Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1875-07-01
Timber I'm 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 infor
nation as TO the production and con-
sumption of timber; Information desired
more particularly by the Commissioners
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 owner
ship of forest lands, the causes OF in
crease or decrease in the acreage OF for
ests, the quantity of wood cut annually,
and the amounts exported and consumed
at home. Inquiries also were made as To
the ascertained influence Of forests on
local climate, rainfall, Hoods, etc, and,
particularly IL Switzerland, whether any
steps have been taken to replant the
sides of the mountains, SO as to stay the
action of rain in denuding the soil. Va
rious reports on all the foregoing topics
have now been received, and may be
procured in the form of Parliamentary
Blue Book, from which we here Gull
few brief extracts, commencing the
work itself TO the careful attention of all
who take an interest in forest preserva-
ton, subject full of Importance, not
only because timber is indispensable to
human existence, but because we may
point TO Palestine, to Spain, and
probably TO many regions in North Africa,
to show how the gradual destruction
of forests will change the char
acter Of a country and its inhabit-
ants forever. In Bohemia, during the
past ten years, species of worm, which
seems TO act like an epidemic. has been
causing great devastation in the forests.
The entire side of 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 Aus
tria, and more especially in Hungary,
has been followed by baneful conse-
quences, such as long droughts and ire
mendous winds, which fill the air with
unceasing clouds of dust ana consider
ably increase pulmonary diseases in
towns which have become totally un-
sheltered. Pesth, Presburg and Vienna
are now perfectly intolerable during
three parts of the year from this cause.
AT Rio de Janeiro, thunder.storms, for
merly OF daily occurrence, are now rare !;
and the cause is supposed 10 be the de-
struction 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 IL since, though
trees are being busily planted in every
street In Hesse and Baden greater pru-
dence has been displayed. Four-fifths of
the former Duchy and one 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 10 its original employment.
In Sweden the timber resources are i'm
mcnse Lapland has never been surveyed,
but is reckoned, with the northern prov
inces, to contain some 30, 900 900 acres of
forest. Unfortunately, the unceasing and
enormous demands for wood, especially
for charcoal, house building and lucifer-
matches, ia telling rapidly on the pro-
ductiye power of the forests: this fact is
OF worldwide Importance, for there il
hardly mari time country, except China
and Japan, to which Swedish wood in
some form does not find its way. At
last, in 1874, law was passed forbidding
the telling of any trees less than seven
inches in diameter at sixteen feet from
the ground This statute applies only to
the Bothnian forests. Ii extended TO all
Sweden, as 1t probably will be, ii NAV
greatly affect the mining interests of
Great Britain, for ii will cut of the sap
ply OF small timber known as pit.
props" In Switzerland there is now
Sylvan Society, and great pains are being
taken to induce people to replant cleared |
and denuded mountain-slopes, SO as to |