The Sully County watchman. (Clifton, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1894, 1888-11-17
THE DANGER OF TIMBER FAMINE.
A Few Figures Showing the Enormous
Destruction Golpg on In American
Forests,

If any one doubts tho danger of a
timber famine in the United States at
some future day let him look at the de-
struction of trees in his own ncighbor-
hood, saws Gen. Brisbin in Trees and
Tree Planting. Where arc the forests
that sheltered our youth? Gone, and
all the game with them. l remember
the furnaces of my own county, Cen
ter in Pennsylvania. how they never
ceased until all the big woods were cut
down and burned up into charcoal to
make iron.
A few years ago, in the towns -
Canaan. Salisbury, Norfolk, Sharon,
Cornwall, and Goshen, comprising the
northwestern part of Litchtield county,
Connecticut, and small portion OF
Dutchess county, New York, and Berk-
shire county, Massachusetts, were no
less than twelve iron furnaces for the
manufacture of charcoal pig-iron, from
iron dug within these districts. These
furnaces made about $500 tons of pig
iron each per year. To run these
furnaces one year it required that be-
tween 400 and 500 acres of land should
be stripped of the wood, or total of
between 5000 and 5000 acres cut every
year.
As everyone knows it takes about
twenty years there to make a crop of
wood, the whole amount of land
stripped bare would be in the neigh
borhood of 100, 900 acres, or nearly the
whole Of the woodland in the section
above named. But not only in one or
two states, but in all the states the de-
struction goes steadily on. Take for
the purpose of illustration the record
Of tho amount of logs RATED out of the
great lumber producing streams of the
Saginaw districts for number of
years. In round numbers tho Titta-
bawassee RATED out 228,000,00 feet of
logs in 1871, 100000 feet in 1872.
and 269, 100000 feet in 1873, and had
left each year from 200, 900, 900 to 300,-
100000 feet. In 1873 the amount left
over was stated at 5S,0O0,o0o feet.
Taking tho amount RATED out and the
amount left over in 1873, We should
have 5l9, ,000,000 feet as the total pro-
duct of the Tittabawassee numbering
that year. Up TO August. 1874. there
has been RATED out of the Tittaba was
see 1,202,37l pieces or about 2l5, ,000, 900
feet. making total for tho year of,
say, 3l5,00o0o feet for 1874, against
5l9 100000 feet for 1873.
Let us take the Cass river, the
largest lumber-producing stream of
this region, except tho Tittabawassee,
In 1871 there were RATED out of the
Cass river 55.S4l,61S feet of logs; in
1872 there were 80, 9l3. .93S feet: in 1873
there were 109, 450, l40 feet, and in 1874
ell the logs being now out, there have
been but 50, 260, 800 feet, and there are
no logs left.
Wo might continue these illustra-
tions by exhibiting the figures for the
other streams in this section, and by
giving the facts concerning the i'm
mense waste of forests, but these will
do for one region.
A Virginia City (Nevada) paper
says that an immense destruction of
the forests is taking place in that vicin-
ity, and in ashort time the lumber
men have advanced from the base to
the summit of the Sierras, and soon
they will go over the crest; conse-
quently it is predicted that, when tim
Der is all gone, the snow will melt
early in summer, leaving the streams
from which they irrigate dry, and cold
and fierce winds will have an unin-
terupted and unobstructed sweep, max
ing tho country uninhabtable.