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June, 1905 COAL AND TIMBER
With this condition continuing in the future
indefinitely the place the mining of fuel for
the world will take as a component part
of this Nation's resources cannot be conjectured
with any degree of accuracy. It
shows the foresight on the part of those
who are buying vast coal tracts for the future
days of this country's supremacy which
arc fast approaching.
TOUR OF THE OHIO.
The members of the Rivers and Harbors
Committee of Congress have seen the improvements
which the National Legislature
has so far provided for the great inland
waterways which have so much to do with
the welfare and development of this great
industrial community and the teeming Ohio
valley. Right royally were the distinguished
statesmen welcomed here, and their entertainment
was with a free and cordial hand.
That they appreciated this reception there
is no doubt. They have made a tour of the
Monongahela river and the Ohio from its
source to its mouth. Men who know these
great streams like a book and all the diversified
interests which depend upon them for
their very existence accompanied the committee
on its tour. Nothing was concealed;
everything was explained to the members of
the Rivers and Harbors Committee. They
were made to know that it is not Pittsburg
alone which demands the deepening of the
Ohio river to a nine-foot channel all the
year around, but that millions of people
and untold wealth depends upon the permanent
improvement of this great inland
waterway.
That the result of this personal and intelligent
inspection of the Ohio will result
eventually in good cannot be doubted when
the personnel of the committee is taken into
consideration. The members of the
Rivers and Harbors Committee of Congress
are carefully selected with a view to their
fitness for just such service. They are men
above petty local prejudice and predilection.
They have seen what a wealth of
resources this favored valley has. They have
seen that much of its development depends
upon the condition of the rivers which
thread their way through the, valley and
they have been made acquainted with the
great handicap which is thrown about
Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia,
Western and Southern and Eastern Ohio,
Kentucky, Southern Indiana and Illinois by
its lack of permanent improvement. Inland
navigation can never develop in any
measure of feasibility until the river interests
are assured of stable and permanent
navigation.
Upon Congress and upon Congress alone
devolves the responsibility of inaugurating
this all important improvement. When
compared with the resulting impetus to all
of the manifold interests of this section of
the United States the outlay from the National
treasury requisite to place the Ohio
river in permanent navigable state is but
small. Millions, it is true, will be necessary
to construct all of the dams necessary to
provide a nine-foot channel in the Ohio, but
billions of dollars will be added to the Nation's
wealth as a result.
The bituminous coal interests more than
any other will be affected. The deepening
of the Ohio will afford a stable and dependable
means of shipping coal at all seasons
of the year. This will affect the millions
of wealth which are invested in soft coal
mining in several States. At the same time
it will quicken the pulse of manufacture and
industry in that great section of the South
and Southwest which depends upon the
bituminous coal States for their supply of
fuel. The markets will be open the entire
year and a fuel famine will be unheard of.
As things are at present there is either a
glut of coal in the South or a famine. Industries
are obliged to close down months
in the year when with a deeper river channel
in the Ohio they could be kept running
steadily and profitably.
There is but one side to this question, and
it is hardly to be doubted that the members
of the Rivers and Harbors Committee of
Congress have been thoroughly convinced
of this fact and will be heard voicing
their sentiments accordingly when Congress
next prepares a bill for the improvement
of the inland waterways of the country.
FOREST LEGISLATION.
More and more is the subject of the reforesting
of denuded lands becoming agitated
and it seems to some effect. In Pennsylvania
Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker
has signed a bill passed by the recently
expired session of the State Legislature
providing for the granting of rebates
for the planting of trees. The new law is
designed to have an important bearing in
promoting the movement to reforest the
State. Any person who will plant not less
Another important move is that made by
Philip W. Ayres, State forester of New
Hampshire, who has had 20,000 white pine
seedlings shipped from Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin,
for planting on the shores of the
Merrimack river. The trees will be set out
on a portion of a 200-acre tract which was
cut over two years ago by one of the great
lumber companies, and the actual cost, including
the first cost of the trees, which
was $77.60 at the nursery at Sturgeon Bay,
express charges of $5.75 and the labor of
planting will be $6 per acre. The seedlings
are of the same species as those which were
cut from the land but are the first to be
brought from the West for planting in New
Hampshire. These seedlings are from four
to eight inches high, and it is estimated that
it will require not less than 40 years time
for them to develop to sufficient size for
profitable cutting. If one takes the trouble
to make an estimate of the present prices
of wdiitc pine lumber it wull be found that
the pine forest thus planted, at the end of
40 years, barring losses by fire, which is
the great enemy of the pine forest, will have
paid on an investment a return of 10 per
cent, compound interest at the outlay of $6
per acre. The investment is likely to prove
far better than this because at the present
rate of cutting pine the appreciation in price
of this lumber in 40 years is likely to be
considerable.
Forest legislation has received attention
at the hands of an unusual number of State
Legislatures the past winter and spring. The
lawmakers of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont,
New Jersey, North Dakota, California,
Indiana, Washington and Oregon
have all passed bills of one kind or another
bearing on the general subject of the preservation
of the forests or the replacing of
trees where the land has been denuded.
The Legislature of North Dakota has
placed an act on the books stimulating the
planting of trees much similar in character
to that enacted by the Pennsylvania lawmaking
body. The North Dakota act allows
an unusual reduction in taxes of $3
for each acre planted in any kind of trees
set not more than eight feet apart, in holdings
of SO, 120, or 300 ;.cres. The other
legislation relates largely to the protection
of existing forests. It affords striking proof
that wdiere a dozen years ago it was almost
impossible to get a State Legislature to pay
any attention to forestry questions, the care
of the trees is now recognized to be as much
m the province of a State's governing body
as are matters of taxation or those relating
to the public health.
than 300 trees an acre on ground which
does not now contain trees shall be allowed
The California Legislature was particularly
active. Besides turning over the Yose-
a tax rebate of 80 per cent, for 35 years.
This proviso is made, however, that the rebate
is not to amount to more than 45 cents
mite Park to the Federal government, the
State will join with the National Forestry
an acre. This bill has been most heartily
bureau in an investigation of the best methods
of forest preservation, to wdiich end the
approved by the advocates of the reforesting
of the Keystone State. It is a move in
Legislature has appropriated $70,000. An
the right drection. The operation of the
appropriation for the establishment of a
new law will be anxiously observed.
State forestry board with sufficient means
to employ an adequate force of men was
also voted.
WASTE.
The "miner" poets are the ones
Who burn the midnight wick
In trying to swing verses
When they'd oughter swing a pick.
—McRome Howell.