The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-02-03
The Consumption of Timber.

The following startling array OF figures
are from letter recently written in the
New York World, by Major Brisbane, of
the United States Army at Omaha, Ne
braska, and should be read with serious
reflection by the American people.
"It is said that nearly one-half of the
surplus hard woods are to be found in
West Virginia. How long these will
last is doubtful question. Taking the
one item of railroad tics and we find that
the country requires for its annual sup
ply 94,530,OOO cubic feet, equal to 73s,5l5
cords Of solid timber, to secure which at
least 100000 cords of standing timber
have to be cut down., The average pro-
duct per acre of the forests of Virginia is
given by B. F. Maury at from forty to
fifty cords per acre; so that taking the
maximum yield, our railroad ties alone
destroy annually 10000 acres of wood
land. The annual consumption Of the
country for fuel is estimated at over 50,-
100000 cords of wood, of which three
fifths may be assumed to be good stand
ing timber, cut expressly for fuel. This
gives an annual clearing of 100000
acres. The iron founderies consumed in
1870 $4,000 tons of charcoal and fur
mace that makes six or seven tons ofiron
day will use up two hundred acres of
woodland a year. The pine lands of
Michigan, the best in the country, yield
10000 feet to the acre, broad measure.
The annual consumption of the country
in manufacturing lumber is 10000, ,O0O,-
900 feet representing an annual clearing
of2,0OO,O00 acres, the fencing of the coun-
try required 25,0O0,OO0 acres to be cleared
in order to make it, and the annual re-
pairs to fencing destroy 5,5O0,OOO acres
of forests. Our shipping tonnage repre-
sents $4,000 acres of oak forest destroyed,
and demands for repairs, 1000 acres
year; the hard and turned wood manu-
factures of the country use up an annual
average of 100000 acres of timber. Ia
King all these items together we have an
aggregate annual consumption of $780,
600 acres of forest. As our total forest
lands amount to 3SO,OOO,OO0 they will
last at this rate only seventy years. A
certain percentage of forest destroyed is
allowed to renew itself, and as in seventy
years pine woods can be cut over twice,
this renewal amounts to very consider
able figure, but it is scarcely sufficient to
Offset the increasing demand for timber
for every purpose to keep pace with in
creasing population and exigent indus
tries in the same period. In other words,
with our present system of husbandry,
and our present growth of population,
seventy years marks the maximum Pc
riod that our forests may be expected to
last. &S Il:
The demand for lumber in the whole
United States increases at the rate of
about twenty-five per cent, per annlm,
and the supply has in the last year in
creased thirty per cent, showing that
lumber producers in their haste to de-
stroy the forests, are overstocking the
market, while the increase of forests from
planting is less than one million acres,
the decrease from all causes is over eight
million acres annually. As an example,
it is reported Chicago in 1871 received
$500, ,000, 900 of lumber, and 10000 acres
were stripped of timber to supply that
great city with fuel alone.
The fences of the United States are
really the greatest consumers Of our trees.
This drain is almost beyond human COM
putation or belief, and in every State in
the East our farmers are becoming alarm
ed as to what they shall do for fence tim
ber in the next fifteen or twenty years.
Each one'is yearly economizing more
and more his little store of timber, but
still he sees it melting away and no new
forest at hand to replace it. 1t is an as
tonishing fact that the fences of the Uni.
ted States have cost more than the land,
and they are to-day the most valuable
class of property in the country except
railroads and real estates in the cities.
Our fences are now valued at 81, 800, ,000,-
600 and to keep in repair, cost $98,O0O,-
900 annually. In Illinois it is estimated
100000 is invested in fences, sixty
per cent. of which are board, post and
rail, and forty per cent. wire and hedges.
These fences cost Sl75,0 900 annually. for
repairs, and yet Illinois is one of our rev
States"