The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-23
WaStefuIneSs Ofthe Past a Les
 son for Future
TESTS FOR CHEAP FUEL
Are Being Made by the Government Toward Finding Fuel Values of Woods In
 American Forests.
BY FREDERIC j. HAsKlN.

To the early Seventeenth century set
 tier in America there was no question In
 regard to fuel. How to quickest destroy
 the timber shading his farm lands, and
 to clear it away from the neighborhood
 of the forts where it afforded Indian pro
 tection was all he had to think about.
 He piled great logs in a wide mouthed
 chimney and sat in the ruddy glow to
 plan for the future of his children piling
 on more logs as those burned out and
 never bothering his head to question 1T
 the supply might some day become de-
 pleted. The Twentieth century citizen Is
 the one who must solve the problem. It
 is a question with many phases and he has set himself to study out with scien- tifc exactltude the quantity of natural
 fuel within his reach, the quickest man ner in which it can be transported, It's
 convenience in delivery and it's compact
 ness in storage. According to the loca-
 ton of his home he has the choice of
 wood, anthracite, bituminous coal, lig-
 mite, coke, gas, oil, electricity and bri-
 quettes manufactured from various mate
 rials while "hay boxes' and fireless cookers have recently proved their worth as fuel savers in the hands of his eco- nomical wife.
 Wood. once the general American fuel,
 and still the standby of the householder in rural communities, has a so much
 greater value for other uses that the question of teaching forest owners how
 to cut and use their timber judiciously is becoming a momentous one. It is al- most impossible to get exact information
 as to how much wood is used each year as fuel, as so many householders cut
 from their own lands. The forest service in connection with the census bureau ex- pects however, to take q census Of the
 stumpage in the United States at the gen l eral census of 1910, if not earlier. It Is
 roughly estimated that 10O 000,00O cords of nrewood are burned in this country ev-
 cry year at value of s35O oO0,0oO the price varying from $3 or B cord on
 owners lands in the densely forested southern Appalachian states, to $9 or
 sl0 in once heavily timbered regions of
 the middle northwest R. s. Kellogg,
 chief of the office of wood utilization,
 forest service, in an address before the Box Manufacturers association at Kaat-
 erskin. N. Y., d few weeks ago, stated
 that the present amount of wood con
 sumed per capita is now only about one | and q half cords, against three cords l in 1880,
 Beginning January 1, 1908, the forest
 service, in cooperation with the Geoog | ical Survey, will begin an important se-
 rles of tests to determine the relative fuel
 
 minerals, taking d portable outfit with a D to 50-horse power steam boiler to places where wood is the chief fuel and get by experiments the amount of steam
 developed by different methods of burn
 ing wood In the laboratories of the i Geological Survey tests will be made to
 determine whether fire wood composed | of knotty tops and limbs of saw timber has not as great, if not greater, fuel value than the trunks. This would be a sensible, saving step in forestry. utilz- ing waste products that are usually left to decay by ignorant or indifferent lum- 1 bcrers This test, should it bring the de- sired results. will mean the saving of l each year. and bring into economical use every portion of the felled tree
 During the Louisiana Purchase cxpos- tiun at St. Louis the Geological Survey set up a fuel testing plant by which ev- cry natural and artificial fuel available was tried So helpful were the results that the work was continued there after the fair, and the plant was moved to Norfolk this summer where experiments devoted especially to Southern and East 1 ern eoals are being made daily. These
 tests have already demonstrated to the public that saving of 10 per cent of the countrN's coal bill can be made each year through increased efficiency and greater intelligence in the burning of cOal--a saving of $l60 O00,o0o While the coal supply seems practically nexhausti- ble in the United States-this country pro- ducing annually 3S per cent of the whole worlds output-the government still wishes to teach It's economical use and | the plant at the Jamestown flair will de- monstrate this feature as well as others | The United States spent something like | S4,00OO00 last year on imported coal, while | exporting $30 000,000 worth. Wise heads l are busy devlning means whereby that | A,000000 may be diverted from foreign | to home pockets. by devising better facil- | ites for shipping or by inventing bri- | quettes that will take the place of wood | or coal This imported coal comes to the l Pacific coast and to Boston.
 The first recorded mining of anthracite coal was in Pennsylvania in 1S14 when l twenty-two tons were taken out Sincs | then that state has contributed ,7O0OOO. .0OO | tons to the homes, factories and furnaces 1 in this country and Canada. The anthra- | cite field of that state contains 4S5 square | miles. represents an investment of $710.- | 0O0,0OO and brings in an annual profit of | $S5 000,000 to $100, GOO 900. Families in a | radius of 15 miles of the mines get an- | thracte at about S6.75 a ton, and the av- | craze family uses from fifteen to twenty | tons a year. To New York and its sub urhs over 90O0,0O0 long tons go annually, l to Philadelphia 40o0000 and to Baltimore
 2,00000o. Anthracite has been found in | Gunnison county. Colorado, and Santa Fe | county, New Mexico. The largest coal l mining shaft in America Is in Wilkes | barre. Pa, being 1060 feet deep and twelve | to hfty-two feet in diamater.
 | The earliest known production of bi- | luminous coal was in the Richmond basin l of Virginia In 1892 The middle states | opened their first mines in 1S4o, ana the | present state of Washington in 1852 ~he
 bituminous area of this country now coy
 CTS 335 900 square miles. Thirty-one states l and territories are now producing coal l in great or small quantities, and the con | sumption per capita has increased from | twenty-seven hundredths of a ton in 1850 | to four tons and seventy-five hundredths | in 1906. In the coal fields there are em- | ployed over 690.O00 men and boys and the | retail value of the mineral is estimated | at S2000, 100000
 | When natural gas first came into use | the flow was so free and the supply | seemed practically so inexhaustible that | if was sold at low rate and without