Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-05-17
FOREST hNDlLRI.

blr. James Little is prominet lumber
dealer in Montreal, having followed the bust
ness for fifty years, and consequently being
somewhat informed concerning numbering
operations. Recently he has been investi-
eating the sources and extent of the supply
to meet the ever increasing consumption of
the United States and Canada. The results
of his inquiry are set forth in letter to
David A. Wells, and they must prove ex-
trenaely unsatisfactory to whoever has an
eye to the future of his country. It appears
that of all the northern States east of the
Rocky Mountains only four-Maine, Michi-
gan, Wisconsin and Minnesota-are able to
furnish supplies beyond their home require
ments. Maine, which people usually con-
meet in their minds with vast areas of pine
forests, is now all but stripped of that timber,
and even for their supply of spruce the
lumberers have to seek the head-waters and
tributaries of every stream in the State, and
the mills are stocked in large measure
with logs cut from saplings of six or eight
inches in diameter. Mr.. Little says that a
very few years will find Maine without build
ing timber, either pine or spruce, for home
consumption.
Three States only-Michigan, Wisconsin
and Minnesota-can furnish white pine for
expectation beyond the State limits. In six
or seven years, Mr.. Little calculates, these
! three will no longer be able to export. The
main streams are denuded, lumberers arc
working at the head waters Of tributaries, and
railways have been built to reach localities
where low water may prevent the moving of
logs that have been hauled to the banks of
streams. After going on to show that it
would require $500,000,000 to send abroad
for single years supply of lumber, Mr..
Little says:
From the utter Indifference and neglect with
which this momentous question of the supply
and consumption of timber is treated by your
people, it might be supposed you could dispense
altogether with its use, or that you could repro
duce it as easily as raising crop of corn, or
that you would have no difficulty in finding
| substitute, but it takes a century to grow a
standard pine saw-log, and if there is country
on earth in a position to do without, or find a
substitute for timber, that country is Great
Britain, and yet she increased her wood con-
sumption at an average rate of 10 per cent
} cal Luz VIC 4dSI Ceu years, ana laSG year, as
shown by her trade returns, it was 81 per cent.
more than in 1875, and the import
of that island, not half the area of
your State of Texas, and being, as it
were, thoroughly finished up throughout its
whole extent, showing no further room for
Improvements, amounted to no less than 500.
000,C00. But large as that sum is, it is com
paratively small to what the United States will
soon he called upon to supply for its own
wood consumption, and it is not luxury that
can be thrown aside at will; it is indispensa-
BILE to the nation IS well being.
I know that the impression prevails, and it
is often stated by interested parties, that it
matters little what is the condition Of your
supplies, as you have but to look to Canada,
where can be found enough for the most ex-
acting population of the world for centuries
which ia the statement usually made by those
utterly ignorant of it's true condition, Or those
who do SO for q purpose; and l will here as
scrt,, from personal knowledge of most Of the
timber sections of Canada, and trustworthy
reports from others, that we have not, from
the far-off Province of Manitoba to the Gulf |
of ST. Lawrence, much pine, spruce. /
hemlock, oak, ash, elm, white- !