The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-08-18
FACTS ABOUT FORESTS.
Remarkable Value of the Yearly Crop
They Yield.

Remarkable Value of the Yearly Crops
They Yield.
Did it ever occur to you to consider what
an enormously valuable inheritance man
has received in the forests primeyal?' ~
said Prof. Fernow, at the department OF
agriculture, in conversation with a Wash
ington Star writer. "Of all the natural
resources reserved by nature for
our benefit they are the most directly use
full. In the woods we FINE ready at hand
and obtainable for mere harvesting materi-
ais applicable to all needs and means to sat
isfy every immediate want.
Probably You will be surprised when l
tell you than the annual increase of the for
ests by natural growth, representing the
interest which we are at liberty to draw
without impairinR the principal, exceeds in
the United States alone ten times the value
OF the gold and silver output of this country
and is worth more than three times the
product Of all our mineral and coal mines
put together. II to tho value of our total
mining product be added the value Of all
the stone q%uarries and petroleum resources
and this sum be increased by the estimated
value of all tho steamboats,, sailing vessels
and canal boats plying in American waters,
it will still be less than the value of the an
nual forest product Of the nation by a sum
sufficient to purchase at cost of construction
- ~ ~ pa III bGCShb Nj
the telegraph companies, pay their bonded
debts and equip all the telephone lines.
The annual product of the woods IS worth
three times as much as the wheat crop. It
exceeds the gross income of all the railway
and transportation companies, and il would
moro than wipe out the entire public debt.
more than 5000 0O people are occupied
to-day in the direct manufacture of forest
and saw-mil products alone. Were TO
attempt an enumeration of the uses to
which the product of the woods is put, it
would be necessary for me to mention all
tho phases and em~ployments of human life,
Railways annually consume SOC, 600, 600 feet
of timber. The Same material builds the
houses and yards for two-thirds of the pop
u%lation, furnishes the fuel necessary to
warm their dwellings with and to prepare
their food. Upon charcoal the lion indus
ira largely depends. Not only i N it's natu-
raj form does the substance serve our needs,
but our ingenuity has devised methods for
transforming 1t into all sorts of useful
things. Paper is made from it, and even
silk. while it has become possible to prepare
from brush wood Il feed for cattle as n1,tri-
tious as hay. By distillation are derived
from it alcohol and aoetic acid, while the
banks yield Indispensable tanning material,
rosin and tar for pitching vessels. turpen-
tine. sassafras oil and cork.
"The decayed vegetation of forests has
furnished to the fields their present fertil-
~ aRoA ~ iiuIA CRCid u lGOus III
the tree growth of virgin woods and in the
floor of rotted foliage beneath are stored
the accumulations of centuries. Nature
does not care whether this growth is useful
to the human race or not. 1t ia left for us
TO encourage the growth Of such trees as we
lind valuable, to the exclusion of others,
Thus an economical use in made of the re-
sources Mt hand. and Il new conception of
the forest arises. The forest primeval be-
comes woodlands while the new Forest
includes our cultivated woods.
III LETT without interference by man, ma
ture would keep the entite earth covered
with forests, save only a few localities.
Tue treelessness of the great central plains
OF the United States has been accounted for
by the deficiency of rainfall, and tho belief
ID generally held that by reason of this lack
OF moisture trees can never grow there.
Nevertheless the conclusion does not
of necessity follow. There il excel
lent cause for believing that
these prairies were not always treeleas,
nor that their nakedness might once more
be covered by the adoption of proper means
to that end. The barrenness occasioned by
prairie ires and herds OF trampling buffalo
may yet be made fruitful. You must re-
member that tho entire earth is a potential
forest. Wherever there 10 sufficient depth
OF any kind of soil for the roots, il 1t Ia not
too ftigid a climate and man dogs not in
%terfere, srborescent growth will ultimately
prevail on account OF its perennial character
aud lis power to shade out lower vegetation. |
In suoh localities AZ the interior of large
continents forest planting must progress by
Qradua advances from the borders OF the
unproduotivs territory. Oncs let woods be