The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1893-04-27

Almost Immediately following M,
communication on this subject to tbs
Posi- there appeared an article III al
Afternoon paper of this city seeming
~ in rcfutation. Its heading runs
thus: Trees not giving out-Som(
fallacies exploded by Henry Cannot
of the Geological Survcy-Eorest'
grow faster than cut-Figures show
that tic timber area isas large to-ta,
as when Columbus first landed. Al
of which is a tissue OF mlscheylou'
absurdities.
While Mr.. Gannctt admits that
forests in mountainous, districts pre-
vent the washing away of soil and the
lcposition of the detrtus III valleys,
thus preventing floods and accompa-
nving disasters, he contends that the
same influence is excrted by other and
more useful forms Of vegetation. EX-
pcriencc contradicts this. No forms
of vegetation have been found
to more than partially connteract
the effects of extensive forest destruc-
ton.
But the climax of absurdity Is
reached in Mr.. Gannett's distorted
statistics. He asserts that our area
Of woodland produces each year
| 6 600 ,O00, 900 to 10000, 600, 900 Gu
bic feet more of timber than Is
removed by the ak. If this is true,
the destruction of forests by natura!
canscs must be more immense than
we have had any conception of, fer
otherwise, instead of having cas-
rrcat an area Of woodland as when
the white man set foot on our shores,
the whole country, in the four hunded
years that have elapsed, would have
become an impossible and uninhabit-
able Jungle. On the contrary, the
fact which confronts us to-day IS that
hundreds of thousands of square
miles of the area formerly covered
by virgin forests are now cultivated
farms and plantations, contributing
by their products to the trafh1c OF
great cities and towns; that, i'll spite
Of the development of innumcrable
mines of coal and iron, which replace
wood in so many of the Uses OF man
kind, the latter is becoming so scarce
that the extinction of some of the
more valuable species ofmcrchantab1c
trees is palpably in view
Mr. Gannctt concludes that at
is only in limited localities in the
mountain region, such as those IN
the arid country where the conditions
are not specially favorable to timber
growth, that it seems worth while to
attept to protect forests. Elsewhere
they will protect themselves, and the
protection will become more perfect
as the timber product becomes more
valuable.'
This sounds plausible, and is es-
pecially encouraging to those specua-
tors in timber whose self interest
combines with their crcdulity i'll
maintaining the theory of forest
indeStructibiity.
AS an instance Of the protection
afforded by the enhanced value OF
timber, take the example of single
species hard-wood-our black walnut.
1t succeeded mahogany in the man
ufacture of furniture, and in It's turn
is giving place to oak. 1t formerly
ahounded in all the middle and some
Of the Western states. Commercial
", it is now practically extinct except
in the corners of four statcs--the
mountainous region Of which Big
Stone Gap is the center. And IN
this region it is hunted with as much
eayerness and ferocity by the emissa-
ries of distant lumber companies as
lately was the buffaloon the Western
plains; with what promises too, to be
a like rcsult-its utter extinction.
1t is now selling in this market 'ol
twice the price of oak. Does its en-
HANGING value give it any immunity
from the cutters cxtermlnatinS ak,
Not much!
] During a couple ofmonths' sojourl
in Scott county last Fall, | was per
sonally cognizant Of a dozen partie'