The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-02-06
THE PR SS.
The Timber CrOn.


Gentleman:
The attention of the public should be con-
tinually called to the importance OF the TIM
Der crop. We regard it as more worthy OF at
tention than any other crop whatever, not
even excepting corn, wheat, cotton or grass.
The comforts and even the very existence of
civilized society, depends ON copious supply
of wood and timber. Nearly every trade and
manufacture requires its use. The houses we
i've in, the furniture we employ, the imple-
ments we work with, the wagons and carts
for the conveyance of farm products, the car
riages we ride in, the canal boats and rail cars
to give us markets, the mills for preparing our
food, the innumerable other appliances which
we continually resort to to maintain existence
through life, and finally in the last rites
which are performed to all by the manutac-
ture of coffins,-eyery one OF these is consum-
ing the great fields of our native forests all Ov-
er the country. 1t h. been estimated that
seventy-five million dollars worth of fuel is
burned every year in the United States; loco
motives consume over eight million cords OF
wood annually; over hundred million dol
lars worth of sawed lumber is yearly employ
ed in building and in manufactures; and four
million acres of forests disappear every year
before the axe, to supply all these demands.
In many portions of the country, we have
witnessed an increase OF more than ten times
in the price of standing wood within the past
thirty years. The increased price is already
retarding internal improvement; the cost of
lumber prevents the erection OF buildings, and
occasions high rent and in hundreds of in
stances manufacturing enterprises have been
abandoned on account of the cost of fuel.
The same cause increases the cost of travel
ling by cars and steamboats,, and has favored
successful coal strikes and monoplies. How
is all this destruction to be avoided?. 1t can
not be avoided, it may be successfully met.
In the first place, save the timber which we
have and in the second, keep constant sue
cession of new growth. The practice of grid
ling and burning vast tracts of magnificent
forests, to get rid of the wood, and to bring
the land into cultivation, should come to an
end-if in no other way, by legislative enact
ment, for the welfare and prosperity of the
country demand it. Wherever timber is cut
away, belts at least of young growth should
be allowed to spring mp and replace it, A por-
ton of the vast fields that are cut away should
be devoted to reproduction, and protected
from cattle, which trample down and destroy
the young trees. In some European coun-
tries this wasteful practice is forbidden by
stringent laws. This has been found abso-
lutely necessary, and if adopted long ago,
would have been better.
In France, where in some portions wood
now sold, like tea and sugar, by the pound
the far-seeing Bernard Palsy three centuries
ago demonstrated vehemently against the
waste of the forests, in these words: 81 can
not enough detest this thing, and call it not
an error, but curse and a calamity to all
France; for when forests shall be cut, all arts
shall cease, and they who practice them shall
be driven out to eat grass with Nebuchadnez-
ger, and the beasts of the field. / have divers
times thought to set down in writing the arts
which shall perish when there shall be no
more wood; but when had written down
great number, did perceive there could be
no end to my writing, and having diligently
considered, found there was not any which
could be followed without wood" In these
brief remarks, we can only allude to the
means of preventing the utter waste of our
forests. A full discussion would require vol
umes. The simplest and easiest way is to re-
store the old growth by the preservation of
the new timber which will usually spring up
abundantly when all is thoroughly cut and
cleared away, either as suckers from the old
stumps, or as new seedlings. The value of
the new plantation depends not only on the
character and denseness of the growth. but
on subsequent thinning. This is as essen
tial as the thinning of any crowded farm crop,
or of the thickly sown turnips, beets and car
rots of the gardener. If not attended to, the
ttcco Will CTOWu duu eLle6Dlc one announcer.
and many will be overshadowed and die
The remainder will be irregular and less val
liable than the same number of trees properly
thinned, when the growth will be straight
and uniform. The first thinning NAV be
done when the trees are large enough for
hoop-poles; the second when they may an
swer for rails; and after growing twenty wears
or so, the whole may be cleared off, when, if
the soil and management have been good.
no will bo 10
into four posts at the base, with much addi-
tional timber above. When the young growth
is sufficiently abundant at first it will prove
great convenience to thin out nearly in
rows, allowing the passage of wagons for
drawing out the wood, and preserving more
uniform distances between the trees A rule
has been given for the distances asunder-to
leave the trees twice as high as these spaces
and they will then run up three or four times
as Nigh. The distance will, of course, be va
rled with circumstances, but it should never
De so great that the shade and fallen leaves
will not entirely prevent the growth of grass.
THE RED RIVER RAFT.-Having heard of
the great raft in the Red river, since our
geography days, we are all apt to suppose we
know all about it. We are well aware that IL
is a mass Of drift wood, completely obstructins
navigation at the peint where it covers the
water with its countless trunks of forest trees.
We know that the river passes under this
mass as if it were bridge; and we NAV re-
member that in 1888, when the raft was 124
miles long, the general government began the
work OF removing it, but after working at il
Tor twenty-five years, abandoned the attempt
as lmpracticable, and confined its efforts To
the opening up of some of the lateral chan
nels or bayous. We may know all this Int
still be ignorant of one of the most curious
characteristics of the great raft, which Is that
1t, unlike RATS in general, moves up the river
against the current instead of down. The
movement is very slow, being but a
mile or two in year. The ex-
PLANTATION of this retrograde movement
of an apparently stationary mass is
simple enough. The logs of the lower end of
the raft are continually broken away and car |
ried off by the floods and freshets, Thus the |
raft, always falling away at one end and grow I
ing at the other, gradually moves up the river
and it is calculated that it has moved since its |
forming about four hundred miles. Scientie
&c writers have suggested the idea that this |
vast mass OF timber, after lying in the old bed |
OF the river for quite number of ages, will |
become coal bed. But when the Red River !
country becomes thickly settled, this ener- |
nous collection of driftwood may be utilized |
in some way or other, and thus incaIculahlv
distant generations may be cheated ont Of
many good coal fire. Exchange. |