The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-15

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 ested.
 One feature which the forestry ex- perts rely on to prevent a calamity in
 the destruction of the forests Is that
 the advancing price will prevent the use of so much lumber, so that the
 forests will not be cut down so rap idly in the next twenty-five years as in the same period just past. A Pull man car made fifteen years ago used
 up 15O00 feet of lumber. One built now
 use only 5000 feet. This saving is due
 to the fact that other materials are
 used in the place of wood. and that veneering has been substituted for solid wood on account of the prices.
 Some lumbermen believe that the saw ing by the substitution of other ma
 terials will be neutralized by the in- crease in population and business.
 The enormous growth of the use of reinforced concrete in building con struction wastes more lumber than any other one line of business. AS
 much timber Is used in the boards into which the concrete is poured as would
 be used in an ordinary brick building. This lumber Is usually an almost total loss. Suggestions are being advanced
 for some sort of metal boxes for pour ing concrete, and the prediction Is made that these will soon be made practicable. Tn the meanwhile houses made wholly of lumber are being erected at a more rapid rate than ever
 before in the history of the country. Prosperity in the rural districts and in smal towns expresses itself in home
 building and most of these homes are made of lumber.
 The rapidity with which the Ameri- can forests are being felled is almost incredible. A few years ago the New England and Great Lakes States fur nished most of the lumber, they reached their maximum and have been falling off. Then the Southern states came in and the forests have disappeared as if by magic, The Southern States are now at their maximum and the Pacific coast is coming to the lead, the state of Wash ington furnishing more lumber than any other single state. The yellow pine of the south is being cut at the rate of 12,O00,OO0,OO0 feet a. year and the supply will be totally exhausted in about ten years at that rate.
 The forest reserves idea is mistaken by many people. They are not re- served to prevent the cutting of tim Der, but to encourage 1t and to force it to be done carefully The Federal forest reserves of 142,00O,OO0 acres are set aside from the public lands which were heretofore open to settlement. Millions of acres of timber land have been settled and pre-empted by straw men, who gave the title to great com panies, which have enriched them selves at the expense of the public. These frauds are now being stamped out The lands put in a forest re- serve are withdrawn from entry and put under the care of a forest ranger. The timber on them is sold by the government to any one who desires to purchase, but must be cut under gov ernment direction. This saves the small trees, requires the clearing out of the underbrush and guarantees the of the forest.
 Timber is granted for free use to settlers in the neighborhood of forest reserves for building houses and barns, but this, too, must be cut under the of the ranger The forest reserves cost less than two cents an acre to care for now, and soon will be- come more than self-suporting, France expends dollar a year an acre on her forests, The proposed Appalachian and White Mountain Forest Reserve was smothered in the last congress by the oposition of Sneaker cannon, but it probably will be established within the next few years.
 The lumber problem is not the only question involved in the business of reforestration. The destruction of the forests has caused the rainfall to run into the creeks sooner and this nas caused the rivers to be subject to sudden and destructive floods. The soil washed away in these floods im- Doverishes the farms and fills up the 'ivers, doing double 5damage. The Mississippi river carries out a greater l amount of dirt in its summer floods each year than will be dug out from | he Panama canalh and the problem is becoming more difficult every year. Saving the trees will save the farms md the rivers, Frederic J. Haskin in Times.