The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-12-24
FIRST or THE FUTURE.

Ake94 . S& &x1 G V A V &sA&s The question of fuei is continually growing in importance, and thoaghtfni men are looking for substitutes or for other means of securing heat. Years ago. when our country was an almost endless forest. and when the great problem was to get rid of the surplus timber. wood was burned in a way that would give a modern city housekeeper the horrors. The homes of the country people were gener- ally constructed with little thought of keeping the cold out or the heat in, and one of the yawning ire-plaees in use would consume enough wood in day and night to warm a well-built modern house 8 week. In many sections of the country this wastefl custom still prevails The houses, even when not built of logs, are so loosely constructed that the cold can get in through walls and floor and roof with little hindrance. To secure even comparative comfort in cold weather it is necessary to keep the great chimneys fill cd all the time and those who have no experience with such houses and fire places can have no conception of the l amount of wood consumed.
 Nor was much more economy shown where coal could be used. As a general rule Southern people do not build houses for winter weather. and grate which will hold a bushel of coal is necessary to warm some of the rooms. It was a waste full habit. not altogether absolute, just as the big wood chimneys have not entirely gone out of use.
 It is plain that this could not go on forever. The forests are disappearing with startling and accelerated rapidity and the huge and cheerful wood fires are becoming more. and more things of the past In a few generations they will bs but memory for there will be no more fuel to supply them. The same fate awaits the wastefui open coal grates. The supply of coal seems inexhaustfble, but 1t is not so. Those who make study or such things tell us that the coal supply Is limited, and that. unless new fields are found. the end Is in view and can be cal cuIatsd with tolerahle certainty.
 With these facts and predictions con- stantly in view 1t is no wonder that the inventive genius of the age Is concerned in not only devising means of econom- izing in the production of heat. but of finding substitutes for both wood and coal. The development of electricity Is fast solving the question of light and power. In the cities and many of the villages 1t %r At.r oil tn YDTn duce light or coal to produce power. Electricity lights our houses and streets and drives our machines and cars, and as the electricity is now largely produced by water power without burning wood or coal q great step is made in the direction of dispensing with fusl.
 But with all that water and electricity can do, and with all the saving that can be accomplished. there must still be fuel used and substitutes for wood and coal are continually sought for. Mir. Edward Atkinson, who is great on statistics, is really enthusiastic in his belief that veg etable fuel' Is the coming heat producer By this he does not mean ordinary wood, though that is vegetable, but confines himself to cultivated farm products. He that there Is no more. Then he speaks of substitutes. and his reasoning is thus epitomizsd in The Chicago Tribune:
 Consider the corn crop. The ratio of dry stalk leaf and corncob is about one and one half tons to the ton of shelled corn The amount of potential fuel therefore, in kk~ f~ tons. Consider now the whole grain crop, including corn, wheat, oats, barley, rye, etc. The total amount of potential fuel involved is between 150 000. 900 and 200 0oO, 900 falfa and the sunfiower, which produce heavy fuel growths. Sorghum however, is of all fuel plants the one which Mir. Atkinson regards as most promising. Sorghum, compressed into logs in a par tially green stage" and seasoned as green wood Is seasoned, holds out great possi- bilities of future usefulness. Besides, there Is new seed grain plant from semi-arid parts of this country. Could not this plan be used as fue., and have we not here a means of turning the semi arid West to account?
 In the language of Addison. Tt must be so-Plato. thou reasonsst well!' W hen one piles up figures in tha; n. -.tr We must either accept or refute them and can we do the latter? It is true that very much of these by-products of corn and other farm crops Is now used as animal food, as fertilizers. and in various ways in the industrial and domestic arts, but undoubtedly a great deal of 1t that is now absolutely wasted could be utilized in some such way as MT. Atkinson suggests and thus at least postpone the time when there will be nothing to burn and no means of making a fire to warm us. Per haps before that time arrives We shall have learned to get along comfor tably without artificial heat. but at least the reasoning of MT. Atkinson is interesting