TREES OF INDIANA. 
73 
the Indianapolis and Vincennes, Indianapolis, Bloomington 
and Western, Indianapolis and St. Louis, Cincinnati and 
Indianapolis Junction, and the Indianapolis, Peru and 
Chicago, and especially its new northern extension from 
Peru to Michigan City, all pass wholly or in part, through 
the richest timbered sections of Indiana and through 
o 
forests as yet unculled of its choicest timber. It is reason¬ 
able to believe that with the general distribution of cheap 
coal for fuel these treasures of choice woods may eventu¬ 
ally, and we hope early, be used only as required for the 
various arts and manufactures, and that their wanton 
destruction for fuel and “clearing” may be abandoned as 
a ruthless waste of property. 
This reform has already been commenced by several of 
the railroad companies converting their engines into coal 
instead of wood burners. It is estimated that the railways 
of Indiana consume annually the frightful amount of seven 
hundred thousand cords of wood—equal to about one hun¬ 
dred thousand car loads, thus devastating annually of its 
choicest treasures twenty thousand acres of land. At this 
rate the sure destruction of our forests is inevitable. 
There is a routine, a fatalism, a blind disregard of ordi¬ 
nary business sense, on the part of our railway managers 
in thus destroying a material portion of their own revenue, 
amounting eventually to throwing away one-fourth of their 
annual receipts from freights. But this vandalism will not 
be continued; the policy of the roads is changing; lumber 
will become higher and coal cheaper, and the woods be 
saved, and new ones planted. 
It is obvious to any statistician or good observer, that the 
immense timber wealth of Indiana can only be maintained 
by a well matured policy for the preservation of our remain¬ 
ing woods under legislative authority. The lives of trees 
and of men are alike worthy of protection by the law mak- 
