78 
Annual Report of the 
ble purposes for the present population of this state, from the 
annual product of these unprotected forests. By the census reports 
of 1870, there was 11,715,000 acres in the farms of this state, and of 
this area in farms, 3,437,442 acres were denominated wood-lands. 
So nearly does this wood-land area correspond with the acreage re¬ 
quired to provide fuel and wood for other indispensible purposes, 
to the entire present population of the state by its annual increase 
alone, that we are compelled to acknowledge we need only to 
replace the brush, dwarf oak, poplar and willow, etc., on our farms 
to solve the domestic fuel question for all time for ourselves. But 
the increase of our population must be provided for. Then extend 
this area of protected re-growth of forests to fifty years and the 
annual increase will meet that demand. 
The estimated product of an acre of land of protected growth, 
of healthy, hard wood is estimated at forty cords, worth, in 1905 not 
not less than $2 per cord stumpage, or an accumulated wealth to 
the state, distributed among the owners of farms, of two hundred 
and eighty-two million dollars in thirty j T ears. By the census of 
1870, the population of the state doubles in thirty years. Then the 
coal imported into the state must equal one million tons annually, 
at a cost of $8,000,000 annually, or an aggregate of $180,000,000 
paid out to neighboring states for coal, without any increase of 
manufacturing, smelting or metallurgical operations in the state. 
And in contrast with the present system, it would show a gain of 
$426,000,000 to the state in thirty years, if peat is utilized for fuel. 
To the state, the inducement ii strong enough. In view of the 
fact that the geology of the rock formation of the state precludes 
the hope of ever finding coal, we cannot expect coal to be cheaper 
than at present, with the nearest coal beds three hundred miles dis¬ 
tant from the present center of population, and that center moving 
more distant annually. 
There are conditions imposed upon people who depend upon im¬ 
ported coal for heat and warmth, other than pecuniary, such as an 
impaired moral sense, and loss of manly independence in the presence 
of a monopoly control of a necessary of life, aided by facile com¬ 
binations of men, who so nicely adjust the smallest supply to the 
largest demand, as the owners of mines, miners and transporters of 
coal are; who create well timed panics by their unhallowed combina¬ 
tions, and who extort from their fellow men, through their suscepti- 
