The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-08-27
CAUSE OF THE TREE.
secy. James Wilson's Address Last
Night Closed the Forestry
Convention.
He Shows the Vital Importance Of
Intelligent Work in
Forestry.

-
with mass meeting at Plymouth church.
The principal address was made by James
WILSON,, former senator from Iowa, and
now secretary of agriculture. He ex-
planned the work being done in forestry by
his department, and gave some interesting
figures on the magnitude Of the lumber
industry. In brief, his address was as
follows:
"The total acreage of productive forest
In the United States, exclusive Of Alaska,
Is estimated by different authorities to be
between 100000, 900 and TOO O0O, 900 acres.
The amount of lumber produced by saw
mills in 1900 was 35OS4, 166,OOO feet. TO
this should be added timber camp
products aggregating $500, 745, 900 feet,
a total Of 1880 200 feet. In addition
| to this S,715,661 fence posts were cut.
Hop poles numbered 1,2o5,7OO; piles $780,
629; railroad ties 22,591 1894; telegraph
poles 937, 963.
',rhe total product Of the lumber in
dustry was 1855, 1872, 1884. Farmers reported
the value Of the product of their woodlots
| at S109, 9S9,s6S. The tetal value Of the
| lumber industry and farm woodlots was
1915, 122,S52
| ''The wood pulp industry amounted to
s9,S37,516 Of which $2,363,45 worth came
from Canada. We imported last year
SIS, 744,040 worth of wood from abroad,
and we exported $57,743,535 worth. The
pulp requires 1,9S6,310 cords of wood
| Railroad ties are equivalent to 9O3, SIS, 900
| board feet Of lumber, and require 100, 735
acres to supply the annual demand, es-
| timating 5000 board feet per acre. The
| woods used In making pulp are spruce,
| poplar, cottonwood, sweet gum, cypress,
birch. sugar maple, cedar, silver fir, red
pine helmlock, tamarack balsam fir, long
| leaf pine, loblolly pine, sycamore, Ameri-
can elm, jack pine, beech, silver maple,
| bucqeye, black willow, locust and chest
| nut
Science is succeeding in preserving the
quick-growing, soft woods that make large
trees in thirty or forty years, so that they
! can be used for ties Railroad ties, fence
posts and much Of the lumber for building,
can be provided for, as well as fuel.
Recent experience with the coal supply
admonishes us that we should grow fuel
material, which can easily be done on
| lands that, for various reasons are not
adapted to cultivation.
What the Government Does.
"The department of agriculture is train
ing foresters who are making research into
planting and preserving. We are sending
out young trees to help induce the plant
ing habit, and information regarding
propagation. There should be a forestry
association in every county in the United
States. Our people can set agoing in
fuences that will reforest the country and
restore the natural forces that are essen
tial to the 'wellbeing Of the republic. When
| our educators become impressed with the
necessity of teaching the elements of ag
ricultural science to the half of the people
under our nag who are to tiA the soil for a
livelihood, the scholar In the country
schoolhouse will find in his reader para.
graph telling him when to go to the oak
the pine, the elm, the maple, the linden
the chestnut and other trees for then
seeds; and an object lesson will be given
In the methods of DrCn1a cation
Need of Education.
The manufacture of woods has been q
great source of revenue thruout the his
tory of the republic. We have not taker
steps, until within recent years, either te
plant or preserve on a scale coextensive
with the requirements of the situation
Many localities are suffering, and the suf
), fering will continue Scarcely anything
has been done by our educators along this
line. Within the last few years a first.
class school Of forestry has been estab
lished at Yale, and something has beer
done at several of our agricultural colleges
but we have not had scholars in the lant
along the line Of the industry. The de
partment Of agriculture Is rapidly buildtns
UP a bureau of forestry to study the sci
entif1c sides of this question We aim t,
get men Of character and education to dc
vote themselves to the study Of trees w,
have several hundred men engaged in tn,
bureau now in this research, studying tn,
forest reserves of the country and the larg,
holdings of corporations, and preparin,
literature for the small planter who ma,
desire to ascertain what trees are hes
suited to his locality. In our northern lati
tudes the grazing season can be prolonged
by hedges and belts of woodland. TIL
hail storms and others to which we ar
, subject can be modified to a considerable
. extent by the planting of wood belts tina
break their force and protect the crops
We have large areas Of mountain LAM
,, that are better suited to the growing o
trees than anything else. We have bot
tom lands, subject to overflow, that can b.
devoted to these uses.
The Tree Planting Habit.
"The tree-planting habit should groy
, upon our people The knowledge of propa
l cation should become as household words
. There are 46,000,000 acres of woodlands il
, our new possessions in the Philippn
islands. Up to the present time these for
ests are being held for the uses of the peo
pie Of those islands, and righteously s
held. But they will be able to furnish u
with the finer sorts Of cabinet woods, wit
great advantage to them and to US, in tn
future.
E Our pine woods are rapidly disappear
ing. Our last great resource is in tn
northwest corner Of the United States
and 700 sawrlills are busy with its destruc
: ton. This is a problem requiring the i'm
I MEDIATE attention Of all our people, Ever
g man in the country should consider where
( upon his possessions, a tree might be ad
I Vantageously grown, and when this
!, done, much will be done toward remedy
d ing the mischief Of the past centuries"
! IN a W