The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1921-01-20
Rescue or Spoliation !?

.oaesuIing and dlsQuieting, at
once gratifying and ominous, are the re-.
ports concerning the national forests of
Alaska ana thelr potential supplies Of
iumDer ana OF wood pulp for paper stock.
we near OF virgin woodlands stretching
Tor 1o'OOo miles along the islands, bays.
inlets and coast Of Alaska. The Ch;ef
Forester of the United States. Colone, W
B. Greeley, says that Alaska has mora
than hundred million cords of min
wood, and sufficient timber resources ~
produce million and half tons of naner
a year; and adds that several large min
mills are now being erected.
That is reassuring and eratifving Tho
yearly production of paper mentioned ia
nearly one-third of the entire quantity
now used in the United States, and nearly
equal to our entire imports from Canada.
Such supply should save US from the
grievous scarity which we are now suf-
fering in print paper. There should also
be marked relief to the lumber market.
at least in spruce, one of the most i'm
portant of building woods. This reyela-
ton of the woodland wealth of Alaska is
also another fine vindication of two great
acts of American craftsmanship, the pur-
chase of Alaska, and the insistence upon
our title to the unbroken coastline of the
panhandle of that territory.
But it is also disquietinQ and ominous.
We cannot help recalling similar reports
of long ago, of the inexhaustible resources
of the forests and mines and farms of the
United States. We were told of forests
capable of supplying all the needs of all
| the world for centuries to come, which
are now practically exhausted. Our coal
mines were said to be sufficient to supply
the whole world for thousands of years;
| but men are now calculating the date at
which they will be worked out Our
farms, we were told, could feed all man.
kind; but in late years we have had to
| import wheat for our own consumption.
| The disquieting feature of the Alaska
case is the danger that the magnitude of
| the resources will tempt us to careless
ness and wastefulness in the utilization
of them. That is what has happened
hitherto. The extent of our farms has
made US content with half or one-third
the acre yield that European farmers get.
The wealth of our coal mines has led US
to wasteful methods of mining, and to
profligate use of coal and neglect of our
unrivalled water power resources. AS
for our once unsurpassed forests, they
have been treated worst of all. Expert
authorities declare that of trees actually
! cut Tor market, sixty-five per cent are
wasted, while far more are destroyed by
fire than are cut. Every year there are
wasted outright six million tons of saw
dust, slabs, edgings, and the like, each
ton of which would produce fifteen gal
Ions of non-potable alcohol, for fuel
practically 100000 gallons of fuel 60
ing to waste, while the cost of oil is rising
and the exhaustion of the wells is within
measurable distance
The question therefore inevitably arises
whether these reports of Alaska's timber
wealth mean the rescue of some of our
most important industries by that Terri
tory, or merely the wasteful exploitation
and spoliation of those splendid resources.
There is hope in the situation, in the fact
that scientific Forester is in control of
the national forests of Alaska, and also
that determined movement is at last in
progress for rational and practical for
est policy for this nation, in the States as
well as in the Alaskan Territory. There
is scarcely any practical science that has
been so neglected in America as that of
forestry. Woodsmen have seemed to
think that the only thing to do with for
ests was 10 cut them down. There has
been scarcely thought of cultivating
them, as orchards and field crops are cul-
tivated; of cutting by careful selection,
and of incessant replanting, so that the
forests will be continually renewed. The
idea has seemed to be that forests are to
be utilized only by destroying then-cut-
ting off all the marketable timber, and
burning the rest, so as to clear the land
for cultivation.
We need TO adopt an enlightened policy,
under which forests will be perpetually
preserved, yielding each year profitable
crop of timber, all of which will be uti-
LIKED. In that way our needs of wood
will be supplied from our own lands, and
our forests will be continuing source of
revenue. Nearly twenty five per cent of
the land area of the United States is fit
only for forest growth. Properly planted
and cultivated, il is capable of supplying
indefinitely all our needs of lumber and
paper 1t is as worthy of attention, for
cultivation, as are our wheat fields or our
cotton plantations. 1t would be shame
to US if the revelation of the forest re-
sources of ''Our Arctic Province" should
in any degree delay us in the adoption
and effective application of such system
of forest cultivation.-Ha rvey's Weekly.