Timbers. 



450 



[November, 190S. 



$7,00,000 was laid out in bringing the 

 forests under administration. Now, 

 though about one-half of the lands have 

 been acquired by private persons and 

 the State retains only about 125,000 acres, 

 the State has received $120,000 above all 

 expenses, and possesses a property 

 worth $10,000,000 acquired virtually tor 

 nothing. 



Some 2,000,000 acres of shifting sands 

 and marshes toward the interior of the 

 country, a triangular territory known 

 as the Landes, has been changed from a 

 formerly worthless condition into a pro- 

 fitable forest valued at $100,000,000. 

 Reforestation was begun about the 

 middle of the last century. This work 

 was done principally by the communes, 

 aided and imitated by private owners, 

 and encouraged by the State. The 

 resulting forest produces both pine 

 timber and resin, upon the yield of 

 which the present valuation is based. 



La Sologne, in the central part of the 

 country between the rivers Loire and 

 Cher, was once densely wooded, but was 

 for two centuries steadily deforested. 

 By the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century 1,250,000 acres had been utterly 

 abandoned. Owing to the nature ol the 

 soil and subsoil, drainage was necessary 

 as a first step toward reclaiming this 

 land with forest. About the middle of 

 the nineteenth century a committee of 

 private citizens, under the presidency of 

 the director-general of forests, began the 

 work of reclamation. A cannal 25 

 miles long and 350 miles of roads were 

 built, and 200,000 acres of non-agricultural 

 land were planted with pine. In spite of 

 the fact that one of the species planted 

 proved a failure and another kind of 

 pine had to be substituted, the restor- 

 ation work has resulted in a forest 

 property worth $18,000,000, and land 

 which could be bought for $4 an acre 

 fifty years ago is now yielding $3 an acre 

 net annual revenue. 



The arid limestone wastes of the 

 province of Champagne have been partly 

 reclaimed by forest planting. Two 

 hundred thousand acres, planted at a 

 cost of $10 per acre, have now risen in 

 value of $10,000,000 and a net annual 

 revenue of $2 per acre. 



The private forests of France are being 

 freely sold. Speculators buy them, strip 

 them, and sell them for grazing purposes. 

 In this way hilltops and hillsides are 

 being rapidly denuded. This threatens 

 erosion and the silting of farm lands 

 in the valleys by the washing down of 

 infertile soil. The terribly destructive 

 floods of the present year could not have 

 been so violent had the hills of France 

 been kept clothed in forest. 



In France, then, forestry has decreased 

 the danger from floods, which threat- 

 ened to destroy vast areas of fertile 

 farms, and in doing so has added many 

 millions of dollars to the National 

 wealth in new forests. It has removed 

 the danger from sand dunes ; and in 

 their places has created a property 

 worth many millions of dollars. Applied 

 to the State forests, which are small in 

 comparison with the National forests of 

 this country, it causes them to yield 

 each year a net revenue of more than 

 $4,700,000, though the sum spent on each 

 acre for management is over one hun- 

 dred times greater than, that spent on 

 the forests of the United States. 



France and Germany together have a 

 population of 100,000,000, in round 

 numbers, against a probable 85,000,000, 

 and State forests of 14,500,000 acres 

 against our 160,000,000 acres of National 

 forests ; but France and Germany spend 

 on their forests $11,000,000 a year, and 

 yet get from them in net returns 

 $30,0(0,000 a year, while the United 

 States spent on the National Forests 

 last year $,400,000 and secured a net 

 return of less than $,130,000. — Hawaiian 

 Forester and Agriculturist, Vol, V., No, 

 7, July, 1908. 



RAILROADS AND WOOD 

 PRESERVATION. 



The recent action by the Board of 

 Directors of the American Railway 

 Engineering Maintenance of Way Associ- 

 ation in appointing a committee of seven- 

 teen to investigate and report upon the 

 subject of wood preservation, has showru 

 that the practical railroad men of the 

 country recognize the importance of 

 taking steps to conserve the rapidly 

 diminishing timber supply of the United 

 States. 



Timber is one of the principal materials 

 purchased by the railroads, and its 

 economical use is a subject of far-reach- 

 ing importance. More than 100,000,000 

 cross ties are used annually by the 

 different railroad companies, and their 

 average life in this country is not more 

 than six or seven years. From a study 

 of European methods, and the know- 

 ledge of wood preservation under con- 

 ditions in this country, timber testing 

 engineers say it is reasonably certain 

 that an average life of from 15 to 20 

 years may be secured by treating the 

 tie with a good preservative and the 

 use of improved devices for the pre- 

 vention of mechanical abrasion, thus to 

 a large degree diminishing the drain 

 upon the timber supply. 



