St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-02-03
j. o. Barrett Wakes Wroth.
Against the Frightful
Waste Of Timber
Which a Neglectful Govern
ment Annually Allows "a
to Take Place. y
Tremendous Consequences Of
the Denuding Of Forests i
to This State. ia
Cutting off the Woods Respon-
sible for Shrinkage in
Water Supply. s

-
j. o. Barrett, the Alliance candidate
for lieutenant governor, was at the Mer-
chants Yesterday when reporter s'ran
against him. The reporter being in
want of some "copy." and the case be-
ing desperate, ne suggested to Mr.. Bar
rett that he give the readers of the
GLOBE the advantage of his close study
of the forests and waters of Minnesota.
Mr.. Barrett willingly complied, and
having comfortably seated himself, he
talked in the following strain:
Less favored in native forests than
some of her sister states, Minnesota
once had her great woods and other
belts of trees along her weIl-fiiled
rivers and lakes and over some of her
lower plains and coolies. AS pOpula-
ton has increased so have her forests
receded. until now they are but
wreck of their former value and beauty.
Had the cutting off of the lumber been
properly economical under the strict
enforcement of law, compelling the lum-
Der SyndicateS to raise so many acres of
young trees for so many acres denuded
of trees, or even forestalling the animal
ravages of fire, we would not now be
confronted with the fIightful spectacle
of forest deSoation. 1t is the waste,
the extravaganza, the objectionable sin
OF sheer neglect on the part of govern
ment that has wrought the ruin all so
much deplOre.
What has specially contributed to the
WOeful devastation is the donation by
the government, or sale for song, of
at,H tn q
that have had no regard for the sad con-
sequences of their deforestation of the
country.
Parties along the railroads in the
United States have stripped the land of
not less than 100000 acres of forests,
an area larger than the combined states
of New Jersey, Delaware and Connect
cut. 1t would require at least thirty
years growth of timber on such ter
rltory to replenish the tie monopoly.
Our state geologist, Prof. n. FL.
Winchell. assisted by Prof. Warren
Upnam, tells us in his survey report of
1872 to 1882, that Minnesota had in
round numbers SO, 100000 acres of forests
and 100000 water acreage. How much
have the forests and waters diminished
since? We have no positive figures.
We had reported then 10000 lakes.
Where are they now? 1t is safe to say
that not over 1000 substantial living
lakes are left. If the forests have
diminished in the same ratio
BY AK and Fire
within the ten years of vandalism, what
could we otherwise expect than exactly
what we experience in the drying up of
our watercOurSeS. We can get some
idea of the terrible loss by mathemati-
cal calculation. Maury, in his physical
geography of the sea, estimates the
annual precipitation in the valley of the
Mississippi at $40 cubic miles, and dis
charge of the river into the sea at LOT
cubic miles. which SuUStracted leaves
5l3 cubic miles of water TO be evaporated
from the river basin annually. But
since that estimate was made the forest
raiders have been at work. virtually
burning out the once perennial springs,
and gradually the Father of Waters has
been receding until its tributaries and
main channel are great mostly IN ruins.
According to lumber estimates, in
1880 we had standing Of hard wood suit
able for furniture work, headings, slaves
and fuel, 3,S40,000 acres, and Of standing
white pine S.17O,O00, 900 solid feet Would
it not be safe to say that this timber
acreage has in ten years been Whitfield
down at least one-half? The COnsump-
ton of wood for fuel alone is estimated
at al 900, 600 of cords annually in the
whole country. Add to this what the
railroads and manufactures use up
every year and the figures appear fright
full. MinneSota'S consumption is heavy
in percentage.
The growth of timber does not keep
pace with the waste; it is going and
with it our waters. Is it not time to
think of the consequences, fast realiz-
ing these years in increasing dryneSS OF
atmosphere, with less and less rainfall
during the season when most needed to
grow our crops? Forests husband the
snow and rains: these cut off, The spring
floods. so destructive to life and prop
erty, are wasted to us. Then come not
ter suns, more willing winds, distress
ing drouths, and famine of crops. The
first settlers of our state tell us about
raising from thirty to forty bushels of
wheat per acre. Gradually the amount
Has Shrunk Down
to 10, 8 and even 4 in some localities.
What does it all portend? Exhaustion
of the soil, think? No, the moisture in
the air and ground is leaving us.
Farmers demand higher prices for their
productions. But what is the need of
prices if we raise little or nothing to
form prices with? 1t Is miserable
shift of responsibility to agitate on tar
iff reform or any other reform while so
carelessly neglecting the most vital of
all reforms-forestS on our waste lands,
forests on our farms.
But Minnesota is not alone culpable.
The same destruction of forests occur
in Wisconsin. in Michigan. in New
- II
vania, IN the Sunny South; and within
Sierras, those great reservoirs of snow
and rain, are being stripped of their
forests on their crowns and slopes and
valleys. rapidly changing the climate of
a continent. What is done to
STAY the hands of the vandals? Nothing
particularly.
Under the timber culture act, SO
lamely constructed and enforced, a few
strips Of forests are growing, and here
and there are few rims of trees around
the prairie buildings to partially break
the winds peltlng the stock and inmates
of the isolated homes. What trees are
slain in one year cannot be restored in
a hundred years. 1t is century calam-
ity so ruthlessly to destroy them. If the
ruin is not arrested soon, if replanting
on scale adequate to needs is not
encouraged and enforced, what
can we reasonably expect in
the near future but exactly
what is realized in some parts of the old
continents where the once Eden lands
are by deforestation transformed into
bowling deserts? Need it be demon
strated what history verifies and ex-
perience teaches-that a people retro
grades in wealth, in productions. in