Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-10-25
By w. G. Fitz-Gera1d


John ID. Brown, Secretary of
the State Forestry Association, eighty-two per
cent of lumber now has to be imported. In
1890 the lumber industry of Michigan repre-
Sented hundred and twenty-nIne million
dollars while a decade later the figure had
sunk to sixty-seven million dollars. And what
had been vast forest lands of the State had
then become mere stump waste.
The red cedar and fir of the Pacific Coast
the California redwood. the Gulf cypress and
pine from the South are now filling our lumber
yards" says Professor Filibert Roth of Ann
Arbor, Michigan.
What Is Done Abroad
TNOUIRY'abroad showed that scientific for
eStry had given vast annual yield to the
State. with forest fires reduced to the minimum.
Thus Prussia S six million acres of State forest
yield annual net revenue OF nine million
dollars Frances two million one hundred
thousand acres of State forest yield one dollar
and ninetyone cents acre: and any person
carrying light within two hundred yards of
the timber incurs penalty ranging from four
to twenty dollars. Bavaria S two million
hundred and fifty thousand acres will rarely
have more damage by fire than Is covered by
a thousand dollars a year.
Gradually a campaign was set on foot from
Maine to Minnesota to awaken public opinion
in the matter of forest fires, and to-day SCI
entific forestry work is carried on in more than
fifteen States: and over two hundred and
by Congress for this purpose.
Minnesota, with standing timber worth easily
hundred millions, has now an elaborate local
service for preventing and fighting fires, both
forest and prairie. the expense being shared
between State and towns. Maine spends ten
thousand dollars year in this work: while New
York has very complete system of protec-
ton: and most States. particularly west of the
Rockies, have realized the necessity of action
Influence on the Climate
PEW people realize the climatic effect of for
= eSts. DR.. Felix S. Oswald points out that
a few hundred square miles of wooded dells in
the Peruvian Valley Of the Rio de San Pedro
have an annual rainfall of twenty inches on an
average: while in the adjoining desert of
Atacama droughts have been known to last
for six years at stretch. Again, the far seeing
Ibrahim Pasha devoted much time. trouble
and expense to planting trees in upper Egypt,
which have had the curious effect of increasing
the yearly rainfull from nine to fifty inches.
Nowadays when. despite all precautions the
fire fend leaps forth over a considerable area
the ashes are barely cool before measures are
taken for replanting the destroyed forest. tor
Of course it takes time for timber to attain
growth of any commercial value. In this con-
necton it is worth noting that catalpa plan
tation in New Jersey. only eleven years old.
realized one hundred and ninety dollars an
acre, and locust trees five years older one hun
dred and forty an acre. More sensational still.
a grove of big locust trees thirty-seven years
old near Holrndell gave gross return OF twelve
hundred dollars an acre for fence posts alone.
Chestnut is most profitably cut at from
thirty five to forty years, and oak from nifty
to sixty The larger and older timber increases
enormously in value Thus one hundred tele-
graph poles may be taken from acre of tim
Der thirty-fve years old. and may realize four
hundred dollars. whereas if that timber was
left for another fifteen years it would easily
realize from eight hundred to one thousand
dollars Even the willow. that Cinderella of
trees will grow land hopeless otherwise;
will yield plant twigs for trunks. boxes. crates.
and baskets, and give work at season when
there is little else to do.