Omaha daily bee., 1902-11-23

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comprising government forest reservations,
national parks and state reservations.
there would not be a vestige of forest on
them at the end of two years, or, to be
precise, within twenty months.
The methods by which this destruction OF
national treasures has been brought about
may be summarized as follows:
Square Miles.
To provide sawed lumber ,...........1 1880
To provide pulp wood for paper manu-
To provide telegraph poles, ties. posts,
piles, laths, shingles, headings....... 1000
To provide tirewood. = 'C0O
Result of forest fires ..16,O5O
Total .5O,1lO
The sawed lumber figures are compiled
from the census publication for 1900. The
report of Henry Gannett, geographer of the
geological survey, covered all the product
of sawed lumber. The pulp wood figures
were based on the report of Charles w.
Rantoul, jr., of New York City, the census
agent, and disclosed a consumption of
1918, 900 cords of domestic lumber. In ad-
dition to this evidence of wholesale de-
struction Of forests, the compilation in 1899
by Mr.. Gannett in the nineteenth annual
report of the geological survey, part V,
establishes the fact that the output of tele-
graph poles, fence posts, ties, logs, slaves,
laths, shingles and headings were about 20
per cent of the sawed lumber measure, or a
product of about 1000 square miles of for
ests. The same authority in 1899 showed
(page 2O) that we burned, for heating and
manufacturing purposes, not less than $780,
900, 900, 900 feet of board measure an
amount seven times as great as that used
in the sawmills, and four times as great as
is used for all other purposes.
In view of this estimate that the fire
wood stripping was seven times that of the
sawed lumber stripping, it is conservative
to place the area stripped at twice that of
the sawed lumber. or 81 600 square miles.
The total wooded area of the country is
1904, 496 square miles, and of this territory
more than 5 per cent, or onC-twentieth, is an
nually stripped, destroying a section greater
than the wooded area of any state in the
union, except, possibly, Texas, and prac-
tically plotting out every year the wooded
area of tracts as large as Oregon and Min
nesota. This area annually stripped is TO-
900 miles in excess of the woodlands OF all
the New England states. 1t is 5000 square
miles in excess of the woodland area of the
four middle states, and is greater than the
combined timber area of fourteen states of
the union. The Indifference of the public
to this question and the recklessness with
LlN Jul IN AoiN ""SNN ~ NN'
to lack of information or to erroneous cal
culations about the misunderstanding of our
timber supply. 1t is forgotten that the de.
cay of overripe timber supplements the
work of fire and acts in offsetting natural
growth. If our timber crops require thirty
three years to mature, or 3 per cent per
annum, it is certain that the annual de-
struction of more than 8 per cent of our
wooded area will soon produce extinction.
Our forests are diminishing at an alarming
rate, and unless protected will, in the
course of the next generation, become so
limited as to be barely sufficient for local
consumption.
Startling as are the figures represented
by the work Of the AK, they are i~nsignif-
cant in comparison with the wholesale de-
struction of forests by fire.
The only attempt to estimate the damage
done by forest fires within the United
States was made in 1880, and the results
were published in Vol. TX of the Tenth
census. The returns were incomplete, yet
the figures show that in one year 10, 274, 0S9
acres 10 $50 square miles, were burned
over, and that property valued at $25, 1872
$50 was DESTROYED.
There was no means of determining the
exact areas Of forest OF other land which
was burned, consequently the money loss
stated includes buildings, fences, lumber
and standing timber.
A few Of the states have sought within
the last six or eight years to determine the
annual losses by forest fires within their
borders, and though the reports are frag-
mentary and incomplete, they indicate a
rate Of destruction not less than that
shown by the census of 1880.