The forest tree planter's manual by Minnesota state forestry association

Author:Minnesota state forestry association. [from old catalog] & Barrett, J. O. (Joseph Osgood), 1823-1898
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Forests and forestry
Publisher: Minneapolis, Minn., The Progressive age publishing co.
Published: 1894-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

try. They are offering every possible indticement to secure men and means from any part of the world to come and hew down their forests and carry away the proceeds. The difficulty seems -to lie in the low valuation placed upon the timber. This, in the nature of things, will continue until we are compelled to resort to timber culture, as they have in Europe, for our supply."

Prof. B. E. Fernow, chief of the forestry division, says: "That it is now time to consider the question of future supplies may now be inferred from the following rough estimate, the only kind possible with our present statistical knowledge: "We use in the United States, according to estimates based upon census and other figures, over 22,000,000,000 cubic feet of wood annually. Of this enormous amount (about 350 cubic feet per capita) over 4,000,000,000 cubic feet of the best timber are made into lumber (between 30,000,000,000 and 40,000,000,000 feet board measure); railroad construction requires about 500,000,000 cubic feet; and fencing takes an equal amount; but by far the largest consumption is for firewood. An uncertain amount is burned up every year in forest fires, which rage over the western mountain country especially, and which swell the total consumption, probably, to beyond 25,000,000,000 cubic feet annually. During the last three decades an increase of about thirty per cent in consumption for each decade is indicated. The area covered with wood growth is less than 500,000,000 acres. If all the land area not known to be treeless or in farms were under forest, the acreage would not exceed 850,000,000,000 acres, but the lower figure is probably more nearly correct."

DEMAND FOR SPRUCE.

To supply the raw material for the 1,250 tons of ground wooa puip, chemical pulp and sulphide pulp, now used in the United States, requires about 2,200 cords of spruce each day. Every twelve months 100,000 acres of forest is cleared of its mature spruce, or of such as can be converted into pulp. Nearly 1,700,000 feet of spruce logs are used up for this purpose every 24 hours, or upwards of 500,000,000 feet per annum. For a safe estimate, not less than 15 per cent should be added to this consumption at each year of its repeated manufacture, to furnish a supply adequate to the demand.

INCREASE OF THE BUSINESS.

During the last ten years the business has increased 500 per cent. Five years ago the ground product was estimated at $12,375,000. Its uses are constantly augmenting. It continues to be the great staple of paper manufacture. Already it is transformed into wheels, horseshoes, water-pipes, pails, tubs, flower-pots, domestic utensils and furniture of every description, carriage bodies, building ornamentations, protective armor to torpedo rams, bullets for rifle use, boots and shoes, bed-clothes, apparel for the body, food products, alcohol, and even human teeth, and how many

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