The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-04-30
SAVING TIE FORESTS.

The matter OF preserving the forests
OF this country and the development
OF additional timber areas is fast be-
coming Il matter OF national impor-
lance if ii is not already one
The need of timber for domestic
purposes is even now so pressing that
the concerns engaged in the manufac-
turing of lumber are adopting means
OF restoring the forests which they
have denuded. This is strictly a bust
ness proposition and they take the
position that it is merely an invest
ment which will pay good dividend.
Aside from the Importance OF pre-
serving large forest area for the
furnishing of lumber for domestic pur-
poses, it is we'll established as a scien-
titic fact that the forest areas are inn
portant agencies in the matter of rain
fall.
II has been feared that the enor-
nous destruction of these forests
which has been going on for years
would in time permit OF such rapid
precipitation that the river valleys
would be destroyed by inundation dur
ing the flood season. while the sec
tons dependent upon rainfall for
their moisture would be subject to
long and severe drouths during much
OF the year. In this particular it has
been repeatedly pointed out that the
cutting of the forests on the head
waters of the Mississippi river was
to a large extent the cause OF the
heavy floods in that river
1t would seem that the proper solu-
ton of the matter of preserving the
timber areas has been solved by some
of the lumber concerns. They pro-
pose TO stop the cutting of the timber
below nine inches in diameter and
then by the cultivation of trees of
rapid development. they plan to grow
forest of sufficient sized timber to
be utilized in sixteen years, and by a
repetition of this process to re-forest
their holdings in consecutive periods
of that length.
1t may be possible that they have
never estimated the time which will
be required to grow timber of suffl-
Gent size for lumber purposes.
But the great future of the economy
OF lumber is in the development of the
pulp industry. Already many of the
articles formerly made from the solid
wood are manufactured from pulp,
and they have proved more durable
than the former ones. 1t is no stretch
of the imagination to see that in az
short time instead of the present
wasteful methods of cutting the logs
in to lumber. losing third in wastage,
the timber, large and small. will be
converted into pulp and from that con-
dition manufactured into lumber.
This process. it is claimed, would
destroy the use of lumber as a build
ing material where strength is re-
CURED. and this contention il. probably
correct However. the cost of steel
for such purposes and the increasing
cost of timber as 1t becomes scarcer
will make the former the structural
building material of the future.
These conditions will relieve the
heavy drains upon the forest reserves
and give the timber regions an OPP
portunity to recover themselves. In
doing this they will at the same time
restore the equilibrium between eva
poration and precipitation, and the
great climatic danger will be avoided.
Sentiment is a great thing, but
sentiment outside of patriotism has
never accomplished many great re-
forms. This is true Of the cultivation
of the forests. There may be poetic
romance surrounding the planting of