The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-11 00:00:00

TREE CULT URE.

A startling fact is brought out in the last report
of the United States Department of Agriculture.
Indisputable facts and figures there show that un-
less new forests are planted there will, from the
destruction of the old forests, within 30 years, be a
scarcity of timber amounting to a wood famine in the
Union. Last summer hundreds of square miles of
forest were in flames, and the destruction must
have been enormous, though we do not see this
waste alluded to among the other causes. In New
York, from 1850 to 1860, nearly two million acres
of forest land were reclaimed, and in the same
period it is estimated throughout the States that
fifty million acres of new land were brought
under cultivation, two-fifths of it being tim-
ber, and in the ensuing ten years, ending in 1870,
the calculation is that a hundred millions of acres
will have been so reclaimed. The value of the farms
of the United States in 1860 was $6,654,045,700,
while the value of the lumber improvements was
$3,322,522,000. All this has been cut from the
soil, and most of it within thirty years. Not a
single thing has been done to replace it. Again
in a single year there was used for repairs of rail-
roads, and railroad buildings and cars, in the United
Sates, no less than $38,000,000 worth of wood;
while the wood fuel consumed for locomotives for
the United States reached the enormous figure of
$57,000,000. There are no less than 476,623
artisans in wood in America. If we estimate the
value of their production. at the low price of
$l,OOO each per annum, we have the still
greater aggregate of an industry of five hundred
million dollars annually dependent solely on wood.
From 1850 to 1860, 65,897,000 sleepers were used
on the railways, all of hard wood, and requiring to
be replaced under five years. The consequence is
that the black walnut has almost disappeared from
the eastern and middle States. Much of the pine
sold in New York comes from Michigan and Wis-
consin, carried more than a thousand miles. The
bard maple and hickory are nearly gone, and the
wild cherry and cucumber tree rarely seen, while
large sections have been swept bare of the hemlock
and pine. In consequence the climate is changing,
and the country experiences extremes of tem-
perature formerly unknown. There is no bet-
ter established fact than the influence of tree-
covered tracts on temperature, and if all the States
are cleared of the primeval forests whioh formerly
covered them their climate will change. In the
Eastern States at least, and in the Prairie States,
every encouragement should be given to planting,
and laws ought to be passed to check, as far as
legislation can, the wanton and reckless destruction
of timber. Nothing could tend more to beautify a
bare country than to plant along the railways ; and
the Legislatures at least could have some control over
land granted for railway purposes. The effect will
also be to establish a fashion, for man is au imita-
tive creature, generally seeing beauty when it is
pointed out to him, and learning to appreciate
it. But it is not beauty alone that makes this
subject of such importance. The Independent says,
" It is now a noteworthy fact that wood in all its
branches of manufacture and use pays more than
one-half the entire internal revenue •of the United
States, and no less than sixty-six trades depend
upon wood as bare material for their labour.
Again, there are needed noon every farm, improve-
ments in the shape of buildings, fences, and imple-
ments, which in their first cos,, form a very large
comparison with the actual cost of the farms ; these
are decaying every year, and must be renewed."