Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1891-09-26
Forests.


inheritance man has received in the
forests primevaP? said Professor
Fernow, of the Department of Agri-
culture, in conversation with
Washington Star writer. "Of all the
natural resources received by nature
for our benefit, they are the most d.
rectly useful. In the woods we find
ready at hand and obtainable for
mere harvesting materials applica-
BILE to all the needs and means to
satisfy every immediate want.
Probably you will be surprised
when l tell you that the annual in
crease ofthe forests by natural growth,
representing the interest which
we are at liberty to draw without inn
pairing 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.
If to the value Of our total mining
product be added the value of all the
stone quarries aud petroleum re-
sources, and this sum be increased
by the estimated value of all the
steamboats,, sailing, 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
sum sufficient to purchase at cost of
construction all the canals, buy at
par all stocks of the telegraph COM
panies, 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. 1t exceeds the gross income of
all the railway and transportation
companies, and it would more than
wipe out the entire public debt.
"More than 100000 people are oc-
cupied to>day in the direct manufac.
ture of forest and sawmill products
alone. Were l to attempt an emu
meratiOn of the uses to which the
product of the woods is put, it would
be necessary for me to mention all
the phases and emplOyments Of hui
man life. Railways annually con-
sumo 100000 feet of timber. The
same material builds the houses and
yields for two-thirds of the popula-
ton the fuel necessary to warm their
dwellings with and to prepare their
food. Upon charcoal the iron indus
try largely depends. Not only in its
natural form does the substance serve
our needs, but our ingenuity has de-
vised methods for transforming it in
to all sorts Of useful things. Paper is
made from it, and even silk, while
it has become possible to prepare
from brushwood feed for cattle as
nutritious as hay. By distillation
are derived from it alcohol and acetic
acid, while the barks yield indis.
pensable tanning material, resin and
tar for pitching vessels, turpentine,
sassafras, oil, and cork.
"The decayed vegetation of forests
has furnished to the fields their press
ent fertility, upon which man de-
ponds for food. In 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
is left for us to encourage the growth
Of such trees as we find valuable
to the exclusion of others. Thus az
economical use is made of the re,
sources at hand and a new concep
ton of the forest arises. The forest
primeval becomes woodlands while
the new forest includes only cult
waited woods.
eff left without interference by
man, Nature would keep the entire
earth covered with forests, save only
few localities. The treelessness o
the great central plains of the United
States has been accounted for by thu
deficiency of rainfall, and the belle
is generally held that by reason O
this lack of moisture trees can neve
grow there. Nevertheless the con
clusion does not of necessity follow
There is excellent cause for believin!
that these parties were not Away
treeless, and that their nakednes
might once more be covered by tn
adoption of proper means to that end
The bamenness occasiOned by prairi
fires and herds of tramping buffal
may yet be made fruitful. You mus
remember that the entire earth is
potential forest. Wherever there