168 FORESTRY IHVESTIGATIONS U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



by rapid strides into its modern methods and volume. In 1865 the State of New York still fur- 

 nished more lumber than any other State j now it supplies only insignificant amounts. 



In 1868 the golden age of lumbering had arrived in Michigan; in 1871 rafts filled the Wiscon- 

 sin ; in 1875 Eau Claire had 30, Marathon 30, and Fond du Lac 20 sawmills, now all gone; and 

 mills at La Crosse, which were cutting millions of feet annually, are now closed. By 1882 the 

 Saginaw Valley had reached the climax of its production, and the lumber industry of the great 

 Northwest, with a cut of 8,000,000,000 feet of white pine alone, was in full blast Southern devel- 

 opment began much later to assume large proportions, but by the present time the lumber product 

 of the Southern States has grown to proportions equal to those of the Northern States or the 

 Great Lakes States, each of the three sections furnishing about equal shares in the enormous 

 total cut. 



No wonder that those observing this rapid decimation of our forest supplies and the incredible 

 wastefulness and additional destruction by fire, with no attention to the aftergrowth, began again 

 to sound the note of alarm. Besides the writings in the daily press and other non-official publica- 

 tions, we find the reports of the Department of Agiiculture more and more frequently calling 

 attention to the subject. 



In the report issued by the Patent Office as early as 1849, we find the following significant 

 language in a discussion on the influence of forests on water flow and their rapid destruction : 



The waste of valuable timbei m the United States, to say nothing of firewood, will haidly begin to he appre- 

 ciated until our population i caches 50,000,000. Then the folly and shortsightedness of this age will meet with a 

 degree of censure and reproach not pleasant to contemplate. 



The report for I860 contains a long article by J. G. Cooper on "The forests and trees of 

 northern America as connected with climate and agriculture." 



In 1865 the Rev. Frederic Starr discussed fully and forcibly the " American forests, their 

 destruction and preservation," in which, with truly prophetic vision, he says : 



It is feared it will be long, peihaps a full century, before the results at which we ought to aim as a nation will 

 be realized by our whole country, to wit, that ^e should raise an adequate supply of wood and timber for all our 

 wants. The evils toliich are anticipated will probably increase upon us for thirty years to come iiith tenfold the rapidity with 

 which restoring or ameliorating measures shall be adopted. 



-cxiiu. again • 



Like a cloud no bigger than a man's hand just rising fiom the sea, an awakening interest begins to come in 

 sight on this subject, which as a question of political economy will place the interests of cotton, wool, coal, iron, 

 meat, and even giain beneath its feet. Some of these, according to the demand, can be produced in a few days, 

 others in a few months or in a few 3 ears, but timber m not less than one generation. r Ihc nation has slept because 

 the gnawing of want has not awakened her. She has had plenty and to spaie, but within thirty jeais she will be 

 conscious that not only individual want is present, but that it comes to each from permanent national famine of 

 wood. 



The article is full of interesting detail, and may be said to be the starting basis for the cam- 

 paign for better methods which followed. 



Another unquestionably most influential official report was that upon Forests and Forestry 

 of Germany, by Dr. John A. Warder, United States commissioner to the World's Fair at Vienna 

 in 1873. Dr. Warder set forth clearly and correctly the methods employed abroad in the use 

 of forests, and became himself one of the most prominent propagandists for their adoption in 

 his own country. About the same time appeared the classical work of George P. Marsh, our 

 minister to Italy, u The Earth as Modified by Human Action," in which the evil effects on cultural 

 conditions of forest destruction were ab]y and forcibly pointed out. 



The census of 1S70 also for the first time attempted a canvass of our forest resources under 

 Prof. F. W. Brewer, and the relatively small area of forest became known. All these publica- 

 tions had their influence in educating a larger number to a conception and consideration of the 

 importance of the subject, so that when, in 1873, the committee on forestry of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science was formed and presented its memorial to Congress, 

 there existed already an intelligent audience, and, although a considerable amount of lethargy 

 and lack of interest was exhibited, Congress could be persuaded, in 1876, to establish the agency 



