The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1882-02-24
FORESTRY statistics.

Tn sorne cantons of Switzerland there
is a law forbidding the destruction of a
tree without planting anether to take It's
place This law is an ohtprowth Of
necessity. It has been scientifically
demonstrated that the ine1 1ease in violent
storms. inundations, and nndslides in
Switzerland, scatterlng death and de-
struction on all sides, III due to deforest-
ing the mountains.
Gradually the timber has disappeared
until little remains, except on the high
slopes of the mountains, and that little
is of inferior size and quality. Unless
the process is arrested, the mountains of
Switzerland will present. as bald an. APP
pearanee as those Alps which divide
France from Italy and nothing more
desolate and drealy or <Ie the ssteppes
of Asia. or the desert I Africa, presents
itself to the eye sf e raveler.
Switzerland, CO With the area
Of tie United StdS EAaf aF2eck, but.
If we have more .sefeage-hnd wider
stretches of timbered lands, we are also
consuming them more rapidly.
A glance at the series of forestry bulle-
tins issued by the Census Bureau Is suffi-
cient to alarm one for the future timber
supplies of the United States. The
maps show the original extent of the
forest lands and the area de-
Duded by the remorseless AK of
the lumberman. Take Michigan, the
great pine State of the Northwest. More
than three-fourths Of the land, including
the upper peninsula, has been stripped
of its timber. A few statistics will show
that the amount Of white pine remaining
on the Saginaw and its tributaries, and
! the haCfng Of CIV flowing into
Lakes Huron and Michigan, is estimated
at %, 600, 000,0 feet, board measure.
/ In the single year ending with May
/ 1880, 406S, 773, 900 feet were cut. At
this rate the supply viii be exhausted in
/ less than eight years. OF the same tim
/ ber on the peninsula there were G, 6,000,-
/ 100000 remaining, in round numbers,
/ and of this 32S, 438, 900 feet cut in one
! year. From Menominee and Delta
/ counties the merehantable pine, says the
/ Bulletin, has been almost entirely re-
moved. The destruction of the hard
/ woods has been on the same exhaustive
scale.
The maps show that along every navi-
| gable stream, and on the rivers of the
! lakes, the timber has all been cut away,
and each year the lumbermen have to
go back further into the interior for their
supplies, and the cost is increased by
the greater difficulty in getting the tim
Der TO market
Wisconsin has only 6, 100, 600, 900 feet
remaining of white pine. In the census
year $40, ,997, 900 feet were cut. How
long before Wisconsin will cease to
furnish supply of this valuable timber
She has still 8, $40, 900 acres of hard
wood forest but the ravages in that are
hardly less than in the pine lands.
Minnesota still has II, 200, 900, 900 feet
of pine, and some 6, IT'S, 900, coo of mixed
pine and hard wood to boast of, but the
cut during the census year was 115, III,
600 feet, and each year as the supplies
in Wisconsin and Michigan dwindle the
demand upon Minnesota's resources vii
increase.
In short. nplese. something is done tc
encourage the replanting of forests o.
pine and hard wsod it will not be twenty
years before there will be a timber
famine in the land, with prices so ex
travagant as to put an end to building IL
wood and to the use of wood as fuel
We need not dwell on the effect of de
forestry on climate and temperature
This has been repeatedly done IN these
columns. It is the universal testimony
of mankind that it results In dimlnutior
of rainfall, and the dwindling away o.
creeks and navigable streams, and an IN
crease in sudden and devastating storms
and violent hurricanes. We have the
history of the old world before us, anC
if we do not profit by the warning ex
ample we deserve to be punished fol
such a crime against nature. Cincinnati
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