Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-11-21
Destruction of Timber.

In his evidence before the Agricultu-
raj Commission of Canada. says the
Toronto Globe, Mr.. Brown, of Port FL
gin, expressed the opinion that the
country should be reclothed with forest
trees. He recommended the planting OF
large nurseries by the Government, from
which the people could obtain trees at a
low price, and, also, that the Govern
ment should replant the crown lands,
as Is done in Australia and other coun-
tries. Mr.. Brown has been engaged in
| the study of forestry all his life, and
what he said before the commission is
worthy of serious attention. The pro-
cess OF stripping the land of its timber
supply, and more particularly of its
| merchantable timber, has been going
on at reckless rate for many years both
in Canada and the United States, and
unless it is checked the time must soon
come when even the demands of the
home market cannot be supplied. 1t is
not with q forest as with grain or live
stock; it can not be reproduced in g.
year or In a generation. Our great pine
woods are the growth of hundreds of
years, and once they are cut down or
The pine forests of Maine fifty years
ago were thought to be inexhaustible.
Thousands of men were employed dnr-
ing the winter months telling and cut
ting trees, and in the summer rafting
the logs down the streams or cutting
them into lumber in the mills. Bangor,
on the Penobscot, was once the busiest
town in the United States. The river
was lined with saw mills for miles, and
1000 vessels were engaged in the car
rying trade. The forests for 200 miles
up the river, and for many miles on
either side, have been laid waste, and the
cold Pine Tree State - is no more than
a figure Of speech. Spruce, which rap
idly reproduces itself, is the lumber
most generally manufactured pro-
duct on the Penobscot this year being
ten times that of pine.
In Michigan and Wisconsin the same
reckless haste and waste are going on.
The Saginaw valley, which formerly con-
tanned the largest and finest forests in
Michigan, is being rapidly depleted.
Its mills have capacity of 600,000,OOO
feet OF lumber per year, and mill-owners
are obliged to bring logs from other
rivers, often as far as $50 miles distant,
to supplement the stock of the Saginaw.
The output has reached its climax, and
no new mills are built or old ones re-
placed. On the Muskegon river the
amount of logs RATED this year is 4O0,-
100000 feet, and one large operator
alone will put in about 25O, 100000 feet
this winter, hauling to the river by rail
an average distance of eight miles. The
Alpena district Will, at the present
rate Of cutting, be stripped in fifteen
years.
The Wisconsin pineries have been
worked much less extensively than those
Of Michigan, but an estimate made by
the President of one of the largest log
ging companies on the Mississippi fixes
the utmost limit of the supply at forty
years. In Minnesota the forests are
much smaller in extent, and will prob
ably not survive the others. Unless,
then, new departure is made, the last
tree will be cut from Maine to the Rocky
mountains by the end of forty years,
and the United States must depend for
its supply of pine lumber on foreign
countries.
Is there no way of limiting produc-
ton, Of outstanding our resources, of
putting an end to reckless waste, of pro-
lection against forest fires, or of replen-
ishing our woods bysystematic forestry !?
These ale questions In which the whole
country has an interest, and which must
be discussed and answered.