The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1880-11-26
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 Oh
large nurseries by the Government, rom
winch the people. could obtain trees at IS
low price, and, also, that the Govern
ment should replant the crown lands,.
as Is Gone IN Australia and other cOun-
tries. MIR. Brown has been engaged III
the study of forestry all his life, and
what he SAID before the commission Is
worthy of serious attention. The pre-
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 sooa
come when even the demands OF she
home market cannot be supplied. 1t is
not with a forest as with grain or live
stock it can not be reproduced IN 81
year or in generation. Our great pine
woods are the growth of hundeds Oh
years, and once they are cut down or
burned over the supply is ended.
The pine forests of Maine fifty years
ago were thought to be inexhaustlble.
Thousands of men were employed dur
ing the winter months telling and cut
ting trees, and in the summer rafting.
the logs down the streams or cutting
them into lumber III the mills. Bangor,
on the Penobscot, was once the busiest
town in the United States. The river
was lined with saw mills for miles, ana
1900 vessels were engaged III the car
rying trade. The forests for 200 miles
up the river, and for many mikes ON
either side, have been laid waste, andthe
"Ol6 Pine Tree State is no more than
figure of speech. Spruce, which rap
idly reproduces itself, is the lumber
most generally manufactureb--the pro-
duct on the Penobscot this year beng
ten times that of pine.
In Michigan and Wisconsin the same
reckless haste and waste are going OH.
The Saginaw valley, which formerly con-
tanned the largest and finest forests in
Michigan, is being rapidly depleted.
Its mills have a capacity of 500, 900, 900
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 400,-
600, 900 feet, and one large operator
alone will put in about $50, 900, QUO 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, a 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 folest fires, or Of replen-
ishing our woods bysystematic forestry?
These are questions in which the whole
country has an interest, and which must
be discussed and answered.