may mention paving-blocks, dye-stutfs, 
tanning material, which all represent a 
heavy drain upon our resources ; 
while for resin and turpentine immense 
quantities of trees are annually de- 
stroyed. But tremendous as is the ex- 
penditure of timber on these purposes, 
it falls far short of the enormous amount 
utilised every year in the manufacture of 
paper. “The United States alone use 
8,000,000 tons of wood annually for this 
purpose; over 2,000,000 tons are used 
by Germany, 1,000,000 tons by Canada, 
over 1,000,000 tons by Sweden, 200,000 
tons by Russia, while Britain’s bill for 
wood pulp in 1908 wags very little short 
of £3,000,000.” An ingenious American 
has figured out that a big paper like 
the “Chicago Tribune” uses 200,000lbs 
ef paper each Sunday, and 400,000lbs. for 
the week-—in other words about 40 acres 
of forest for one week’s work. Perhaps 
this fact is enough to give some faint 
idea of the constant depredations that 
the progress of civilisation makes in this 
respect upon the resources of Nature. 
THE CASE OF AMERICA. 
It is important to observe 
that we are gradually creating 
a condition of things that has 
never been paralleled since the 
first advent of human life on this planet. 
Marsh and other distinguished authori- 
ties have pointed out that all the avail- 
able evidence indicates that the habitable 
earth was originally covered by dense 
forests in almost every portion. The in- 
roads made by man upon the natural 
bush were at first of slight importance, 
and easily repaired; and it is only within 
comparatively modern times that the ac- 
cumulated effects of his reckless destruc- 
tion of the forests have begun to produce 
any pronounced diminution of the avail- 
able timber supply. But with the great 
industrial and commercial changes, and 
the marvellous improvements in trans- 
port facilities that marked the course of 
the last century, the ravages of Man 
have told with ever-growing rapidity upon 
the forests, and the rate of destruction 
increases every year. Nowhere in the 
world are these important facts so c'early. 
15 
evidenced as in America, once regarded 
as an absolutely inexhaustible source of 
supply. But if the Americans themselves 
estimate the position accurately, they will 
soon have too little timber on hand to 
supply their own immediate needs. “We 
have reaped our forests,” says Mr E. 
Hough in the article I have already cited 
on “The Slaughter of the Trees ; “we 
have reaped our forests as sheep reap 
the grass lands, leaving nothing behind 
to grow. We have used ever-increasing 
appliances for speed and thoroughness to 
supply an ever increasing demand at an 
ever-increasing price. We are converging 
in ever-increasing numbers with an ever. 
increasing zeal upon what is left; and in 
our haste to get it all, we are permitting 
an ever-increasing waste and ruin of the 
original supply.” The falling-off in the 
reserve stock of timber is plainly indi- 
cated by the constant inclusion of forest 
trees once deemed worthless in the list 
of industrial woods. Among American 
hardwoods are now classified beech, syca- 
more, gums, “anything that will saw 
into a board.” On the Pacific coast only 
the finest redwood wag first cut, then 
the Douglas fir or Oregon pine, now the 
hemlock, cedar, “anything that will hold 
a saw blade.” In seven years, it is 
said, the production of hardwoods in 
America has fallen off 15 per cent.; and 
according to Mr Hough, “it will take 
us 16 years to use up all the rest of our 
hardwood if we do not burn it and if 
the demand remains the same.” Unfor- 
tunately, the one thing certain is that 
the demand will: increase. Moreover, it 
is almost equally certain that much of 
the existing supply will be destroyed by 
fire. “Of all the timber now left stand- 
ing in America to represent our entire 
future supply, the lumberman will use 
less than one-half. The other half will 
never be taken out of the woods at all. 
Three-fourths of that half may never be 
cut, but may be set on fire and burned 
as it stands.” There are about 450,000,- 
000 acres of commerical timber left in 
the United States, bearing about 2,000,- 
000,000,000 feet of marketable woods. 
But experts say that the yellow pine will 
last hardly 15 years at the present rate 
