Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/599

* LUMBER INDUSTRY. 533 LUMBER INDUSTRY. per capita of jiopulation. The accompanying tables (I. to III.), takeu from The Lumher Trade of the United Htates (see Bibliography at end of article ), show the foreign lumber trade of the country. COXSEBVATIOX OF THE TIMBER SUPPLY. Until recent years, the greatest wastefulness character- ized lumbering operations in America. Two causes produced this: The abundance of lum- ber and the desire to clear the land rapidly for agricultural purposes. As a result, forest areas have been raiiiJly exhausted, and the great centres of the lumber trade have moved steadily westward. Probably the greatest lumber market of the world, at the close of the nineteenth cen- tury, was Chicago, which receives its supplies from the forests of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. But these forests are beginning to show signs of exhaustion, especially in the sujjply of white pine, and the attention of American scien- tists, economists, and legislators has been directed to the necessity of regulating the cutting of tim- ber. The ruthless clearing of the great wooded tracts not only menaces the nation's timber sup- ply, but vitally affects its water resources. It is probable that the twentieth century will see the science of forestry and the art of systematically producing wood crops established in America. Table III. — Imports and Exports of Wood a-so Maxcfactdres of Wood Compared YEAR Imports Exports 1891 ?19.888,186 19,846,438 23,152,599 18,154,U73 17,814,119 20,567,967 20,543,810 13,861,923 14,502,355 20,591,908 $26,270,040 1892 25,790,571 1893 26,666,439 1894 27,712,169 1895 27,115.907 1896 31,947,108 1897 39,624,800 1898 37,513,2.52 1899 . 41.189.526 1900 50,598,416 Already many State governments have taken steps to prevent forest fires and have preserved Forest Poucv of the United State.?. The movement for the establishment of national for- est reserves which was begun during the adminis- tration of President Harrison (1888) was ex- tended till there were in I'JOl .38 reser'ed tracts containing over 40,000,000 acres, or 72,000 square miles, scattered through the Hocky Mountain re- gion. The act of .June 4, 1897, provided for a system of timber-cutting from reservations, there- by providing a source of income for the expenses of forest administration, and, at the same time, for the local demands for lumber in the vicinity of reservations. On .luly 1, 1898, the reserv-es were placed in control of a system of graded offi- cers. In 1900 this force consisted of 9 superin- tendents, 39 supervisors, and .350 forest rangers, the latter number varying with the seasons and the danger from fire. The patrolling of these reservations bj' forest rangers has greatlj- reduced the number of forest fires, checked the depreda- tions of timber trespassers, and caused the en- forcement of the regulations regarding sheep- grazing and timber-cutting and sales. On .July 1, 1901, the department of forestry, which had previously been only a division, was made a sc])arate bureau, known as the Bureau of For- estry of the Agricultural Departiuent, with three divisions of its own. See Forestry. Lumber Trade in Caxad.. In Canada, as in the United States, large amounts of lumber are made into pulp for the manufacture of paper. It is estimated that Canada has 800.000.000 acres of land classed as forests; but, according to the statement of the Chief Inspector of Timber and Forestry, only one-third of this area can be con- sidered timber land of merchantable value. Large areas of the most valuable forest land have been swept by fires. The accompanying tables (IV. and V.) show the value of the exports of timber from the Dominion of Canada. They were taken from Dr. Schlich's article on "The Outlook of the World's Timber Supply" (see Bibliography). Tables V. and VI. are from the same source. Table IV.— Vali;e of the Exports of Timber from the Domixios of Ca.vada Annual exports in £ Total In per cent. PERIOD To Great Britain To the United States To oth»r countries To Great Britain To the United States To other countries 1870-79 1880-89 1890-99 2,627.000 2,212,000 2,493,000 1,4.81.000 1.876.000 2,427,000 428.000 SSH.IIOO 327.000 4..5:i6.000 4.477,000 5.247.000 58 49 48 33 43 4« 9 9 6 areas from the ravages of lumbermen by con- verting them into State parks. In the four years, 1897-1900, the State of Xew York acquired over 1,000,000 acres of forest lands. Pennsylvania has made a start toward the acquisition of forest preserves and the proper treatment of such tracts. Indiana has a State Forestry Commission under a law making it the duty of that body "to col- lect, digest, and classify information respecting forests, timber lands, forest preservation, and timber culture;" while another law encourages timber culture by allowing the owner of any tract to reserve one-eighth of its area for forest preser- vation, and to be exempted from taxation of such forest land at more than $1 an acre. Several American universities have faculties of forestry, one of these having been endowed by the State of New York with 30.000 acres of forests, for the practical instruction of students. Tarle V. — AREA OF Forests in the Dominion of Canada PROVINXE8 Prince Edward Island Nova .Scotia New Brunswick Ontario Quebec Manitoba British Columbia Territories .rea of woodlands in acres SIO.IKW 4.137.000 9.4.50.000 65,3.')6.0n0 74,573,000 16,401,000 182.755.000 446.049.000 Percentage of wood- land.** to total area 40 31 63 46 61 40 75 29 Area per capita iu acres 5 9 29 31 60 lOT 1,885 4.506 Lumber Trade in Europe. The accompanying table shows (1) the area of forests in Europe, and (2) the net annual imports or exports of lumber from European coimtries. From these two tables it is evident that not quite one-third of the area of Europe is forest land, and that the