Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1870-10-29
Hsv eur Forests are Going.


We fud in the St. Louis IcysUican 8
lengthy sd Interesting contribution show
Jog the rapid cons emption Of the pine for
ests in the Northwestern States. The
Maine forests have already becu so thor.
osghly stripped that not tree Of the old
growth is leh. Twelve years ago New
York exported immense quantities Of lum.
Der; but her forests arc totally exhausted
aud she now relics for her own supply up
on importatioas from the West and from
Canada. In the year 1869 the amount Of
lumber cut in the three great lumber.pro-
duciug States Of the Northwest was 2 ,029, :
355 feet from Michigan; 3l7 400, 1000 feet
from Minnesota, and 964 GOO, 900 from
Wisconsin. To obtain this quantity $685.
032 acres, or 1880 square miles Of pine
forests we're stripped of trees. 1t is est.
mated that four millions of acres still re-.
main unstripped in Michigan, which will
yield fifteen thousand millions of feet of
lumber. About three millions of acres
remain in Wisconsin, and $500, 900 remain
in Minnesota, which are estimated to yield
81. 362, SOC, 900 in feet of lumber guam.
tity too Immense to intelligently estimate,
but whose consumption is merely a ques.
ton Of time, for no more than twenty years
at most, will be required to cut and send
to market all the trees now standing. The
demand for pine Lumber is fast increasing,
aud spreading over wider area of terrific.
~. The problem for solution, and which
cannot receive attention too early, is, what
means can be devised to replace this enor.
nous consumption This question has
been carefully considered in Europe for a
century or more, and it forces itself upon
our notice in several aspects. As the wri.
ter in the Republican remarks, the de-
struction Of our forests, and the denudation
Of our prairics Of their primitive vegeta-
ton, have made fearful inroads upon our
climate. The rains have less frequency,
aud when they do come are more deluging
than formerly. We are more frequently
suffering from the opposite extremes Of
excessive droughts and destructive mum
dations. Our springs, brooks and rivers
are drying up. Our old folks tell us that
brooks DOW more than half the time dry,
in their childhood offered constant water
power to mills; and as proof of what they
say, point to the mill site long since aban-
doned. And this is because our forests
have long since succumbed, or are rapidly
disappearing before the axe of the wood
man and the fres of the iucendiary, and
our Aocks have deuuded the prairie Of
their primitive grasses. The writer sug-
gests first, as remedy for the anticipated
scarcity of timber, that more economy
should be exercised in building houses, in
which much extravaganza and waste of
material are now noticeable. And when.
ever possible, other timber than pine should
be employed on buildings when it will an
swer as we'll as pine, and the State author.
tiles should encourage planting and rearing
such trees on the great plains Of the West
as are best adapted to flourish there. We
on the Pacific coast are only remotely in.
terested in the rapid consumption Of the
pine forests Of the East, but can, neverthe-
less, observe with profit the experience Of
the older States as regards thcnnnecessary
destruction of timber.