The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1911-05-12

ed "1he Toll Of the Forests which
stated that the total amount Of stand
ing timber in the United States IS
2, 800 600, 00O, 900 board feet. The
present annual drain upon che supply
Of saw timber is fifty billion feet.
If we use between forty and fifty
billion feet per annum we can run
about forty years at the present rate
of consumption provided we do not
have any waste. If we use one hun
dred billions per annumn our timber
will last fourteen to twenty years
on the same basis. If we use one
hundred and fifty billions per
annumn. in nine to thirteen years
our timber will all be gone! We
have now about 165, OO0,O 900 acres
in our national reserves. If we had
three times that much, we should
not have enough.
1t 1t costs twenty acres Sunday,
or forty acres a week, or 2O8O acres
year to print one daily newspaper,
what does it cost in acreage to print
all the 1850 newspapers in the
United States? Add to all this the
enormous editions of magazines and
all the paper used in books, and the
total staggers the imagination
though the amount of timber cut
for pulp in the United States is less
than five per cent of that cut for
lumber. Last year we made more
than 315,000,000 lead pencils A
lead pencil is not very large, but
the total number of lead pencils re-
quired Z 800, 600 cubic feet of cedar.
We have cedar enough to last us just
ten years.
More than 100, 900 acres of timber
in the whole United States are cut
over every working day. We use
many times more timber per capita
than any other nation. We have
left not over $50. 900 900 acres bear
ing commercial timber. Cast up
in your mind some of the small de-
mands Of industry upon this supply
Our railroads are said to use one
third Of the industrial timber for
ties. Suppose we could cut one
hundred ties to the acre, we would
require million acres a year for
ties alone. We annually reap for
telegraph and telephone poles some
where between three and four mil
lion acres of timber. Our tanneries
two years ago required 100000
cords Of bark. In the same year we
cut II 1858, 200 shingles and 1872
078 laths. Then we had to use tim
Der for mines and for that we used
1875 900 cubic feet, not board mea-
sure, most of which was the best of
hardwood.
In these times Of great drains on
i the timber supply caused by the
heavy demand for forest products of
all kinds, Americans might see in
Japan an example Of what can be
done in growing wood on small
plots. That country contains
4 twenty one million wood lots, about
three fourths of which belong to
private persons and one-fourth to
communities. The average size of
the plots is less than nine-tenths Of
an acre. They really occupy the
steepest, toughest and poorest
ground. In this way land is put in
use which otherwise would go to
waste. and if unwooded would lose
its soil by the wash of the dashing
rains.
/ From Japan wood lots the yearly
yield Of lumber is about SO feet
i board measure per acre. and three
fouths of cord Of fine wood. In
many cases the yield ismuch higher
More than half a million trees are
planted yearly to replenish what is
|cut for lumber and and fuel.
Assessment; for taxation is low
averaging for the twenty-one million
lots less than dollar an acre. With
all the care in cutting and the indus
| try in replanting it is by no means
certain that Japan's forests are hold
| ing their own. If the preservation
of the forests is doubtful there it is
Fevident that depletion must be
Ialarmingly rapid in other countries
which cut unsparingly and plant
very little. On the other hand it is
encouraging to see what can DE done
1 with rough, poor land. The United
j States has enough Of that kind with
out touching the rich agricultural
acress to grow billions of feet Of
lumber.
j James J. Doyle.
j Str. Monitor, May 2.
Money to Loan