The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1902-11-22
NATURES sroREHoUsEs.
The Fuel Supply Is Rapidly on the
WA0e


Wale.
The following interesting paper was
recently read by Mr.. Geo. D. Cline
editor of the '"True Republican" OF
Hudson, Wis, before the Authors
Club Of that city:
Looking at majestic forest, one is
not apt to think that it owes its ex.
istence and its growth to the little
bacteria that work at its root and
turn the soils nourishment into a
liquid so that the hollow fibrous roots
can take it up. AS the coral working
in the oceans bed makes the rock ribs
of continent, so the bacteria, work
ing on the land, help to start into cir
culation the life sap Of the earth's
xarniture. They are the force that
assist Nature in it's silent revolutions.
When tree has reached a certain
decreptitude they creep into its weak
parts and begin the work of decay.
They assist all nature in Wondering
into dust, so that it can grow into
some new creation. Their Office is to
work change, and they are friendly to
Natures evolution. 1t is only when
they begin the work of change in our
selves that they become unfriendly
and then we call them disease. Now,
in every geologic age Nature has made
a surplus product. The growth has
more than balanced the decay. The
little inhabitants Of the sea left their
homes to be ground up into the lime
stone that we use in buildings; many
of the pearly mollusks died and their
shells went into the marble quarries
which are used in statuary and as
second monuments Of death. Part of
the vegetation that grew for millions
of years escaped decay through a COW
'erlng Of water and formed the coal
beds. The oily substances from these
or something of the kind, formed the
reservoirs of petroleum and evapOra-
ton went into the store houses of
natural gas. How long Nature work
ed in laying up these surplus products
no one knows, but cycles of revolving
planets came and went, and times
pendulum, which measures thousands
of years at stroke, for untold ages
SWING to and fro.
But the storing of vegetable matter
has long since ceased, and the stores
that furnish light and heat are no long
Ger accommodating. During all these
years there was no consumption; there
was none during the early history of
man. none to speak of till the pres
ent generation. The great cities Of
the ancient world were situated in
WARM climate where artificial heat
was not needed. The inhabitants of
.AryaM left their pleasant homes on
account of the cold and founded king
a1Oms i'll warm countries. 1t is only
within two or three centuries that
great centers of civilization have ac-
cumulated in northern countries where
fuel consumption is so important an
expense. The great cities of Moscow,
st. Petersburg, Archangel, Chicago,
Montreal and the Twin Cities had no
counterpart in the ancient or mediae-
vial world.
Up to the beginning Of the last cen
fury the growth of forests nearly bal
anced the consumption of wood, but
with the invention of steam power
came Il new and double means of de-
struction. 1t not only required fuel to
generate steam but it started a thou
sand kinds of machinery for working
alp the contents of the forest Fifty
years ago it must have seemed that
the immense forests of Michigan, Wis
d:onsin and Minnesota could never be
exhausted. Those engaged in the lum-
bering business have held all along
THAT it would last an indefinite length
of time, but now the knotty logs and
SaplingS that reach the mills are a
fearful warning that the last day and
the inevitable time of numbering has
come. The men who did the first
logging in the state will live to see the
last and their memories will span the
passing of the most magnificent for
ests in the world. Worse than this.
there are people in our own country
who, twenty years ago, cleared their
Hands by fire yet are now pinched for
fuel. The recent suffering from the
coal strike shows how dependent the
people are upon something beside the
forests in which they were once so
rich. The present price, too, of lum-
Der is hardly foretaste of what it
will be when builders have to DEPEND
on transportation of two or three thou
sand miles. What then will be the
material of the future cottage? Some
have said paper, but that would de-
stroy more forestry than numbering.
True, paper can be made of straw,
but that would depreciate the soil,
and already the increased demand for
paper Is clearing UP the scattered for.
ests the lumbermen have left. The
great dailies In the United States are
numbered by the thousand, and vet
the paper used in n single Sunday is
sue of the New York World, Journal
or Herald requires about forty cords