The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1875-06-24
Timber In Foreign Countries.

During the spring of 1874 the British
| government addressed circular to the
representatives of Great Britain in the
principal timber producing countries OF
Europe, in the United States and Brazil,
in Cuba and Honduras, asking for in
formation as to the production and con-
sumption of timber information de.
sired more particularly by the commits
sioners of our woods and forests.
Fifteen questions were asked. These
related to the sorts of trees grown in
each country, the uses made of each
kind, the ownership of forest lands, the
causes of increase or decrease in the
acreage of forests, the quantity of wood
cnt annually, and the amounts exported
and consumed at home. Inquiries were
also made as to the ascertained influence
of forests on local climate, rainfall,
floods, etc, and, particularly in Switzer-
land, whether any steps have been taken
to replant the sides of the mountains, SO
as 10 stay the action of rain in denuding
the soil. Various reports on all the fore
going topics have now been received,
from which we may here Gull few brief
extracts, commencing the work itself to
the careful attention of all who take an
interest In forest preservation, q subject
full OF Importance, not only because
timber is indispensable to human exist
ence, but because We mny point to
Palestine, to Spain, and probably to
many regions in North Africa, to show
how the gradual destruction of forests
will change the character of country
and its Inhabitants forever. In Bohc-
mia, during the past ten years, a species
of worm, which seems to act like an cpl
demic, has been causing great tlevasta-
ton in the forests. The entire side of a
range OF hills may be seen sometimes
laid bare of timber by the inroads of this
worm disease. The diminution of
forests in parts of Austria, and more
especially in Hungary, has been followed
by baneful consequences, such as long
droughts and tremendous winds, which
fill the air with unceasing clouds OF
dust and considerably increase pull
monary disease in towns which have be-
come totally unsheltered. Pesth, Pres
burg, and Vienna are now perfectly in
tolerable during three parts of the year
from this cause. At Rio de Janeiro,
thunder storms, formerly of daily occur
renee, are now rare; and the cause is
supposed to be the destruction of the
forests which surrounded the town, as
new roads have been made. Hence, in
1852, yellow fever visited the place, and
has never left it since, though trees are
being busily planted in every street.
In Hesse and Baden greater prudence
has been displayed, four-ffths of the
former Duchy and third of the latter
are wooded, and the law requires that
every thirty years land which has once
belonged to the cultivation of trees
must return to its original employment.
In Sweden the timber resources are i'm
mense; Lapland has never been survey
ed, but is reckoned, with the northern
Provinces, to contain some 10000, 900
acres of forest. Unfortunately, the un-
eeaslng and enormous demands for
wood, especially for charcoal, house
building, and lucifer matches, is telling
rapidly on the productive power of the
forests; this fact is of worldwide i'm
portance, for there is hardly maritime
country, except China and Japan, to
which Swedish wood in some form does
not find its way. At last, in 1874, law
was passed forbiding the telling of any
trees less than seven inches in diameter,
at sixteen feet from the ground. This
statute applies only to the Bothnian for
ests. If extended to all Sweden, as it
probably will be, it may greatly affect
the mining interests of Great Britain,
for it will cut off the supply of small
timber known as "pit props" In
Switzerland there is now a sylvan So
ciety, and great pains are being taken to
induce people to replant cleared and de-
nuded mountain slopes, so as to prevent
the damage which floods, landslips, and
avalanches have of late years SO fire.
quently inflicted. Switzerland also has
an industry-that of wood carving
which she had made peculiarly her own,
it was not introduced into the
Bernese Oberland before 1915. This
wood-carving annually uses up an enor-
mons quantity of wood of all sorts. In
Cuba there are abundant forests, which
must have increased since 1868, when
the insurrection broke out, for there has
been very little cutting of late years;
but. as we might expect where the Span
ish are concerned, no more care is taken,
no less recklessness is shown by the
farmers who cut wood for their use in
Cuba than in any other timber clad part
OF the globe.-Xand and Water.