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May, 1905 COAL AND TIMBER 17
FOREST
DENUDATION.
The subject of forest denudation is one
which will not down. It has been so frequently
and voluminously discussed thatit
has become an almost thread-bare subject,
yet it is one which concerns the industrial,
agricultural and sociological future of this
and other countries where the on-march of
civilization has threatened the extinction of
timber. The reports, both governmental
and private, are not reassuring. Inveigh
as men will upon the evils of forest denudation,
it continues, and will continue until
stopped by the heavy hand of the law.
How this may be applied,it is not the purpose
to discuss at this time. The fact remains
that the wanton despoliation of the
thousands of acres of timber lands which
yet remain in this country is short sighted
almost approaching the line of criminality,
certainly to the extent of being fool hardy.
It is fortunate that the repeated warnings
are beginning to have some effect, though
far short of what is necessary, to the enforcement
of discretion and common sense
in the cutting down of timber. Several
states of this Union, Pennsylvania included,
have enacted wise forestry laws so far as
they go. That they must go still farther in
the future there can be no doubt. It is a
condition, and a stern one at that, which
confronts this young country and one that
must be met in the next decade or the worst
evil will have been accomplished. If accomplished
too late, the application of the
remedy will be about a efficacious as the
locking of the stable door after the horse
has been stolen.
Alabama, the fifthstate in the Union in
the production of yellow pine lumber, has
no comprehensive or effective legislation
looking to its preservation. But, of late,
the public awakening in that state upon this
question has become so manifest that the
public-spirited committee of the Montgomery
Commercial and Industrial Association
has taken the question up and now there is
a lively and reasonable hope that its efforts
to regulate the cutting of timber in the
future will be rewarded with success. The
Association has gathered the laws of the
states enacted to prevent forest denudation
and will inaugurate an active campaign to
the end that the state legislature be influenced
to enact similar legislation in Alabama.
Alabama, fortunately, is not alone in this
awakened feeling of concern as to the future
of timber lands. Several others are taking
up the question with some promise of the
enaction at early dates of wiser and stronger
laws. This cannot come too soon. The
farsighted railroad men of the country are
beginning to look askance when confronting
the question as to the future of the supply of
timber for railroad ties. The Pennsylvania
railroad is so apprehensive on the subject
that it has begun the planting of yellow
locust trees on property owned by the company
although there is no hope that it will
be available for its purposes for 40 years.
Joseph T. Richards, chief engineer of the
maintenance of way of the Pennsylvania
railroad, has estimated that the railroads of
the United States have in use at the present
time 620,000,000 railroad ties. The number
used annually for repairs and extension
is estimated to be from 90,000,000 to 110,-
000,000, requiring the product of 200,009
acres of woodland.
Such enormous figures as these show
startingly how great is the danger of the
utter extinction of timber lands if heroic
measures are not soon taken. In the spring
and fall months young trees should be
planted and every effort should be made
upon wise and reasonable lines by the proper
authorities that the work of replacing the
timber of the country proceed intelligently
and without interruption. This country, so
far in advance of many sister lands of the
earth in many ways, can learn much from
them in the matter of the preservation of the
forest lands. Germany has taken advanced
position on this question. The whole forest
reservation of Prussia amounts, in round
numbers, to about 20,000,000 of acres, of
which over 5,000,000 acres belong to the
state and about 150,000 to the crown. The
balance is owned by municipalities, corporations
and individuals'. All forests owned
by municipalities and corporations are administered
under government regulations
and the private owners govern their lands
OUR
CARTOONS.
Beginning with the April issue Coal
and Timber began a series of twopage
original cartoons, especially
drawn for it, and which will be of interest
to the coal and timber trade.
Upon request of any regular yearly
subscriber, copies of these cartoons,
printed on plate paper suitable for
framing, will be sent gratis, post-paid.
The series will be desirable for the
office walls of any firm engaged in
the lines whose interests we are
pushing.
has caused serious disturbances in the volumes
of our rivers. The denudation of the
land of trees is the firstcause of the great
and ever-growing disastrous floods, which
in the early spring and late fall are a constant
threat to the vast cities built along
the river courses as well as to the great
manufacturing interests and the agricultural
which are always close to the streams as
possible.
When the sources of rivers are heavily
wooded, the water supply is regulated and
kept at a more even amount. The trees
and vegetation withhold the moisture and
it is allowed to find its way to the water
courses more gradually and thus in the
early days of this country the tremendous
inundations which are now so common were
almost unknown. Then, too, the water levels
in the streams were more uniform and navigation
could be maintained almost all of
the year round. All of these considerations
are to be taken into account in considering
the evils which are resulting from the
denudation of our sources of timber supply.
The campaign of education must be
steadily, persistently, patiently and intelligently
maintained to the end that wise and
beneficient laws are enacted, and, once
spread upon our statute books, rigidly and
properly enforced.
A MILLION TONS A
DAY.
One million tons of coal a day are being
mined in the United States. This is a
figure before which human understanding is
confounded. Each 24 hours a small mountain
of coal is extracted from the bowels
of the earth, brought to the surface and at
once distributed all over the country to keep
the wheels of industry revolving. The
country is using fuel at a rate far beyond
that of any other nation on the face of the
earth. The output of coal in this country
last year is estimated to have been 345,437,-
000 tons of coal. The mountain of fuel
was worth at the pitmouth $530,000,000,
while the value of pig iron produced was
about $320,000,000, and of the gold smelted,
$80,000,000. That coal is the richest mineral
as a wealth producer nothing could be more
by the same general methods, exact figures conclusive than the cold conservative figures
of the amount of revenue derived from these
lands are not obtainable owing to the large
individual holdings, but the government of
Prussia in the year 1903 realized 40,935,504
marks from its preservations alone. The
general rules governing the operations in
which prove that fact. Natural gas
and water do, indeed, furnish much power
but their might and total results which they
accomplish is but a pigmy when compared
with the mighty systems which depend upon
coal for their very being. The development
forest lands in Prussia are, first,to sow or of the grand West Virginia and Southern
plant and let grow all trees that promise to
pay sufficient interest; second, to cut and
coal fields in recent years has added enormously
to the production of these United
market timber wheneverit pays better to do States. It is wonderfully reassuring to
so, and third, to care that future generations
are no worse off than the present in regard
to the supply of available timber. These
rules might well be observed in America.
But aside from the commercial uses and
values of timber, there are industrial and
economic conditions which are of the most
vital importance. The cutting of timber
know that these vast coal-producing territories
have been merely scratched as it were,
and that their resources are, as yet, incalculable.
The long and systematic working of
the older sections of the country will leave
these new fieldsto be depended upon most
largely for the country's coal supply for
the future.