The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-01-02
OUR DwINDLING FORESTS.
Hard Wood Resources Nearly Exhausted
by the Growth of Manufactures.

Engineering Magazine.
The industries based upon our tim Der re-
sources, in the value of their products,
rank second If not first among the manu-
featuring interests of this country. The
consequences of such gigantic operations
are making themselves painfully felt in
regions the timber resources of which, in
the recollection of many yet living. were
regarded as inexhaustible. Such locali-
ties 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 main
tenance of favorable climatic conditions.
In illustration of this assertion such states
as Ohio and Indiana present important
facts. According to official statements the
forest area of Ohio was reduced from 90
per cent. of the whole area of the
state in 1850 to II per cent. in
1880, and in Indiana the forest area
declined in the same time TO 10 per
cent, such shrinkage placing these states
with the countries of least forest area in
Central Europe. The scarcity and deteri-
Grafton of the hard wood timber supply
ing numerous industries in these and the
adjoining states in the North have been
for some years matter of grave concern
to those engaged in them. At the tenth
annual convention of the Furniture Manu-
facturers' Association, held in Cincinnati
in 1881, and at the thirteenth meeting of the
National Carriage Builders Association,
in 1885, the complaint was raised that the
supplies 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 import
h, 20 . hr,
timber resources of our forests and upon
which thousands of families of artisans
and laborers are depending for support.
North of the Ohio river the black walnut
and white ash can be said to be extinct as
far as practical purposes are concerned,
and the better qualities of white oak
now wanting. At a still more rapid rate
is the destruction of the forests of white
pine, and of the spruce and hemlock,
going on. On the Atlantic slope the forests
OF white pine in Pennsylvania have been
almost completely stripped of their tim
Der. In New York and the New England
states this pine has almost hopelesslv dis
appeared. with the exception of Maine,
where. under a wise system of protection,
the second growth is of great promise and
already contributes considerable supplies.
The most extensive and alarming in
stance of the despoliation of a timber
wealth considered ineXhaustible only a
few years ago, is presented by the immense
pineres of the Northwest, which seem
destined in the near future to complete
destruction. With their timber wealth in
q vast body, made easy OF access by inn
proved methods of labor and transporta-
ton. and in close connection with the
treeless region in the heart of the CONT
nent filling up rapidly with an agricultural
population, in the states of Michigan,
Wisconsin and Minnesota the umbering
industry has assumed the largest dimen-
sions causing a drain upon the resources
OF their forests which will in a short time
cease 10 respond TO further demands. The
amazing activity with which this industry
is carried on in the pine-lumbering regions
of these states can be realized from the
statement of the Northeastern LumberInUn,
Chicago, that the amount of lumber pro-
duced in 1850 reached the aggregate of
s. sos. S33, 277 feet, board measure. to which
is 10 be added the output of shingles III
the same period of 4.o9S. $40 500 pieces,
swelling the consumption OF white pine
lumber from that section TO ully9,00. 000-,
600 feet, board measure, in one year. The
amount of merchantable white pine stand
ing in Lower Michigan. estimated in the
census reports OF 1850 at 5000 G0.U
feet. during tho subsequent ten years has
been reduced 10 one-tenth of that amount.
according To the Chicago 1ihaberHlan. Thus
the stock left would just suffice 10 supply
the material for trst-class lumber pro-
duced in a single year in the hlte pine
forests OF the Lake region.