The record-union., 1893-02-14
OUR DWINDLING FORESTS.
Hard Wood Resources Nearly TX
hausted by Manufacturers.

hardwood Resources Nearly Tx
hausted by Manufacturers.
The industries based upon our timber
resources, writes Charles Mohr in the
current number of The Engineering Mag
0si,1e, in the value of their products, rank
second Ii not first among the manufact-
uring interests OF this country. The con-
sequences Of such gigantic operations are
making themselves painfully felt in re-
gions the timber resources OF which in
the recollection OF many yet living were
regarded as ineXhaustible. Such localities
are suffering not only from the want of
timber, but also from the injuries con-
nected with the diminution OF the forest
areas below the requirements for the
maintenance of favorable climatic condi-
tons. In illustration of this assertion
such States as Ohio and Indiana present
important facts. According to official
statements the forest area in Ohio was
reduced from 81 per cent. of the whole
area of the State in 1850 to II per cent. in
1856, and in Indiana the forest area de-
clined in the same time to - per cent,
such shrinkage placing these States with
the countries of least forest area in Cen
trail Europe.
The scarcity and deterioration of the
hardwood timber supplying industries
in these and the adj dining States in the
North have been for some years matter
VI grave COIlCdIn W IuOS0 engaged IN
them. At the tenth annual convention
of the Furniture Manufacturers Associ-
alton, held in Cincinnati in 1881, and at
the thirteenth meeting of the National
Carriage builders Association, in 1855,
the complaint was raised that the sup
plies drawn from the territory named
above were becoming scarce, while a
good quality of timber was beyond reach.
These are certainly significant admoni-
tons from the representatives of impor-
tant industries; which have to RELY on
the timber resources of our forests and
upon which thousands of families of arti-
sans and laborers are depending for sup
port.
North of the Ohio River the black wal
nut and white ash can be said to be eX-
tinct as far as practical purposes are con-
cerned, and the better qualities of white
oak are now wanting, At still more
rapid rate is the destruction of the forests
of white pine, and OF the spruce and hem
lock, going on. On the Atlantic slope the
forests of white pine in Pennsylvania
have been almost completely stripped of
their timber. In New York and the New
England States this pine has almost hope
lessly disappeared, with the exception of
Maine where, under wise system of
protection, the second growth is of great
promise and already contributes consid-
cradle supplies.
The most extensive and alarming in
stance of the despoliatiOn of timber
wealth, considered inexhaustible only a
few years ago, is presented by the i'm
mense pineries of the Northwest, which
seem destined in the near future to COM
plete destruction. With their timber
wealth in vast body, made easy of access
by improved methods OF labor and trans
portation, and in close connection with
the treeless region III the heart of the con-
tinent filling up rapidly with an agri-
cultural population, in the States Of
Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota the
numbering industry has assumed the
largest dimensions, causing a drain upon
the resources of their forests which will
in short time cease to respond to further
demands.
The amazing activity with which this
industry is carried on in the pine-lumb er-
ing regions of these States can be real
ized from the statement of the NORTH
l0eSteTR LuDlbeTHt01l Chicago that the
amount of lumber produced in 1883
reached the aggregate of S,305, S33, 81 feet,
board measure, to which is to be added
the output of shingles in the same period
of 4, 69S, 91o, 800 pieces, swelling the con-
sumption of white pine lumber from that
that section to fully 100000, 600 feet,
board measure, in one year. The amount
of merchantable white pine standing
in lower Michigan, estimated i'll the
census reports of 1880 at. 20 000, 000, 600 feet,
during the subsequent ten years has been
reduced TO one-tenth of that amount, ac-
cording to the Chicago Ii7nbernsaa,
Thus the stock left would just suffice to
supply the material for first-class lum Der
produced in single year in the white
pine forests of the Lake region.