The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1909-09-17

The present awakening of the Ma
tional conscience on the subject Of
the waste of our natural resources
is one of the most encouraging signs
OF the times; but in this, as in all
other great national awakenings,
there is the danger that the move
ment may never progress beyond the
stage of discussion TO that Of praeti-
cal effort. Until the necessary legist
lation is secured, 1t is we'll for us to
take an occasional review of the pres
ent conditions of waste and point to
the ultimate absolute depletion Of
our resources which must inevitably
ensue unless the strong arm of the
law be called in to enforce remedial
and preventive measures. We have
before us a succinct review of the
question by DR.. George F. Swain in a
paper presented at the recent annual
meeting of the National Association
of Cotton Manufacturers, in which
the subject is treated under the four
heads of Forests, Water, Lands and
Minerals.
At the present time the people of
the United States use annually forty
cubic feet of wood per acre, as an
offset to which there is natural
growth of only twelve cubic feet per
acre. In answer to the question,
whether it is necessary for us to use
three times what we produce, atten-
ton is invited to the fact that, while
in the United States we use 262 cubic
feet per capita, Germany uses only
thirty-seven, France twenty-five, and
Great Britain fourteen cubic feet per
capita. Forest fires. most of which
are entirely preventable, have con-
sumed since 1870 an average Of 5O,-
100000 acres Of standing timber per
year. There is much unnecessary
waste due to careless methods of log
ging and saving. For each 1000
feet Of standing timber that are cut
down, only 800 feet are put to use.
Tanning establishments bark the
trees and leave them to die. The tur-
pentine industry also results in a
large annual destruction of timber.
1t is not to be wondered at that in
the last nine years the price of yell
low pine at the rlill has increased
sixty-five per cent.
Natural gas is allowed to waste in
many localities without restraint, and
it is estimated that a sufficient
amount is lost to light all the cities
of the United States having a popu-
lation of over 100000. At the pres
ent rate Of use and waste all the
known supplies of natural gas will
be exhausted in twenty-five years. AS
for oil, Nit is sufficient to state that at
the present rate of increase the supply
will be exhausted before the year
1850. Although there has been an
| improvement of about fifty per cent.
in our methods of coal mining in re-
cent years, the present system is un-
economical. We extract the high
grade coal and allow the mine to
cave in, thereby wasting large per-
centage Of the available supply. BY
the middle of the next century, the
easily accessible and available coal
in this country will have been ex-
hausted.
The situation with respect to our
supplies of iron ore is even more seri-
GUS; for it is estimated that, if the
present rate of increase of consump-
ton continues, the known supply Of
high grade ore will be gone by the
middle of the present century. Twen-
ty-five years is also the limit set for
the exhaustion of another important
mineral-phosphate rock. Taking
all our mineral products together, it
is estimated that the total waste APP