Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-12-13
ExPOnrTNG TrMRER AN vi LtJsrBER.

EXPORTING TIM BIER AND LUMBER.
We have not the data to state the rspidn
increase in the quantity of timber, slaves,
and lumber Of various kinds annually ex-
ported from the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf
States. We happen 70 know, however, that
oak slaves for making wine casks in the
south of France are sent from the forests of
Kentucky and Tennessee. A Frenchman
engaged in making these purchases told the
writer that it cost as much to buy . new
wine cask in France as the juice OF the
grape to fill It, so scarce is stave timber in
that country.
The Secretary of the Iowa State Board of
Agriculture states that within few months
one man has contracted to furnish the Brit
ish Government with e We million cubic feet
of white oak, which viii be cut from forests
within fifty miIes of Cairo, Illinois. This
is carrying valuable timber away from the
great prairie States, where it Will be needed
before new forests can be raised. Oak fire
wood is now worth seven or eight dollars a
cord In Washington City, and fence rails
are selling in the District of Columbia
at one hundred dollars a thousand;
yet the writer has seen a three masted ship
in the United States Navy yard loaded with
railway ties to be laid in Cuba. The writ
er has several tines bought farms with
timber, and once in the District of Column
bia, for less money than the timber was
worth for foreign consumption. Farmers
should ponder the fact that it takes a long
time TO raise a crop of board, stave or ship
timber, and save it while they have it. In
sixty years the United States will contain
two hundred million people, and probably
have five times more capital to each person
than We now have. A much higher stand
ard of comfort viii call for more timber for
all the uses and purposes to which wood is
applied. II iron, and other ipcombustible
substances, take the place Of wood in many
fabrics, wood viii be needed in quite as
many new Inventions, arts and structures.
Advancing civilization takes to the wood,
wrought into endless forms, as naturally as
ducks take to water. Mark the progress
from a small cabin with dirt floor, few
stools, gun, an ak and hoe, to the pre-
sent farmers good house and furniture, bis
barns, stables, cribs, and sheds, his wagons,
carts, and endless farm machinery, and re-
cognize in this change the many ways in
which the same number of people may con-
sumo ten times more timber than at present.
Wealth, ambition and industry will create
such a demand for sound wood that its
production will pay better than any other
branch of agriculture for general consump-
ton at home and abroad. We have at least
thousand million acres Of arabic ard graz
ing lands, in open prairie. Settle this
wide, continental expaDse as you viii, and
your farm wagons and railroad ties alone,
will consume timber beyond computation.
An investment in timber lands near uget'5
sound On the Pacific, or in southern Geor-
gia, Florida, Alabama or Mississippi, would
soon convert one dollar into ten, and prob
ably into one hundred. There is magnif.
cent timber and available for market, in
Washington Territory and Oregon, to be
bought at nominal prices. Very few land
holders in Tennessee rightly appreciate the
present and prospective value of the woods
aad forests in the State. How many crops
Of corn can be raised on an acre, before
one can raise pine that will make from
800 to 1000 feet of plank? Yet, such pine
uaes are sold for a dollar each, and some
times much less, by the acre. The writer
has seen goo] white pine timbered land
sold in New York at dollar an acre; and
seen, in after years, trees worth $50 each,
and their lumber $40 a thousand. The
rise in the future will be greater than in
the past.