The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-01-18
WHEN ANTHRACITE is GONE
TILE CULTURE OF FORESTS WILL
HAVE TO BE RESORTED
TO.
OF ELECTRICITY.
1t Is Hard to Predict What May BE
Developed In the Flu
- ture.

making mature do q good deal more
of mans work than at present, Thorn
as A. Edison said:
'Natures's resources are ample If we
only take advantage Of them. Men say
that we shall be out Of fuel for heat
and power production in comparative
ly short time, just because they fore
see the possible exhaustion Of the coal
supply. But there need be no alarm
even in behalf of future generations.
1t Is true that, in time, the available
coal will be all gone, providing It's
burning is continued. But while that
Is being done, nature will be making
mere fuel, if men will only encourage
her little, and, as business this en-
enlargement will be quite as profitable
as most occupations.
LAS long as the sun shines we can get
power. We get it all from the sun
now, for coal is only sunshine stored
IN trees grown ages ago and slowly
transformed to almost pure carbon But
we don't have to wait for trees to turn
to coal In order to burn them. Trees
will grow wherever there is sunshine
and soil. Once their growth is started,
nature will give man the equivalent Of
ton Of coal in forest growth every
year on every acre Of soil In any of
the non-arid parts Of the earth. And
there is enough waste ground-that Is,
ground that can not be cropped be-
cause it is too hilly or too wet, or some
thing-to make room for all the fuel
growth required. All that Is needed
ia q foyU Voc OP
study Of forestry and the laying down
ana observation Of certain rules for
the growth, preservation and proper
cutting of trees, and the man who owns
few acres Of waste land will be able
to make as big a net profit out of his
fuel crop as he who raises any other
sort of crop. AT present prices, indeed,
the equivalent Of a ton of coal to the
acre Of waste ground would yield a
better profit than almost any other
crop known
A little Investigation is sufficient to
show that Mr.. Edison's notions as to
the worlds fuel supply, above briefly
stated, are of stupendous Importance
Within twenty-five miles Of New York
there are probably, in rocky hills and
marsh lands, both of which could be
AAAe~NS W SNpPO1b ulSdNy SIOWInS OF 1u6l
umDer but not to raise farm or garden
crops, more than 100, 600 acres OF
ground, and this area, according to
MT. Edison, would produce the euuiya-
lent of 100000 tons of coal a wear. The
total annual coal consumption Of New
York, however, Is 5000, 900 tons, and il
would. be necessary to go more than
twenty-five miles to get the supply
needed; but within the territory from
which the coal supply of the present is
obtained, the amount Of fuel that
might be produced by trees growers
would be more than enough to supplv
New York, and all the cities within
that territory now using coal, for an
indefinite period. This district includes
eastern Philadelphia and Northern
New Jersey, and is joined by the
southeastern part of New York, a vast
region that is largely mountainous
Astounding in steep hillsides and rocky
stretches. Only small portions of This
region are good for farming, and the
Wnole was originally covered with
heavy and luxuriant forest growth.
This forest has been mostly cut away
ana not renewed, a most wastefuI pro-
ceeolng, TO remedy which the various
much-talked-Of forestry commissions
are now beginning to labor.
The profitableness Of forest growing
Tor fuel production would vary great
ly In different localities, but at present
prices 1t would be quite as great as
Iar1nng-probably greater when 1t is
remembered that no yearly cultivation
would be needed. that the labor of cut
tlng the trees would be less than har-
VeSt1ng the crop, and that the original
value of the land would be much below
that of farm land. Hundreds OF
thousands Of acres now almost bare OF
trees and unfit for anything in their
81 per acre. and that in ten or fifteen
years-at most twenty-would yield q
gross OF 50 or $6 per acre, or a net Of
50 or 81. The 1000 acres waste land
comparatively close to the city of New
Ork, now altogether unproductive.
would then yield, at the lowest fig
ures, $500 900 a year. At the same time
the raising of trees for fuel would add
immensely to the beauty of the land
scape. Uninteresting semi-marshes and
bare and SCARED hillsides would be
clothed with living green in the sum
mer and with the gorgeous colors Of
dying leaves in the autumn, while even
In the winter the flats and hills would
be more beautiful because of their
forestization than they are now Still
further, the systematic and continuous
cutting of the timber as fast as IL
reached the proper size would give en-
ployment to large numbers of men, and
the forests would afford shelter to all
sorts of game, SO that sports might
again flourish. And what is true Of the
vicinity Of New York is true almost
generally, nearly every big city in the
country having territory comparative
ly near by where wood as a substi-
tute for coal. could be produced at a
good profit.
Mr.. Edison believes that all this will
ultimately be brought to pass, and he
delights to dwell upon the economic
and aesthetic possibilities of the
sheme.
But there are some other schemes
for the utilization Of natures forces in
which Mr.. Edison fails to see such
practical possibilities as are some
times foretold. One Of these is the
utilization Of the rise and fall of the
tides. Away back in the remote past,
men living on the seacoast built tide
mills and gathered power for the
grinding Of flour and meal and for
other purposes from the passage
through these mills Of the ebbing and
flowing tides. One by one, however,
only few are in practical operation
Mr.. Edison says that this is because
the world has got beyond them
What is needed most in the pro-.
duction Of power" he said, is stead
mess. Tide mills work internationally.
and no matter how built, the intermit-
tent feature Of their work can not be
done away with. For certain time
the tide is rising every day; then there
is q time of slack water; then there
is time Of failing tide; then the tide
rises again, and so on. This fact alone
prevents the production of steady