FORESTS, ARBOR DAYS, AND MANURING- FOREST TREES. 791 



geographies was noted as the Great American Desert " from their total 

 absence) — have against this an annual consumption of 350 cubic feet a 

 head, or 25,000,000,000 cubic feet, for fuel and lumber. The United States 

 now use the annual growth of 1,200 million acres of woodland, whereas 

 the total forest area is less than 500,000,000 acres, so that more than 

 half of the annual consumption is a draft upon forest capital. Without 

 regarding street or suburban traffic, 90,000,000 railway sleepers are 

 annually required for renewals at 25 per cent, advance on the price of 

 ten years ago, and 600,000 telegraph poles at 50 per cent, advance. Mr. 

 N. A. Eggleston, of the United States Department of Agriculture, 

 actually states, " Lumber alone would load a train of cars sufficient to 

 encircle the earth at the Equator, and, if we add all other timber, posts 

 and fuel, such a train would be 100,000 miles in length ; or it would require 

 480,000 ships of 1,000 tons each to load the forest products." According 

 to his calculations the commercial value of the forest trees of the United 

 States is so great that it exceeds that from any other source. In 1894 

 the value of the cereal crops was £208,601,589, whilst that of the pro- 

 ducts of the forests for that year was £3,000,000 in excess ; the value of 

 the gold and silver raised was only one fifteenth, and the whole value of 

 all mineral products was only about one-half of the forest products. 

 Such official statements are bound to arouse public attention ! 



Great Britain was well provided by nature with great forests. The 

 Druids had their fine groves of Oaks, and Queen Elizabeth was amongst 

 the first English-speaking advocates of forestry. Comparatively few of 

 these Oaks remain ; but according to the best authorities they may live 

 1,500 years — only Cedar, Sequoia, and Baobab having a still longer life, 

 while Poplars reach only 50, Elms 335, Maples 516, Birches 576, 

 Oranges 620, Cypresses, Walnuts, and Olives 800, Planes 1,000, and 

 Limes 1,100 years. Had former generations no duty to posterity ? They 

 had only a life estate in the forests, with no permission to waste ; and as 

 far as possible the present generation should try to rectify this great 

 injury to the British commonwealth by planting largely. New Zealand 

 has done this ; and South Australia, at least for some time, paid a bonus 

 for successful plantations of forest trees, and distributed them free of 

 charge. Cannot wealthy Great Britain follow the example of Germany 

 in raising forest trees at cost price for municipalities, and paying a bonus 

 of ten shillings an acre for forests planted by them, or (with some 

 restrictions) to private persons who will do the same ? There are in fact 

 townships in Germany where they require no district taxation. At 

 Freudenstadt, for instance, they have been since 1875 in the enviable 

 position of being able to pay to each of about 1,300 burghers a sum 

 varying from 25s. to 55s. from the profits of the forest owned by the 

 little town. Another instance is Saaldorf, where the eighty-four rate- 

 payers each receive every year wood and turf for burning to the value of 

 £5, and lately the sum of £830 was divided amongst them, or nearly £10 

 to each, as surplus from sales of timber. This village had yet a further 

 sum of £3,000 in hand, and, of course, no debts. The initiation of such 

 a system by the Government seems to me a sine qua non for success, at 

 least with the smaller landholders. Even so long ago as April 1863 the 

 Secretary of State for India wrote to the Governor of Madras : "To 



