Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1908-01-03

tier in America there was no question
In regard to fuel. How to quickest de
stroy the timber shading his farm
lands, and to clear it away from the
neighborhood of the forts where 1t af-
forded Indian protection, was all he
had to think about He piled great
logs in a wide mouthed chimney and
sat in tie rudy glow to plan for the
future of his children, piling on more
logs as those burned out and never
bothered his head to question If the
supply might some day become de-
pleted.
The twentieth century citizen is the
one who must solve the problem. 1t
Is question with many phases and
he has set himself to study out with
scientific exactitude the quantity OF
OF natural fuel within his reach.
the quickest manner in which it can
be transported, its convenience in de-
livery and its compactness in storage.
Beginning January 1, 1908, the For
est Service, in cooperation with the
Geological Survey, will begin an i'm
portant series of tests to determine
the relative fuel value of woods found
In the national forests. Experts will
compare the full value of wood with
tnat OF minerals, taking a portable
outfit with a rs to 50-horsepower steam
boiler to places where wood is the
chief fuel and get by experiments the
amount of steam developed by differ
ent methods of burning wood.
In the laboratories of the Geologi-
cal Survey tests will BE made to de-
termine whether firewood composed of
knotty tops and limbs of saw timber
has not as great, IL not greater fuel
value than the trunks. This would be
sensible, saving step in forestry. util-
izing waste products that are usually
left to decay by ignorant or Indifferent
iumberers. This test, should 1t bring
the desired results, will mean the saw
ing Of many millions Of dollars to the
country each year, and bring into eco
nomical use every portion of the felled
tree.
During the Louisiana Purchase Elk
position at st. Louis the Geological
Survey set up fuel-testing plant by
which every natural and artificial fuel
available was tried. So helpful were
the results that the work was con-
tnued there after the fair, and the
plant was moved to Norfolk this sum-
mer, where experiments devoted es-
pecially to Southern and Eastern Goals
are being made daily.
These tests have already demon
strated to the public that a saving of
10 percent of the country's coal bill
can be made each year through in
creased efficiency and greater intelli-
gence in the burning of coal-a saw
ing Of s160.OO0, 900.
The first recorded mining of an
thracite coal was In Pennsylvania in |
1914, when twenty-five tons were taken |
out. Since then that state has con-
tributed 1,7Oo.OOO.0O0 tons to the
homes, factories and furnaces of this |
country and Canada. The anthracite /
field of the state contains 485 square |
miles, represents an investment of |
500. 100000 and brings in an annual
profit of sS5,O00,000 to 100000. 900.
Families in radius of $50 miles of the
mines get anthracite at about $6.75
ton, and the average family uses from
Is to 20 tons year.
To New York and its suburbs over
8 ,000,0e9 long tons go annually, to
100000. and to Balti-
more 100000. Anthracite has also
been found in Gunnison County, Col
orado, and Santa Fe County, New Mex
leo. The largest coal mining shaft in
America is in Wilkesbarre, Pa, being
1860 feet deep and IL by So feet in
diameter.
The earliest known production of
coal was in the Richmond
basin of Virginia in 1922. The Middle
States opened their first mines In
$40, and the present state of Wash
ngton in 1852. The bituminous area
# this country now covers $4,000
quare miles. II
Thirty-one states and territories are
low producing coal in great or small
Quantities, and the consumption per !
apita has increased from twenty-sev-
n hundredths of ton in 1850 to four
ons and seventy-five hundredths in
906. In the coal fields there are en-
loyed over $4,000 men and boys and
he retail value of the mineral is esti-
mated at $4,000, 100000.
When natural gas first came into
Sc the flow was so free and the sup
ly seemed practically inexhaustible
hat 1t was sold at a low rate and $
'ithout measurement. Each house
older paid so much a month for a
ouse of so many rooms, and could
urn all he wanted. Larger compa-
les soon saw the wastefulness of this
Ian and introduced meters and sold /
he gas by the cubic foot. Its use for 7
long nreceded its tJse nc | v