The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-09-25
THE OLD FIREWooo QUESTION.
The sources Of supply and the Improba-
bility of Their Exhaustion.

At certain intervals the declaration
is made either that the worlds coal
supply is rapidly giving out or that
the worlds wood supply. through the
eckless and indiscriminate destruction
of remaining forests. is nearly at an
end. Fortunately, however. for all
those who require or think they require
warmth in winter. the two alarms do
not occur simultaneously. If they did.
the inquiry which they evoke would
probably call for examination of the
matter, which neither one seems to
justify. a few years ago the discovery
of natural gas in the West worked
great havoc with the fears of the
alarmists concerning the worlds coal
supply, but recently the forestry
alarmists have been deeply stirred by
the assertion that at the present ratio
of destruction there would not be a
tree left i'm the United States in a GER
tain number of years, which has
aroused the fears of the pessimists.
An official statement well calculated
to reassure them, however, comes from
the British consul general at st.
Petersburg, who has sent to the Lon
don foreign office some account of the
unused Russian forests which shows in
the province of Archangel, where the
Crown forests cover SS,079, 400 acres, the
Telling Of the trees has not much more
than begun. He says that hitherto vir-
gin IOftSlS OF the IelcnOfa BASIN are
opened up for trade, and new mills
hav been built, N at A%rchangel, one
at Pushlakta, and one too, at Kola, on
the Lapland coast.
The whole worlds consumption of
wood amounts, I'm a year. to about
0.000. 900. 900 cubic feet, of which almost
exactly one-half is used for frewood
and the other half for building opera
ions of all kinds-houses, bridges.
ships. vehicles, furniture and orna-
mentatiOu. Russia uses three times as
much God for fuel as it does for build
ing. The United States uses twice as
much for building as it does for fuel.
There are three countries from which
I'm large amounts wood is exported to
other lands, the United States. Canada
and Norway and Sweden. There are
three countries which, by reason of
their dearth of wood. import il in con
siderable amount. These are England,
France and Spain.
Before 1860 the local forests supplied
England with most Of the wood it
used. Since 1860 n in increasing
ratio. wood has been imported into
Great Britain chiefly from Canada and
the United States. Last year. during
the fiscal year ending in June, 1898,
American lumber to the value of
The larger amount of this was in the
form of boards and planks. There was
a considerable sum of logs and rough
wood. too. OF Americas exports of
wood. manufactured. sc. 200, 900 was
sent to Great Britain. 49, 800, 900 to Ger
many. S3,500.0 900 worth to European
countries other than England. France
and Germany, So, 900, 900 worth to Can
ada and 81. 0OO. 600 to Mexico.
Despite the statement of alarmists,
the American supply of wood is prac-
tically inexhaustible. The importation
of woods of all kinds into the United
States amounts in value to about SIS
900. 900 n year, of which n very large
proportion comes from Canada. Mexico
and the Central American states send
ing large quantities Of mahogany and
other fine woods. An increase in Amer
lean sources of export is to be looked
for before very long I'm Cuba and Porto
Rico. the former country being enor-
mouslv rich in large quantities of the
valuable woods. and under Spanish di-
rection. or indirection. the opportuni-
ties of this item of export have been
| neglected. There is more lumber in the
United States than in anv country in
the world. and. il is said. forests cnver
about 10 per cent of the earth's land
area. and about % per cent of Europe.
The highest yield Is in the United
Kingdom. namely. 60 cubic feet of tim
her an acre, and the annual Telling OF
timber is hardly half what il might be
without reducing the forest
| of tho world.