Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1875-08-27
Timber in Foreign Countries.

Timber I'm Foreign Countries.
During the spring of 1874 the British gov
eminent addressed a circular 10 the rep
resentatives of Great Britain IN the prnci-
pal timber producing countries of Europe,
in the United States and Brazil, in Cub
and Honduras, asking for information as
10 the production and consumption of tim
Der; Information desired more particular
ly by the commissioners of our woods and
forests.
Fifteen questions were asked. These re-
lated TO the sorts of trees grown in each
country, and uses made of each kind, The
ownership of forest lands, the causes of in
crease or decrease in the acreage of forests,
the quantity of wood cut annually, and the
amount OK ported and consumed at home.
Inquiries were also made as to the ascer-
tanned influence Of forests on local climate,
rainfall, floods, etc., and particularly in
Switzerland, whether any steps have been
taken to repaut the sides the mountains,
so as TO stay the action of the rain in de-
nuding the soil.
Various reports on all the foregoing top
les have now been received, from which
we may here Gull few brief extracts,
commencing the work itself to the careful
perusal of all who take an interest in forest
preservation, a subject full of importance,
not only because timber is indispensable
TO human existence, but because we can
point 10 Palestine, TO Spain, and probably
10 many regions in North Africa, to show
how the gradual destruction of forests will
change the character of a country and its
inhabitants forever
In Bohemia, for the past ten years,
species of worm, which seems to eat like
an epidemic, has been causing great de-
vastation in the forests. The entire side of
range of hills may be seen sometimes
laid bare of timber by the inroads of this
fatal worm disease.
The dlminution of forests in parts of
Australia, and more especially in Hunga-
ny, has been followed by baneIul conse
quences, such as long droughts and tre-
mendous winds, which fill the air with UNI
ceasing clouds of dust and considerably in
crease pulmonary disease in towns which
have become totally unsheltered. Pesth,
Presburg and Vienna are now perfectly in
tolerable during three parts of the year
from this cause.
At Rio Janeiro, thunder storms, former
ly of daily occurrence, are now rare; and
the cause is supposed 10 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 almost every street.
In Hesse and Baden greater prudence
has been displayed. Four.fiflhs of the
former Duchy and one third of the latter
are wooded, and the law requires that
every thirty years land which has once be-
longed 10 the cultivation of trees must re-
turn 10 its original employment.
In Sweden the timber resources are i'm
mense; Lapland has never been surveyed,
but is reckoned, with the northern provin-
ces 10 contain some 100000 acres of for
est. Unfortunately, the unceasing and
enormous demands for wood, especially
for charcoal. house building, and lucler
mat ches, is telling rapidly on the product
i've power of the forests; this fact is of
world wide importance, 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,
a law was passed forbidding the telling of
any trees less than seven inches in dame
ter, at sixteen feet from the ground. This
statute applies only 10 the Bothnian forests.
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 sylvan So
ciety, and great pains are being taken to
induce people 10 re-plaAt cleared and de-
nuded mountain slopes, so as to prevent
the damage which land slides, floods and
avalanches have of late years SO frequently
inflicted. Switzerland also has an industry
that of wood carving-which she had
made peculiarly her own, although it was
not introduced into the Bernese Overland
before 1915. This wood carving annually
uses up an enormous quantity of wood of
all sorts.
In Cuba, there are abundant forests
which must have increased since 1868,
when the Instruction broke out, for there
has been very little cutting of late years
but, as we might expect, where the Span
iards are con cerned, no more care is taken,
no less recklessness is shown by the farm
ers who cut wood for their use in Cuba
than in any other timber clad part of the
globe. and Water.