The San Francisco call., 1901-11-14
THE WASTE OF FORESTS.

~ UROPEAN we'll as American students of
= economic questions have begun to give atten-
- ton to the rapdity with which the forests of
the world are being destroyed Thus the Westminster
Gazette recently noted that increasing demands for
timber in Great Britain and Germany are faced by
decreasing supplies from Norway, Russia and Hun
gary. AT present Great Britain is importing wood
OF an annual value of f22 900 ooo while Germany i'm
ports wood annually to the value OF fI4ooo, ,ooo
Europe is unable to meet that demand, and accord
ingly wood is imported from this country, from
Canada, from Australia and elsewhere
1t is not Germany and Great Britain alone that i'm
port timber Some of the British colonies are them
selves importers, and the value of their imports
reaches annually the sum OF f18oooo ooo The de-
crease in the timber supply is not however, the
whole question. There is the further evil OF eli
matte changes brought about by denudin the hills of
their forests. The change for the worse is already
noted in many parts of Europe, and countries once
fertile and blessed with climate suitable for man
and his works now becoming we'll nigh uninhabit-
table
AS illustrations of these changes the Westminster
Gazette says: Bosnia is a country enjoying the
possession OF vast forests and separated from the
sea by great mountain ranges rising in the Dinaric
Alps to some 6ooo feet Herzegovina to the south
OF Bosnia, has hardly any forests at all To the west
of Herzegovina, toward the middle of the Adratic
is the island Of Lssa of il-omen in the rec
ords of the Italian navy. The summer temperature
of Bosnia is from degrees to degrees Fahrenheit
cooler thar in the more southery Herzegovina, and
nearly degrees below that of the -grt LISA Or,
again. take the shores OF the Caspian On the west
ern coast have great forest region. On the
east extend countless of desert sand and stone
The result is cool and dry at Lenkoran
fntOerable ct Of the
land sea-. Thus results of the most unexpected and
far-reachng nature may be the outcome of the ill
considered deforestaton of a country"
At the present time the British Government is
making extensive plantations of forest trees in India
for the double purpose of forming timber supply
and improving the climate so as to check the pc
riodical droughts that bring famine in their train
SO successful have these plantations been is be-
ieved that in the future they will constitute one
OF the most valuable assets of the Indian Govern
ment. The Australians and the Canadians have
prohted by the experience of Europe and they have
adopted afford something at least of pro-
lection to their forest areas.
| In this country the waste goes on more rapidly
than anywhere else in the world In no direction
does the resistless energy OF the American people
show itself more potenty than in the destruction Of
forests Moreover IN this respect we are nearly as
waseful as energetic, and the amount of timber de-
stroyed by fire is almost equal to that cut for COM
mercial purposes.
In California have had many disastrous
warning on this subject. Our annual bill of losses
by forest fires is enormous. The damage done is
Sooner or later we will learn the lesson which
Europe has learned at such stupendous cost and if
we wise will learn it beforeNwe have had to
/ pay equal price