Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1909-06-24

severe that its blighting effect will
be felt in every household in the
land The rise in the price of Ium-
Der which marks the opening of the
present century is the beginning of
vastly greater and more rapid rise
which is to come. We must neces-
sarily begin to suffer from the search
| ty of timber long before our supplies
are completely exhausted.
What will happen when the forests
/ fail? In the first place the business
of numbering, which is the fourth
great industry in the United States,
will disappear. All forms of build
ing industry will suffer with it, and
the occupants of houses, offices and
stores must pay the added cost. Min
ing will become vastly more expen-
sive, which in turn will cause a cor
responding rise in coal and other
minerals. The railways which have
as yet failed entirely to develop a
satisfactory substitute for the wood
en- tie, will be profoundly affected
and the cost of transportation will
| Immediately increase. The cultiva,
ton of the soil with or without ir-
rigation will be hampered by the in
creased cost of agricultural tools,
fencing and the wood needed for
other purposes about the farm. r.
rigated agriculture will suffer most
of all for the destruction of the for
ests means the loss of the waters
as surely as night follows day. With
the rise in the cost of producing food
the cost of food itself will rise In
a word, when the forests fail every
man, woman and child in the
United States will feel the pinch on
every side
Through deforestation the very
soil itself is washed away. Without
forests regulating the distribution of
waters, rainfalls are at once car
A1S0 ~ lLC sea 1lOOuluS duu uCf dSL-
tat1ng the neighboring villages and
fields. Uncontrolled water is a
curse. The waterways of the United
States sweep from land to sea, a
billion tons of earth every year. It's
value may be estimated at least a
billion dollars, which loss is borne
mostly by the American farmer.
Our forests have begun to fail as
direct result of the suicidal forest
destruction which the people of the
United States have allowed them
selves to pursue. That the Ameri-
can lumbermen in their methods of
cutting timber are wastefuI and that
our lumber compani, !: are greedy.
You probably have heard before. but
L doubt if any of you have any idea
or the vast amount of damage they
have done the country at large. DR..
Bristol, Chief of the Sections of
Wood CHEMISTRY, states that so per
cent or more of the average tree as
1t stands is wasted before it reaches
the lumber market.
But the greatest agent of forest
destruction is fire In the world S
history fire has consumed much more
than man has. In the United States
since 1870 forest fires have each year
destroyed an average of so lives and
1
90 million dollars worth of timber.
Not less than so million acres of for
est is burned over yearly. The for
est fires which ragged last summer
and fall have been the most damag-
ing since the great fires of 1871.
These fires were close enough to
US to cause no little apprehension.
After one Of these terrible confla-
cations has swept over a timber
slashing not living thing OF vegi-
tation is left. Nature has to beg. n
again the work of furnishing pro-
lection for the naked earth. Years
must elapse before the traces Of
dreary desolation are hidden. The
loss OF humus is great one. The
vegetable matter SO abundant on the
surface Of the soil is devoured by
the flames. The top soil with all
1t contains is turned into ashes. The
area thus bul ned over will not re-
cover what it has lost for a score
of years or much longer Loss by
fire is irreparable. It's bad enough
when ak and saw are welded reck-
lessly, we at least have the timber
to use. Fire simply destroys-the
great tracts burned over are a total
loss. You we'll may ask what is the
remedy for this appalling destruction
which so vitality concerns each and
every one of us. Reforestation and
fire protection is the answer For
estry is practiced by every civilized
country in the world except China
and Turkey. 1t is not a new thing.