Morning journal and courier., 1881-07-25
Price Four Cents.

they afford the lumbermen. The engines are mostly coal-feeders, but only so when coal is cheaper than wood. As natural result, when the lines stretch across the wooded sections or the public lands, wide belt of desolation marks their course They cease to use wood when the cost of delivery at the track makes it unproftable. Though New England has long ceased to be con- siderable exporter of wood, even here on branch lines in the remote districts, it is still used to some extent in the engines partly to give the lumberers market for the smaller growth, but more especially to secure the freight of the merchantable portion The heavy forests along the larger rivers and the main lines of railway having been exhausted, branch roads continue to be built wherever timber can be reached at small expense, and the residue of the New England forests is disappearing before the enterprise of the railways and the want of foresight of the land owners. On the authority of compe- tent statistician, 125, 900 miles of fencing are necessary to lnclose our railways 6S, 900 acres of the best natural woodlands are clear ed annually to furnise sleepers, and 25O 900 treesare required on the various telegraph lines for yearly repairs. These railway fences however, are insignificant compared with the sum total of fences throughout the country, -an item of expense that enters largely into all calculations of agricultural ventures, and which approaches the amazing figures of two billions of dollars.
 The railway system at the close of the first half century Of its existence if not literally in it's infancy, is but the skeleton of what it must be in the near future, when the terri tories have become the seat of teaming population. The telegraph lines already stretch across half million miles, The consumption of wood in the mechanic arts keeps pace with the population The more common use of coal is compensated partially at l. ast, by the introduction of wood into new industries, such as paper making. In many sections wood is used exclusively in all extensively, for fuel. With the present rate of consumption, it seems impossible to es- cape the conclusion that lumber famine threatens in the near future The fact that prices, which are so sensitive to the supply, have not greatly advanced, does not weaken this position. While all kinds of lumber are unquestionably somewhat scarcer, it must be admitted that it is first-quality white pine alone which gives unmistakable signs of exhaustion yet even here the market value is no gauge of the forest supply. The easy rate at which spectators have got possession of the valuable pine lands of the government has enabled them to fix 8 low price compe- tition has been keen all over the country. As fast as one locality has been exhausted, branch railways have been constructed to another Standing timber always offers a ready way out of financial difficulty, and
  everywhere prevails the mischievous, unrea- soning impression that forests are prac- tical1y inexhaustible. Hence, timber is freely cut and offered for sale in sufficient quantities to meet the immense demand, without great increase in price. It is easy to see that the period of comparative plenty will be succeeded by period of positive scarcity, with twilight gradations. With no change in present conditions, by the close of the 18th century, first quality lumber of all kinds will have doubled in value, and some kinds will be difficult at any price. The statistics of wood consumption have attracted the thoughtful attention, not merely of the scholarly theorist they have converted far more potent individual the capitalist, who is organizing stock companies, and quietly buying up the choicest woodlands in New England. How the wood industries of the country would be likely to fare when capital controls the lessened areas of supply is grave question. The disastrous effects of material enhancement of price would be felt throughout all the notifications of busi- ness.
 An attitude of indifference can no longer be maintained when it is certain that an area three-ffths as large as the State of Massachu- setts is annually deforested, without any systematic effort, on a large scale, to repro duce the forest growth In the light of the constant enormous expenditure and the steady annual increase, is it unreasonable to look with anxiety to the future, especially when we consider that the land to-day, strip ped of it's trees, cannot, under ordinary con. ditions, yield crop of merchantable lumber in generation of human life? A century scarcely avails to bring the white pine to it's full development. Still, rhetoric loves to speak in swelling phrase of tour inexhaust- ible forests" inexhaNstible indeed, under competent supervision and management under present no supervision and misman- agement exhaustible all too soon.