The sun., 1908-05-15
be llkened to the directors Of a company who
never examine balance sheet.

FORESTS PAST DISAPPEARING,
The sum OF resources Is simple aud fixed.
From the sea. the niue. the forest and the
soil must be gathered everything that eau
sustain the life Of man. Upon the wealth
that these supply must be conditioned Tor
ever a. far a. we can see not only bis prog
ress but his continued existence on earth.
How stands the inventory Of property for
our own people? The resources OF the sea
furnish less than per cent OF the food supply.
and that IL ALL The forests OF this country,
the product Of centuries oi growth are fast
disappearing. The best estimates reckon
our standing merChantable timber at less
than 1900. no, ,O0O OOO feet. Our annual cut
ls about 10000. 900 feet. The lumber
cut rose from 1900 900 900 feet In 1880 TO
81 900 900 900 feet In 1905. that is II nearly
doubled In twenty-five years We are now
using annually 800 feet board measure Of
timber per capita, a. against an average
Of sixty feet for all Europe. The New Eng
land supply is gone The Northwest furnishes
small growths that would have been re-
Jected by the mmberman thirty years ago.
The South has reached lie maximum pro-
duction aud begins to decline, On the Pacific
Coast only il there now any considerable body
OF merchantable standing timber, We are
consuming yearly three or four times as
much timber a. forest growth restores, Our
supply OF some varieties will be practically
exhausted In ten or twelve years, In the case
OF others without refoTesting the present
century will see the end when will we take
up In practical and intelligent way the
restoration Of our forests2
Turning now TO one OF the only two re-
naming sources OF wealth. the mine, we find
II different from the others In an important
essential IL Is incapable OF restoration or
recuperation The mineral wealth stored In
the earth can be used only once. When iron
and coal are taken from the mine they cannot
be restored and upon iron and coal our In
dustrial civilization is built When fuel aud
iron become scarce and high priced ciyiliza-
ton. as far as we can now foresee. will sutier
~ man would sufCr by the gradual with
drawal Of The air he breathes,
EXHAUSTION or Our COAL SUPPLY
The exhaustion Of our coal supply is not n
the indefinite future. The startling feature
OF our coal production Is not so much the
magnitude OF the annual output as its rate OF
growth. For the decade ending In 1905 the
total product was 2.sS7 .tO2. .74o tons, which IL
almost exactly one-half the total product
previously mined In this country For the
year 1905 the output was ili.OO0 900 tons, an
increase Of 20 per cent on the average annual
Weld OF the ten years preceding In 1907 our
production reached 40 900 900 tons. Fifty
years ago the annual per capita production
was a little more than One-quarter OF ton.
II Ia now about FIVE tons. II IL but eight
years since we took the place Of Great Britain
a. the leading coal producing nation OF the
ha
by over Is per cent and "a 81 per cent, OF the
known production OF the world
Estimates Of coal deposits still remaining
must necessarily be somewhat vague, but
they are approximately near the mark. The
best authorities do not rate them At much
over 1000 900 OC 900 tons II coal produc-
tion continues to increase as It has In the last
ninety years the available supply will be
greatly reduced by the close Of the CEN
fury. Before that time arrives, however,
resort to lower grades and sinking mines
TO greater depths will become necessary.
making the product inferior In quality and
higher In price. Already Greet Britains
industries have felt the check !rom q similar
cause. as shown in her higher cost OF pro-
duction Our turn will begin probably within
a generation or two from this time. Yet
We still think nothing Of consuming this price
less resource with the greatest possible speed
Our methods OF mining are often wasteful,
and we not only prohibit our industries from
having recourse to the coal supplies OF other
countries but actually pride ourselves upon
becoming exporters Of prime necessity
OF life and an essential OF civilization.
IRON SUPPLY DISAPPEARING
The iron industry tells a similar story
The total OF iron ore mined in the United
States doubles about once In seven years.
IL was less than n, 600, 900 tons In 1893, over
"a 900 900 tons in 1890 l7,7l0 900 tons In 1905
and over 1000, 900 tons In 1901. The rising
place Of iron In the worlds life is the most
impressive phenomenon OF the last century
In 1850 the pig iron production Of the United
States amounted to SOS, ,757 tons. OF about nifty
pounds per capita Our production now Is
over 600 pounds per capita. We do not work
a mine, build house, weave fabric, prepare
a meal or cultivate an acre OF ground under
modern methods without the aid OF iron, We
turn out over rs, 900 900 tons Of pig iron every
year, and the production for the first half Of
1907 was az the rate Of 27,OOO,OOO tons. This
Is two and one-half times the product Of
Great Britain. IL IL nearly half the product
OF the whole world And the supply Of this
most precious Of all the metals Ia so far from
ineNhaustible that II seems as II iron and coal
might be united In their disappearance from
common life
ONLY 8.SOOOOO AcREs OF LAND LEFT.
We now turn 20 the only remaining re-
source Of man upon this earth. which Is the
soil itself How are we caring for that,
and what possibilities does II hold out to
the people OF future support We are only
beginning TO feel the pressure upon the land
The whole interior OF this continent. Gggre-
eating more than 800 900 900 acres. has been
occupied by settlers within the last nifty
years What ia there left for the next nifty
years. Excluding arid and irrigable areas,
the latter limited by nature and barely enough
OF which could be made habitable In each
year TO furnish a farm for each immigrant
family, the case stands as follows In 1905
the total unappropriated public lands In the
United States consisted Of 10000 900 acres.
OF this area the divisions Of Alaska. Arizona
California, Colorado. Idaho, Montana. Ne.
yada, New Mexico and Wyoming contained
1875, 100 900 acres OF surveyed and sos. 900 ,OOO
acres Of unsurveyed land. Little Of Alaska
Is fitted for general agriculture, while prac-
tloally all Of the rest is semi-arld land. avail
able only for grazing or irrigation. We
have, subtractinR these totals, 1900, 600
acres OF surveyed and $500 900 acres Of
unsurveyed land as our actual remaining
stock. And q 900, 900 acres we're disposed
Of In 1907 How long will the remainder
last? No longer can we say that Uncle
Sam has land enough TO give US all farm"
Equally threatening is the change In quality.
There are two ways In which the productive
power OF the earth is essened; first by erosion
and the sweeping away Of the fertile surface
into streams and thence o the sea. and second