Morning journal and courier., 1881-07-25

lump to the sentence. The prosecutor closes the argument and the case goes to the jury, who retire to a secluded room to chew tobacco and ask each other what they thought of it. It so happened that the f1imsy testimony against the accused warrants verdict of not guilty, whereupon the amateur grasps his clients hand and whispers 'It was hard fight, but got you out of it !'' Then he rises, loads up enough law books to swamp mud 'scow, casts a triumphant look at the prosecuting attorney, who smiles pleasantly in return and walks slowly and majestically down the aisle to the door with as much dig nity as if he owned 8 western railroad. Oh, you can't deny it, even you old veteEans- you've all been there!
 Forest Destruction in America.
 IL. L. Dane in "Education"l
 The early navigators who coasted along the shores of New England bear unimpeachable testimony to the imposing extent of the pri- meval forests. Even the sandy heights of
 Provincetown were crowned with trees, and the peat bogs of Nantucket still preserve the
 evidence of a former growth of heavy timber. The first settlers everywhere found a contin-
 uous forest skirting the valleys, and sweeping
 up the slopes of the hills and over them out
 into the unknown west and the farther the
 pioneers of civilization worked their way to-
 ward the setting sun, the wider the area of
 WOOulduu IudL Op6u6Q Ou GQ6lr V1eW,-GQ6
 same endless succession of noble forests, mile
 upon mile, degree upon degree,-a princely
 inheritance for the great republic of the fu-
 ture. No wonder our fathers felt like the
 young heir just come to the possession of
 vast estate. They dreamed as little of the
 exhaustion or sensible diminution of the
 wood supply, as of the marvellous growth of
 the new State. Besides, the dampness engen-
 dered by an excess of woodland was known
 to be the predisposing cause of pulmonary
 disease; malarial levers issued from the vege-
 tation decaying in the swamps for sanitary
 considerations the sunlight must be let in
 upon the habitations of men. Large areas were necessarily deforested for settlements
 still larger for purposes of agriculture.
 Decade after decade the forests have gone
 down to meet the demands of the rapidly in- creasing population Great as these demands
 have been, they represent but imperfectly
 the actual expenditure of forest wealth; in
 truth, waste and extravaganza have run riot for 100 years.
 ters coald not keep pace with the feYerish haste of the settler, fire has been summoned to the task, and, escaping from control, has swept on until stopped by the natural limita- tions of broad streams or drenching rains.
 Then hunters, tourists, mining prospectors', and Inducements fires, carelessly left burn
 ing Indian fires and ins@ ldiary fires are con-
 stantly eating their way into the heart of our
 wood supplies. Even in New England the
 destruction of timber in dry seasons is
 rious loss, but wholly insignificant in compa-
 rison with the annual holocausts throughout
 the western States and territories, especially
 the mining regions of the Rocky mouptains.
 The forest fires of 1871, terriblein the annals
 of Wisconsin and Michigan, devastated thou
 sands of square miles, plotting out of exist
 ence property worth, it is roughly estimated,
 hundreds of millions of dollars. What is an
 aggravation of this loss, the soil, deprived of
 it's vegetable mold by the intense heat, will
 for a long period support only annuals or
 shrubs. The amount of timber destroyed
 yearly by fire cannot be given with authorita-
 tive exactness, but in the deliberate judgment
 of careful observers, equals if it does not ex-
 ceed the entire quantity used in the United
 States for all purposes whatsoever.
 Lumbermen, acting on the communistic principle that the property of the State may
 be appropriated by the citizens of the State, have accumulated colossal fortunes at the
 nations expense, relying for immunity upon
 the laxity of the laws, the negligence or cor
 ruption of officials and the general apathy
 of the public. Secretary Schurz, in his efforts
 to put stop to this wholesale spoliation, had
 to contend at the same time with the stub
 bornIresistance oftbe lumbermen and the luke
 warm support of Congress. Hampered by
 inadequate appropriations, and badgered by
 vexatious litigation, the Secretary declares
 with blunt directness that complete suc-
 cess is impossible unless the efforts of this de-
 pertinent (the Interior) for the protection of
 public property meet with the hearty cooper
 ation of the legislative branch"
 Still further inroads have been made upon
 the timber lands by the successful prosecu-
 tion of fraudulent claims under the various homestead, preemption and bounty acts. Taking advantage of the ungarded benefcence of government, swindlers, under color of these statutes, have taken up heavily wooded tracts, and abandoned them upon the remov- al of the timber. On vast areas settled under the pretext of agriculture, the settlements
 have been deserted, and scarcely trace of
 agriculture appears. The public lands con-
 ferred under the bounty acts have, to large extent, fallen into the hands of speculators and lumber dealers. Fire, theft and fraud have worked their natural results Whole townships, stripped of their magnificent pine forests, and converted into barren deserts, attest the necessity of governmental ac- | tion. The time is upon us when laissez-faire
 must be definitely given up.
 Setting aside the various sources of waste, the legitimate demands for wood are suf6 ciently startling The bare list of employ ments into which timber enters as an essen l tial part is too prolix for enumeration. The grand army of carpenters, furniture makers, | carriage builders, coopers, shipbuilders, pa per manufacturers and other workers in wood numbers more than million of men i; while the amount of lumber used, though 1t cannot be given with exactness, may be infer l red from the extent of these industries The annual expenditure of $1,000,0 GOO for birch
 and maple for shoe pegs is significant index of the direct consumption for mechanical purposes Many commodities in which, in their finished form, wood does not appear, in their preparation draw heavily upon the woodlands. This indirect consumption is very great, as is evident upon a superficial nf thraa induatr1aQ The fionraS
 are simply approximate, but sufficiently &C., curate for the purpose. ton of iron re- Quires in its manufacture at least 125 bushels
 of charcoal, which represents from one-sixth to one-twelfth of an acre of timber land. Connected with some of the iron-works are tracts of woodland large enough to supply all demands for 20 or 25 years, by the expira- | tion of which time the wood will again be | ready for cutting upon the section first clear i ed Generally, however, the owners pur-
 chase their charcoal in the cheapest market, without reference to the future supply. The
 manufacturers of brick burners for the most 1 part use wood for fuel, and cord of hard
 wood will bake, on the average, about 1000
 bricks. The tanneries cause still luther
 depletion. One cord of bark will tan 10 50- i pound green salted hides for upper leather i; | for sole leather one half as many. The fact l sometimes urged, however, that certain tan
 neries in New York and Pennsylvania, situat- i ed in hemIock regions, have been
 abandoned upon the exhaustion of the l adjacent supply, cannot be admitted as evi- i dence of a general scarcity. As yet. wher-
 ever there are proper railway facilities, the
 bark has always been forthcoming These
 units of consumption enable the inquirer to
 form 8 vivid idea of the wood necessary to
 prepare for the market the grand total of the 1 iron bricks and leather made in the country.
 The railways are an important factor in this
 question, considered with regard both tc
 their own consumption and to the facilities