Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-08-28
WEALTH In WOODS.
TIE ENORMOUS VALUE OF THE
COUNTRY's FORESTS.
Their Annual Increase Worth Ten
Times the Output of Cola and
Silver-SOme Significant
Facts and Figures.

NhoN NH
man has received in the flores: prime
val2'" said Professor Fernow, of the
Department of Agriculture, in converse.
ticn with Washington Star writer.
"Of all the natural resources reserved by
nature for oui benefit they are the most
directly useful. In the woods we find
ready at hand and obtainable for mere
harvesting materials applicable to all
needs and means to satisfy every imme-
date want.
"Probably you will be surprised when
l tell you that the annual increase Of the
forests by natural growth, representing
the interest which we are at liberty to
draw without imPairiug 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 thc
stone quarries and petroleum resources,
and this sum be increased by the esti-
timated value of all the steamboats,, sail
ing vessels and canal boats plying in
American waters, it will still be less than
the value of the annual forest product of
the nation by a sum sufficient to pur
chase at cost of construction all the
canals, buy up at par all SOCKS of the
telegraph companies, pay their bondet
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 com
panies and it would more than wipe out
the entire public debt.
"Morc than 300, 900 people are occu-
pied to-day in the direct manufacture of
forest and saw mill 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 the phases and employment
of human life. Railways annually co1.
sumo 500, 900, 900 feet of timber. The
same material builds the houses and yields
for two-thirds of the population the fuel
necessary to warm their dwellings with
and to prepare their food. Upon char
he iron industry largely depends.
Not only in its natural form docs the
substance serve our needs, but orr in
penuity has devised methods for trans
forming it into all sorts Of useful things.
Paper is made from it, and even silk,
while lately it has become possible to
prepare from brush wood a food for cat
tie as nutritious as hay. BY distillation
are derived from 1t alcohol and acetic
acid, while the barks yield indispensable
tanning material, resin and tar for
pitching vessels, turpentine, sassalra',
oil and cork.
"The decayed vegetation OF forests
has furnished to the fields their present
fertility, upon which man depends for
food. In the tree growth of virgin
woods and in the floor Of Iottel 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 I
the growth of such trees as we find val
uable. to the exclusion OF others. Thus I
an economical use is made OF the re- /
sources at hand and a new conception OF /
the forest arises. The forest primcval
becomes woodland while the new
forest includes only cultivated woods.
'If left without interference by man
nature would keep the entire earth GOV
cred with forests, save only a few locali-
ties. The trcelesness of the great cen
tral plains of the United States has been
accounted for by the deficiency Of rain
fall, and the belief is generally held that
by reason of this lack of moisture trees
can never grow there. Nevertheless the
conclusion does not of necessity follow.
There is excellent cause for believing
that these prairies were not always tree
less, and that their nakedness might
once more be covered by the adoption Of
proper means to that eud. The barren
ness occasioned by prairie fires and herds
Of trampling buffalo may yet be made
fruitful. You must remember that the
entire earth is a potential forest. Where
ever there is sufficient depth of any Kind
Of soil for the roots, if it is not too frigid
a climate and man does not interfere,
lrborescent growth will ultimately pre-
vail, on account ofits perennial character
and its power to shade out lower yegeta-
iion. In such localities as the interiors
Of large continents forest planting must
progress by gradual advances from the
borders of the unproductiye territory.
Once let woods be spread over the now
MD plains Of the west and there would
be rain in plenty there. But success IN
This matter can only be achieved through
co operation systematically aud method'-
,ally carried out, commanding kuowl-
edge, means aud power such as Gov
Brnment, whether Of the nation or OF
States, can alone control. A step pre-
iminary should be the establishment In
The region of arboreta, where expert
nents can be made for the purpose oil
indinr out what trees arc best adapted.