The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-11-27
AS TO LUMBER,

| While various estimates are made as
Ito the length of time that will elapse
before a most serious lumber famine
| strikes this country 1t seems evident
| that the famine is coming at the rate
we have been using up-or wasting
our lumber resources in the past. Some
predict that the famine will be here in
| twenty years, and it is probably true
| that the shortage will be extremely ser
| ious by that tfme-so much so that a
substitute will have to be found for
lumber In many of it's uses.
A writer in the Review of Reviews
estimates that it will take only fifty
years to use up all the timber in the
country. down to the last tree. "Lum-
bering on a large SCALE" he says, 'Is
conducted chiefly in the coniferous for
ests. The hardwood forests have gone
into consumption mainly by way of the
small mill What the original Ameri-
can forest was in terms of lumber feet
no one will ever know. Even as recent
ly as the census Of 1880 official estima-
tors were so far wide Of the facts re-
garding the timber then standing that
any estimate of the original supply can
be only a blind guess. What the re-
naming forests contain, however, is
more nearly known, though the Pacific
forest is yet in large part an unknown
quantity. The best credited estimators,
one Of them being the federal Forest
Service, reckon our present standing
merchantable timber at about 1000, 000,
900, 900 feet. OF that amount about
400, 000, 000, 900 feet are hardwoods, the
rest conifers. OF the total standing
timber, the northern states are credited
with 100000 100000 feet: the southern
states with 700, 900, 900, 900 feet; the west
ern states with SOC, 00O 000, 900 feet. These
figures mean little except for purposes
of comparison; but they give real in
formation as to our supply when it is
known that our annual cut from this
forest is 10000. 000, 900 feet. This means
that at the present rate of consumption
our forests will last but fifty years"
The rapid manner in which timber
has been devoured is illustrated by
reckless way in which timber was used
a few years ago Out on Lincoln street,
in Topeka, is an old stone house in
which the woodwork, even in the base
ment, is of black walnut. Speaking of
this point, this same writer says:
"A few American citizens are still liv-
ing who were alive in the days when
the Indians and Ohio pioneers were cut
ting great clear-grained black walnut
white oak, and hickory logs, piling them
and burning them to ashes In order to
be rid of them. Farnhouses are still
standing in the Ohio Valley whose
tenoned frames are of black walnut,
and whose roof boards are of wide,
clear lumber, such as is now sought for
to be made into kings table tops.
Black-walnut lumber in American COM
merce is today little more than a mem
Dry; white oak in the finer finishing
grades is worth half the price of ma
hogany, and the American vehicle in
dustry is in distress for the lack of
hickory. Even in sawmin cities of
the present day the lath from the walls
of wrecked houses is carefully cleaned
and bundled for resale. while half-de-
cayed pine logs are sawed into mer-
charitable lumber Thus in the span of
one life the American lumber industry