The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-11-29
THp FUTURE or TTarnwns.


 The nearness of the time when all the world must do without wood for any purpose must be apparent. unless some plan can be devised to preserve or replace it. A recent statement is- sued by the Department of Commerce and Labor tells us that practically all the world is asking for American wood and It's products" Exports of wood products have increased ss per cent within the last nine months and their total value for that period amounts to s6l,oo0.OOo When the home consumption. running into the hundreds of millions. Is taken into con sideration. together with the demands of foreign countries. it becomes a mat ter of simple arithmetic to know what unless something is done to counter act the processes of exhaustion the time will soon come when our forests will be matters of tradition and wood will follow the path of the Indian and the buffalo."
 There seems no way to stop this de- struction. People who own timbered lands feel that they have right to de- stroy or dispose of the trees as they see proper. and we suppose they have Most people take no thought of the future in this matter and continue to clear the land of timber just as if they thought another crop would come up and mature as quickly ana as easily as they could grow a crop of hay. They seem unmlndful or oblivf- ous of the fact that those who come after them will also need wood and timber. Let each generation look out for itself, is about the view they take of it.
 The only two remedies or hopes of relief lie, first, in something like a united and determined effort to re- place the vanishing woods, and next in finding and applying substitute. There has been within the past few years quite a determined movement in the direction of refore5 .ation. Some of the states have tree planting days set apart for the encouragement of those who are interested in this important subject. while in other sec tions there are sdcieties aud organ nations having tho same object in views and between them something will be accomplished, but the remedy is both slow and uncertain.
 One serious obstacle in the way of reforestation is that much of the land which has been denuded is much too vaiuamble to be devoted to ti too valuable to be devoted to timber, and the demand for farming land Is so great that no one cares to plant trees where they could grow good crops of other things in more immed- fate demand. Yet there is much land even In this country from which the timber has been taken and which is not fit for cultivation, and on such lands as that it would seem that tree planting could be profitably carried on. Certain 1t is that If remedy is not found 1t will not be many years before there will be no wood for any purpose.
 Another hope for the future lies in the fact that substitutes for wood in building, as well as for fuel, are com ing into use more and more with each year We have had a Stone Age and an Iron Age. and it looks now as if we are to have Concrete Age The use of that substance for buildings of all kinds is growing so fast that it now appears as if 1t is destined to super cede most other materials. In some respects it is a return of very an- cient custom, but modern ingenuity and invention have done so much for it that 1t may fairly be looked on as new industry. Not only walls. fences and houses of all kinds are made of concrete but bridges are con structed of the same material, and there is apparently no limitation to it's use. Added to this are the almost un- limited uses to which iron and steel are put in building and 1t Is apparent that wood will soon be thing of the past in building. In reforestation and in substitutes for wood lies the chief hope for lumber of all kinds in the future where there seems no way to get on without it.
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