for repairs and ex- 

 tensions. Bridge-timbers, fence-posts, telegraph-posts, car materials, 

 and other railway building timber would together equal the amount 

 demanded for cross-ties. The annual fuel consumption is reckoned 

 as the produce of 6^ million acres annually, and the entire con- 

 sumption as 25 milHon acres. Not only have too many Redwood 

 trees been used for fuel, but of late ordinary building has absorbed 

 a great many, panels of Redwood having become very popular in 

 San Francisco as a substitute for plastered walls, whilst there has 

 also been considerable exportation to China, Hawaii, and the, 

 Philippines. Some lumbermen predict that witiiin a few years 

 the Redwood tree wiU be as scarce as the buffalo, and that a shortage 

 has already begun is evident from the fact that the price of Red- 

 wood has risen rapidly from 25 to 45 dollars per 1,000 square feet. 

 Another serious factor in the question of timber supply in the 

 United States is the extravagant manner in which the turpentine 

 industry is conducted. Instead of any care being taken not to 

 destroy the timber (as is done in the south of Prance), it has been 

 said that there is no business connected with the products of the 

 soil which yields so little return in proportion to the destruction of 

 the material involved. The turpentine is chiefly obtained in Georgia 

 from the Long-leafed and LobloUy Pines [Pinus palustris and 

 Tmda), and the forests of this State were once unsurpassed, and, if 

 properly husbanded, might have continued indefinitely to yield a 

 handsome return. The turpentine farmers, however, aim only at 

 obtaining the maximum amount of crude-resin with the smallest 

 expenditure of labour, caring nothing for the fate of the trees they 

 attack. 



